Each and every Christmas that goes by, sales results are analyzed and the number of consumers who complete their holiday shopping online is definitely on the rise.

And why wouldn’t it be? Shoppers can stay in the comfort of their homes, avoid the crowds and still get all the hottest deals.

We recently wrote a post on how to prepare your store for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, a period that marks the beginning of the online holiday shopping season. After Cyber Monday, the shopping mania continues to run strong, and the two weeks leading up to Christmas are just as good of an opportunity to increase your sales.

Tis’ the season to shop online

Even as we move into the post-pandemic era, where people are now free to shop in-store, online sales will not ease off the brakes. 

Take a look at these stats for 2022:

• There will be an estimated 2.5% increase in online holiday sales in the US. 
• Ecommerce retail sales will claim 18.4% of total sales this season.
• 56% of their survey respondents stated they were likely to shop on the internet/online retailers for holiday gifts.

How does your online store measure up? Can it handle the increase in visitors and buyers this holiday season?

This is why it’s important to start planning and executing a ecommerce Christmas strategy. Just because your store doesn’t run the same type of operation and setup you would see in a traditional retail store doesn’t mean the same Christmas marketing tactics aren’t effective!

Here are seven ecommerce Christmas ideas to help you prepare your online shop for a great holiday season.

1. Make sure you have the latest and most in-demand products

Around Christmas, consumers are prepared to spend more of their disposable income on gifts than during any other time of the year. Christmas shopping is notorious for competitive consumers who are looking for the best and newest products for their loved ones.

One of the best reactions you can hope to receive when you give someone a present is something along the lines of ‘I saw this the other day and it’s just what I wanted!’ Your customers love to get that reaction — and you can help with that by stocking the latest products.

You can go a step further and give shoppers Christmas ideas by featuring a special Christmas list of products you sell. Include some of your bestselling items, along with seasonal items and other gift ideas. 

You can call this special collection of products ‘Holiday Must-Haves’, ‘Christmas Gift Ideas’, ‘Holiday Gift Guide’, or any other unique title.

Some companies out there keep up with releasing the ‘latest and most in-demand’ products. Apple, for example, doesn’t usually introduce new products, but they’re masters at releasing highly coveted technology that tops many holiday wishlists. On the other hand, Bath and Body Works and Guerlain have previously released some great new Christmas product lines.

2. Decorate your online shop

Christmas is the only time of year when tinsel and flashing lights aren’t tacky, so why shouldn’t the ecommerce world join in the fun? Be festive! 

Use graphic design to virtually decorate your online store for the holiday season. You could go all out, revamping your home page and embracing Christmas colors.

Or you could keep it simple with small, festive elements. Maybe you could add a falling snow effect. There are loads of snow HTML codes. Try this one if you want a chunkier snow effect.

Physical stores adorn their spaces with Christmas decorations to get people excited about the holiday and the ‘season of giving’. This way, customers are encouraged to begin their Christmas shopping.

Though I’m sure store owners love a bit of Christmas cheer, getting their stores set up for the holidays is also a sneaky marketing tactic! And the same rules apply online: Your goal is to inspire your customers to get their Christmas shopping done at your site.

3. Create a holiday campaign

You should take full advantage of holiday campaigns by offering special Christmas promotions, discounts, and sales.

Lastly, if you feel that a discount would undervalue your products, why not offer free shipping instead? Free shipping might be just the nudge your customers need to start their Christmas shopping with you.

4. Spread the word

Share, post, and tweet all about your ecommerce Christmas specials and gift ideas. Make optimal use of your social media accounts this holiday season to spread awareness and spark interest in your ecommerce business. 

Social media sites such as Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and more recently TikTok will be important to gift purchasing decisions. These sites have become popular search engines and believe it or not SEO (search engine optimization) is key for discoverability. 

The platforms’ algorithms have evolved and now rely more on the details in the post and caption itself than on hashtags. 

So, in addition to using festive hashtags like #giftideas, #christmasideas, #christmassale, and #holidayseason to drive traffic to your online shop, ensure that you write captions with keywords and add alt text to your photos. 

You should get people thinking about Christmas and convince them that someone they know needs to receive your product under the tree this year.

5. Get search engine optimized

If there’s a time of year to pay attention to keywords, it’s Christmastime. Place Christmas keywords in meta descriptions and be sure you have content on your site that matches with terms your customers are likely to search for.

Use the Google Keyword Planner to help you get keyword ideas and traffic estimates and work toward higher rankings in search engines. You should optimize your site for holiday keywords in advance, at least a month before Christmas (if not sooner), so Google has time to properly index your pages.

6. Make your online shop mobile-friendly

More than half of online shoppers this holiday season will be making purchases from a mobile device, such as a tablet or smartphone. Be sure you check that your site is current and responsive and looks correct on any screen size.

It wouldn’t hurt to have your webmaster conduct a responsive design check and upgrade your site just to be sure. We recently wrote a post about responsive web design if you want to know more.

7. Prepare for the increase in sales

A disadvantage of ecommerce Christmas shopping is you can’t buy last-minute gifts for the plus-one that’s suddenly been invited to the Christmas dinner or that random cousin you forgot about.

Unless you plan to offer (and effectively manage) a same-day delivery service, you need to plan ahead and figure out the last day customers can make a purchase and have it delivered before Christmas. Make sure you clearly advertise this on your website, as you don’t want to deal with negative customer reviews and product returns just because your product wasn’t delivered on time. 

If you’ve done enough marketing to expect a spike in sales, you also need to stock up on inventory, since you don’t want to run out of your bestselling items in the heat of the season.

Your product descriptions should be accurate and informative; you want to avoid unnecessary customer service inquiries so make sure all the information you list is current and relevant.

Christmas is also no exception to the importance of good product images. The holiday season is notorious for impulse buys, particularly in the ecommerce world. Humans are visual creatures and we process images much faster than we do text, so a professional, well-lit product image could be enough to get a customer’s attention and create a sale.

You should consider whether you have enough staff to handle the influx of orders. You may need seasonal workers to help manage and process the deluge of orders and respond to the increased customer inquiries.

Are you ready for an amazing ecommerce Christmas season?

Now’s the time to get the gears cranking and make this your best holiday season yet! Start preparing now to reap the benefits of a fantastic holiday season.