This guest post is brought to you by our friends at MyCorporation
There are approximately 110,000 eCommerce websites generating revenue of meaningful scale on the internet, according to RJMetrics. That’s a lot of competition come this holiday season when your online business is trying to beat out the other 109,999. So how do you stand out against the crowd?
Here are three key ways to separate your eCommerce site from the competition this holiday season:
Make Sure Your Site is Mobile-Friendly
According to Business Insider, there are now more mobile-online internet users in the US than desktop PC-only users in the US. So you know what that means… your site better be mobile-friendly this holiday season (as well as for the rest of the year). Last year, Time even said that nearly 70% of Amazon’s customers shopped via mobile devices during the holidays. Think about it, the holidays are a hectic time of year. Everyone’s zooming around getting their shopping done, attending parties, planning parties, all the while trying to maintain their normal daily lives.
Say you’re in a store and you think you’ve found the perfect gift but you want to check and see if it’s sold at a lower price anywhere else. Just take out your phone and do a quick search. If you find a cheaper option, you can buy the gift right there in the store. Shopping with the one thing you always have on you, your phone, is just what’s easiest in this busy day and age.
Bring in New Customers
The holidays are a great time to gain new customers. People are looking to try something new and will search for gifts and goodies in places they may not normally look. This means that it’s a great time of year to put a little extra effort into your PR. Send out press releases, write blogs, and share with your social audiences all of your holiday specials, promotions, contests and offers . Using hashtags and Facebook advertising are great ways to be found by new customers, especially during this time of year. Just because this may be a naturally busier time of year for your business, don’t forget to capitalize on the opportunity to reach new customers.
Consider Free Shipping
There’s been a lot of research around how powerful free shipping is when convincing customers to buy a product online. Just look at Free Shipping Day. Free Shipping Day happens every year on December 16th. On this day, consumers can shop from online stores that participate with the guarantee that the product will be delivered by Christmas Eve. It’s typically pretty popular. According to Internet Retailer, in 2010, Free Shipping Day caused eCommerce sales to rise 61%. And the numbers keep rising. Additionally, Google conducted a survey showing what holiday online shopping customers would do if when they were checking out they saw there wasn’t free shipping offered for the product they were about to buy. The survey showed that 47% of shoppers would go find the product on a site with free shipping, 32% would find a nearby store to buy the product, and only 20% would buy the product anyway. If you can afford to waive the shipping fee this holiday season, the numbers say you’ll likely attract and keep more customers.
Deborah Sweeney is the CEO of MyCorporation.com. MyCorporation is a leader in online legal filing services for entrepreneurs and businesses, providing start-up bundles that include corporation and LLC formation, registered agent, DBA, and trademark & copyright filing services. MyCorporation does all the work, making the business formation and maintenance quick and painless, so business owners can focus on what they do best. Follow her on Google+ and on Twitter @mycorporation.
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