5 Things You Should Know About 2022 Holiday Website Design
The holidays are just around the corner, and it’s time to start thinking about your eCommerce store’s holiday website design. Check out this post to learn the top 5 things to consider when designing your website for the holiday season.
5 Things You Should Know About 2022 Holiday Website Design
Every year, the holiday season represents one of the most lucrative times for ecommerce brands. It’s a chance to capture the attention of engaged consumers who are looking to buy items for a host of different recipients. With the right strategies, you can increase your average order value, generate brand loyalty, and turbo-charge your profits.
In 2022, US ecommerce sales have already grown by approximately 9.7% overall, and experts predict the online shopping landscape could account for 31% of sales by 2026. During the holiday period, sales are also expected to rise by between 4% and 6%, according to Deloitte. In total, this means retailers can expect up to $1.47 trillion in sales this year.
However, to take advantage of the exceptional opportunities the holiday season has to offer, ecommerce brands first need to ensure their site is primed for conversion. Updating your ecommerce website design for the holidays ensures you’ll be able to capture the attention of your target audience, and accelerate your sales numbers. So, where do you get started?
5 Points to Remember in Holiday Ecommerce Website Design
At any time of the year, there’s more to achieving phenomenal profits than simply making sure you have the right web design in place. You’ll need to consider your marketing tactics, make sure your online store is easy to use, and adjust your pricing according to your customer’s expectations.
However, the design of your ecommerce website is one of the first things that will determine whether a potential prospect actually engages with your brand. Not only will around 42% of people leave your website if it doesn’t function properly, but if the site doesn’t look good, they won’t trust your business enough to make a purchase. 42% of customers simply won’t buy from a website with a bad design.
So, how do you prepare for the holiday season? It’s not enough to simply adjust your website design colors to be more festive, or add snowflakes to your logo. Here are the 5 key things you should know about holiday website design.
1. A Great Web Design Should be Attractive and Functional
If you’ve ever visited an online store during the festive season, you’ll know many companies add new elements to their design for the holidays. It’s common to see custom ecommerce websites with animated backgrounds, countdown timers, and festive embellishments.
Following the trends and updating your online store to look more festive can be a good strategy. It’s a chance to ensure your site looks up-to-date and current, while appealing to the aesthetic side of your target audience. It’s also a great chance to draw attention to your latest deals.
However, when adjusting your ecommerce website design, make sure the visual elements you add don’t detract from the user experience. Banners should still be easy to read, navigation menus need to be simple to use, and everything needs to be easy to access on any device. After all, 61% of shoppers avoid sites with a bad mobile experience.
Make sure everything from your call-to-action to your store buttons still work effectively after adding your design elements. And avoid cluttering your store with too much information. Test your ecommerce website before you update it to ensure everything works naturally.
Source: https://www.loclweb.com/
2. Timing is Everything
Timing is a big deal over the festive season. Customers are becoming increasingly unhappy with the idea of “Christmas creep”, which means you need to avoid promoting your festive deals too early. Make sure you follow the right schedule, starting with Thanksgiving and Black Friday, and gradually easing into the holidays at just the right time.
Planning your holiday strategy for your ecommerce store will ensure you know which deals and offers to deliver to your customers at which times. You could even create special bundles and packages of products at certain times in the year. It’s also worth ensuring you get the timing right when you’re presenting offers to customers on your website.
The best user experience rarely comes from bombarding your audience with too much information as soon as they arrive on your site. Use your customer data to build your promotions about the online shopping experience you want to create. For instance, Dialogue allows you to schedule banners to appear at different times, and in response to different customer actions, so you can ensure they’re ready to make a purchase, before you promote anything.
Source: www.nowdialogue.com
Getting the timing on your website just right will ensure you can connect with your customers at the perfect moment to generate sales. Plus, it’s great for ensuring you send upsell and cross-sell offers at just the right moment.
3. Customers Want Personalized Experiences
Today’s online shopping world is brimming with potential options for holiday consumers. In fact, many consumers experience a state of “information overwhelm” when looking for the right products for their loved ones. Because of this, it’s important to make sure you’re delivering a simple, guided, and personalized experience for each of your customers.
You can start by creating different home pages and landing pages for customers with different data profiles. For instance, if a repeat customer comes back to your site, show them banners highlighting deals on the products they’ve purchased in the past. You can show specific recommendations for higher-priced products to your big spenders, and highlight trending products for new shoppers.
The Dialogue plugin for Shopify allows you to assign different banners and offers to each segment of your audience. This means you could promote a special offer to an existing subscriber only. Or you could show your best deals to people who regularly abandon their shopping cart.
Creating a personalized experience makes the shopping journey easy to navigate for your customers, and improves the relationship they have with your company.
4. Inspire and Educate – Don’t Just Sell
During the holiday season, it’s easy to get caught up with the process of adjusting your ecommerce website design to focus completely on generating more sales. However, it’s worth remembering many of your consumers will be looking for guidance and help to purchase the best possible gift. Updating your websites with content that guides, inspires, and educates your audience can be extremely helpful.
Ecommerce companies need to think about how they can guide their customers to the right products, with useful guides and blog posts designed to offer useful information. You could also update your product descriptions with tips on which product may be suitable for certain kinds of recipients.
With the Dialogue Shopify app, you can even use the Storyteller solution to present image slides throughout your website, offering insights into how products work and how to use them. This makes it easier for customers to understand the purpose of each product before they add it to their shopping cart. The more informed your customers are, the more confident they’ll be with their purchases.
Source: https://www.gadecosmetics.com/
Don’t forget to share tips and tricks on social media and via email marketing to bring more people to your store too!
5. Holiday Promotions Should Stand Out
Finally, when working on your ecommerce website design for the festive season, remember your holiday promotions should be eye-catching, engaging, and exciting. Working with graphic design specialists to create attractive assets can help to draw the attention of your customers to the promotions you most want them to pay attention to.
You could even consider creating specific landing pages for Christmas promotions. This means you can create specific ads for people in search of different gifts, to direct them straight to lists of products they might be interested in. This improves the customer journey, and streamlines the path to purchase for your potential consumers.
Don’t be afraid to experiment with different ways of making your promotions more appealing too. For instance, you could consider using a countdown timer to let your audience know how long they have left to take advantage of a deal. This helps to take advantage of the feeling of FOMO (fear of missing out) most consumers are already feeling around the festive season.
Source: https://getshogun.com/
You could also add information to your shopping cart and website pages letting customers know how long they have to make an order if they want to ensure a product arrives before Christmas.
Get Your Ecommerce Website Design Ready for the Holidays
The festive season presents a phenomenal opportunity for ecommerce companies to increase their sales, generate new customers, and even boost their brand reputation. However, if you want to get the best ecommerce results this season, you need to ensure your web design is on track.
Updating your ecommerce website design for the holidays doesn’t just mean adjusting the theme slightly. You also need to think about how you can give your target audience the best possible experience with your online store. Implementing elements of personalization, enhancing your design with time-driven promotions, and educating your consumers will all help to boost your chances of success.
Remember, pay attention to the analytics you collect on your site this year. The information you capture about your target audience and their preferences will form some of the essential customer data you use to plan your strategy next year.
Sign up for our Newsletter
Recent Posts
