Don’t look now, but the peak shopping season for e-commerce retailers is right around the corner. The time between Black Friday and Christmas day is “make or break” for many online retailers. Their success (or lack of it) during peak may determine their profitability for the entire year.

Now is the time to start preparing for this peak sales period. Here are 10 tips to help you get ready for peak:

1. Pay especially close attention to your product description pages (PDPs)

Many online shoppers during peak are either buying gifts or looking for big discounts. This means that they are less particular about who they buy from and more likely to jump from one site to another looking for a deal.

As a result, shopper behaviour during peak is often driven by product-related searches or clicks on Google Shopping ads, which take visitors directly to your PDPs. So PDPs may be the only opportunity you have to demonstrate the benefits of products and convince customers to buy from you, not your competitors. Make sure your PDPs can handle this if customers never make it to your homepage.

2. Focus on what’s important to customers

Three things tend to be most important to online shoppers during peak: Price, availability and delivery speed. They are especially critical as we get later into the peak period since shoppers need to know that gifts they want to buy are in stock and can be delivered before the holiday.

Make sure that these three factors are clearly communicated to shoppers on your PDPs. Visual hierarchy is critical here: The information must be easy for visitors to spot right away. Otherwise, it may as well not even be there.

3. Make pricing simple

Many shoppers during peak are looking for great deals, but they usually won’t do the work it takes to figure out if what you’re offering is the best deal or not. So do the work for them by showing a final price that includes any discounts, etc., so they don’t get confused and move on to another site.

4. Highlight trust factors

Shoppers are often willing to buy from new online retailers they aren’t familiar with during peak in order to get just the right gift or a great deal. But first, you have to earn their trust. You could win on price, product availability and delivery speed, but if customers don’t trust you, they won’t buy from you. Use social proof to highlight positive user reviews, 5-star ratings and verification badges to win the trust of potential new customers.

5. Keep the customer journey simple

During peak, eliminate intrusions (like popups and opt-in incentives, for example) that you might use during normal times because these could frustrate customers and result in a lost sale. Make it as easy as possible for customers to add products to basket and checkout quickly without facing interruptions. If you do use popups, make them part of the post-purchase journey.

6. Make every page and communication a selling opportunity

If a webpage isn’t a transactional page, make it one. This includes order confirmation pages, zero search results pages and even 404 error pages. When users land on these pages, don’t leave it up to them to figure out where to go next. Instead, guide them on to the next step of the customer journey by making product recommendations and backlinks and providing links to top product categories.

Typical customer behaviour during peak is different than during non-peak times so take advantage of this. Test alternative strategies and tactics and go with what works best during this time.

7. Enhance functional emails

Order confirmation and shipping update emails present an opportunity for cross-selling and upselling. Add promotional content, such as special offers and product recommendations, to these functional communications to give customers a reason to return to your site and buy more.

8. Build your audience

Your goal should be to make peak customers your regular customers after the peak period ends. Therefore, gather as much information as you can about them so you can effectively target and communicate with them in the future.

However, keep in mind that customers’ shopping behaviour during peak might be different from their normal shopping behaviour, such as if they’re buying gifts for others. So be careful not to miscategorise them — for example, by identifying a male customer as female because he bought women’s clothing for his wife as a Christmas gift.

9. Ensure high-quality product imagery

When buying gifts, shoppers tend to rely more heavily on images than on product descriptions. So make sure product images on your PDPs are high quality and clearly demonstrate product benefits. During peak, plan on selling mainly through images, not copy.

10. Make returning items easy

Gift givers want to make sure it’s easy for recipients to return items if they don’t like them. Therefore, make it as easy as possible for gift recipients (as opposed to the actual product buyers) to send things back that they don’t want.

Bonus tip: Create a great shopping experience

During peak, you might just have one shot to gain a new long-term customer. So make it count by ensuring a positive and pleasant shopping experience. Look for ways to surprise and delight customers — whether this is giving them a little something extra or just making sure that their transaction goes smoothly.

Your goal is to turn one-time buyers into raving fans that return to your site later to buy more and also tell their friends about your business.

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