The end of the year is a high season for the fashion trade. To stay one step ahead of the competition and end the year on a high note, follow these five steps.
First of all, you need to make sure you have stocked up. There’s nothing worse for your business than a disappointed customer who realizes the gift they wanted is out of stock. Check with your suppliers now to ensure you have adequate stock, especially of the possible gift items.
Improve the loading time and security of your shop so that it remains scalable and stable so that you can meet the increased demands. You can check with your e-commerce provider. BigCommerce has achieved 99.99% uptime over the past eight years and 100% uptime during Cyber Week.
Check if your third-party integrations, e.g. B. payment solutions, are up to date and can handle the increased traffic. Don’t make any extra integrations at the last minute to avoid potential technical issues.
Make sure that the checkout process is as easy and smooth as possible for your customers. This time of year is ideal for offering personalized experiences tailored to customers’ specific needs, while ensuring that navigation and checkout is effortless.
Along with your efforts for speed and customization, you should also optimize search on your site so customers can find what they need. The same search data you use for SEO can also give you an edge when searching on the site. Make sure your website’s search results contain the right products; that will not go unnoticed.
Expand your sales channels to the channels where your customers are most likely to buy from. You can connect to online marketplaces like Amazon or update your product catalog and tag items to sell on Facebook and Instagram.
Your online channels don’t have to mean you pay less attention to your potential physical stores. Make sure you are consistent across all online and offline channels. Perhaps now is the right time to offer the click-and-collect option. This is greatly appreciated by customers who shy away from excessive packaging.
Introduce additional promotional strategies that engage customers. You can offer gift cards to enable upselling at checkout, offer seasonal services like free gift wrapping or shipping, or create time-limited offers to create urgency.
Regardless of what you invest in — paid search, emailing, content creation such as B. Blogs about the best use of your products — make sure they all align with your strategy so you can stay in control of your budget while showing how creative you are.
Now ensure your e-commerce platform has 24/7 global support, best-in-class security features, and industry-leading uptime.
You also need a dedicated customer service team for your store that cares about your customers. It will be a busy time and can get stressful at times, so be prepared to address any questions and concerns.
Ensure that important information such as B. Your return policy is easy to find on your website, but also that you can be reached by phone, email and social media. Make sure you respond to all inquiries within 24-48 hours.
Overall, you need to create a shopping experience that entices your customers and gives them a seamless path to purchase (and post-purchase) so they have a good reason to choose your store over the competition.
And don’t forget about yourself. Showing how unique and passionate you are always makes a difference no matter how busy someone is. If you’re not already selling online, it’s not too late to start or switch to another platform if your current one can’t meet the above requirements.