Whether you run an eCommerce shop or not, you should update your website design now for the holiday sales season. In fact, holiday traffic is the key to many businesses online growth and revenue.

During the 2020 holiday season, retail sales grew by 49% compared to 2019. And this year, holiday eCommerce is forecasted to jump another 11%! Given these points, now is an excellent time to update your website design for the holiday sales season.

Plan now what you want your site to look like in addition to how you want it to work. Then during the holiday season you’ll have the opportunity to get more traffic to your site. But not just traffic, visitors will also stay longer browsing and hopefully buying.

Not sure how or where to get started? In addition to help from our website design services in San Diego, we have ideas for you. Continue reading for how to create a holiday website design that guides visitors to your seasonal promotions.

Update Your Website Design For The Holiday Sales Season: Responsive Design

If your website is not a responsive design, this is your first step to do. There’s no point to working on holiday site promotions if they provide a poor user experience.

With Google mobile-first indexing and mobile power shoppers, your site must be user-friendly. And it can’t offer an optimal user experience if visitors have to zoom and pinch to see your products.

Responsive design ensures your website displays properly across all devices. Obviously, it will be frustrating for visitors to try to view your desktop site on mobile devices. Especially on smartphones.

Holiday Site Design and Smart Promotion Planning

First, decide how many sales you want to have. For instance, kick-off the holiday season with an early bird promo in October. Yes, that’s correct – October. Then your next sale could be during Black Friday week. And finally, a last minute stocking stuffer promo a few weeks before Christmas.

Ultimately, the exact number and timing of your holiday sales depends on how your customers shop. And your 2020 holiday data can provide helpful insights in this area. But don’t have a sale too close to Christmas as it may not leave enough time for orders to arrive. Whatever you plan, make sure to put it in writing and also add it to your calendar.

If your sales will include progressive discount levels, this requires extra planning and assets. For example, 20% off selected items one day and then 50% off the next. So be sure to estimate your ROI carefully before you commit.

Oh, you already have your holiday promotions planned? Super! That means you’re ready to move on to planning the design elements you’ll need.

Create Your Design Assets

Now that you’ve figured out when your holiday promos will happen and discounts you’ll offer, let’s move on. Now you’ll start making a list of all the assets you will need for each sales event. Although you could use same artwork and just change the copy, the promos will look too similar. Instead, create different art and copy for each sale to keep things eventful and exciting.

If you decided to go with progressive offers, create those banners, like 30%, 50%, 60% off, etc. Ensuring you’ve taken take of these allows enough time for testing. You’ll also want the timed offer changes to happen seamlessly on your site. For instance, your images need to change at the right times across your site so shoppers don’t get confused. Or worse, don’t get the discounts they were expecting.

What if you’re not planning any big sales? That’s fine. Because maybe your product is in such high demand that you don’t need to offer deals or discounts. However, you should still implement a fresh holiday website design. This not only get shoppers in the holiday spirit, but can also add subscribers to your list. Even if they don’t buy anything.

Read on for your pro tips.

Holiday Website Design Asset Checklist

The holidays, and especially Christmas can bring so many wonderful memories. And while your holiday website design can be fun for you and your customers, take caution. Don’t forget this is your business website and integrate elements that look like your childhood coloring book pages. In essence, all of your seasonal website changes should support your sales goals.

Here’s our quick list of top things to keep in mind as you develop your holiday website design.

1. KEEP YOUR CORE BRANDING CONSISTENT

2. OFFER VISITORS SOMETHING SPECIAL AS SOON AS THEY ARRIVE

Get visitors excited about shopping on your website when they hit your homepage. If your store sells only one type of product, make it the hero image of the homepage. You can also embellish the page with a few holiday touches.

But if you sell lots of different products, make them categories on your homepage so visitors will focus on your promos. This way they’ll be more likely to explore.

3. ENCOURAGE HOLIDAY VISITORS TO JOIN YOUR EMAIL LIST

Give visitors a reason to join your email list. For example, you could deck your opt-in box with holly or Santa stocking. And provide new members a discount code they can use at checkout.

Go through the list above and check it twice so your holiday website design is ready for shoppers. Need help getting your site all spruced up for the holiday season? We can help with that; just contact us to get started.

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