It’s easy to see why a poorly designed website can be a big problem for online businesses, especially during the holiday season, which accounts for 20-40% of annual sales.

In this sense, those who need data validation can consult the statistics that explain the importance of the presence of their brand on the Internet:

• Before people buy from a physical store, they often check the websites of online stores.

• Customers search online for prices and availability of products to know whether to buy online or in physical stores.

• During an economic crisis, consumers are careful when shopping online to stretch their budget, resulting in increased website traffic.

• Shoppers who tend to buy downloadable freebies like eBooks, music, and FB credits, among others, will likely buy more.

Optimize your site online immediately

Now that you know the importance of your site, what should you do before the holiday season approaches? It’s never too late to try some of these strategies:

Prepare for unexpected traffic Plan ahead to make sure your site can handle all the orders. Anticipate peak loads, watch your site’s responsiveness, and gauge app performance well before Cyber ​​​​Monday.

Increase the speed of your site. Use a CDN (content delivery network) for fast delivery of relevant content with videos and images to your consumers.

During the holidays, most shoppers use their mobile devices to search online before heading to the stores. Therefore, it would be wise to incorporate a store experience with timely and relevant information about your personalized website and mobile applications.

Find ways to make it easy for customers to find your products on the web. To improve exposure, submit a feed to the leading online shopping comparison engine, Google Product Search. Try Amazon Marketplace or add pay-per-click ads to Amazon Product Ads product and category pages. This way, shoppers will be able to see your ads when they find products similar to yours.

Although social media is not the main search channel, it has gone mainstream and thus gained importance, specifically for Gen Y shoppers. Turn visitors into sales channels by including sharing social on product pages. Show good customer service in public by solving customer problems on networking sites like Facebook or Twitter.

People on a budget often look online before they buy, so it’s a good idea to take a cue from various sites to make shopping on the web fun, simple, and efficient. Provide product filters, comprehensive product details, comparison tools, navigation, and well-designed recommendations. Enhance your best-selling product images, emphasize your value propositions, and make sure shipping and return policies are clear.

Fix your leaky conversion funnel right away by adding simple and cost-effective website usability and feedback tools.

Whenever possible, ask for the visitor’s email address and try to get the most value from each registration.

Try to employ remarketing campaigns so that you can target consumers who take the time to buy.