The holidays are the busiest time of year for any small business owner. With e-commerce shoppers expected to spend upwards of $273.7 billion this year, businesses need to be prepared for the increase in traffic to their website.
To ensure your e-commerce website is ready, GoDaddy, the company that helps entrepreneurs thrive, is sharing four tips that can be implemented today to improve the customer experience and increase sales:
Ensure accurate and attractive product descriptions
When customers are browsing products online, it is important that the product description accurately portrays the item they are considering buying. A detailed product description can help shoppers in their decision to make the purchase, which ultimately eases customers’ frustration and minimizes the likelihood of returns or exchanges. As a small business owner, if you realize your website and product descriptions need sprucing up, but you have limited time, you can use Generative AI to help you generate first drafts of website copy to lighten the load in the drafting and reviewing process.
Lean on technology to strengthen your customer support
The holidays can be crazy for e-commerce small businesses, especially those operating with limited employees. Consumers have grown to expect near-instant response times, and delays in communication can cause them to lose interest, which could result in the loss of a sale. To help address customer needs, anticipate those frequently asked questions and create an FAQ page to get ahead of requests or questions and save yourself time.
For example, some common questions to address are:
- What is your return policy?
- What are the shipping options?
- When can I expect my items?
- Can I make changes to an order I already placed?
- What do I do if I never received my order?
Also, consider adding a live chat using an app like GoDaddy Conversations for when customers have additional requests to ensure their questions are answered quickly.
Offer a rewards programs to entice holiday shoppers
While gaining new customers is often the goal for small businesses, it is important to consider what you can do to turn those new customers into returning customers. A simple rewards program post-purchase is a smart way to entice shoppers to purchase from you again – including discounts and free gifts to encourage brand loyalty. There are several different types of rewards programs including punch cards, scannable membership cards, opt-in email or even rewards apps, so it is important to consider what will work best for your small business. Especially during the holiday season with heightened spending, create your program to reward customers based on what they spend – giving more to those who spend more.
Amplify your offerings on social media
Find ways to cut through the holiday noise and create memorable social media posts for your current and future customers. Highlight your unique small business story, best-selling products and current discounts/sales to garner interest and generate traffic for your website.
The key to making your social media pages successful is to post quality content with photos and videos, and have storefronts linked from your social media pages. A recent GoDaddy survey found that the overwhelming majority of young consumers (80% of Gen Z and 75% of Millennials) said it is important that entrepreneurs link their storefronts from their social pages for easy shopping, but today small businesses are primarily using their social accounts for brand awareness over sales.
To help entrepreneurs create better content, GoDaddy recently launched Instant Video within the GoDaddy Studio app. The free AI-powered feature allows small businesses to instantly create branded videos consistently at scale, proving to be the perfect tool for anyone who wants to produce social media promo videos, product demos, or tutorial videos for their business or their brand online.
For small businesses, navigating this busy season can seem overwhelming. With a few simple changes, you can improve the way customers interact with your website, which could result in additional sales and less stress for you in the long run.
David Feng is the Senior Manager of Product Management for GoDaddy.
E-commerce sales stock image by Ground Picture/Shutterstock
