Have you been working on your holiday strategies? The season is just around the corner, and now’s the time to be thinking about everything from Back to School to the New Year. With online holiday shopping breaking records every year, we can only imagine how many shoppers will choose the web over the mall in 2013. What are increasingly savvy shoppers expecting from e-retailers this year that will ultimately lead them to purchase?
Avoid the Store – Last year, 51% of shoppers planned to do their holiday shopping from home. Most online shoppers cited better deals online as their main reason for staying away from brick-and-mortar stores, but others said saving on gas and keeping away from crazy crowds was important. We’ve seen this with video too: holiday buy lift jumped 138% and Black Friday & Cyber Monday mobile views saw huge gains, staying on trend with results from previous years. Whatever the reason, these people are still looking for all the same information before making a purchase, and video is perfect for bridging the gap and helping shoppers to understand the product and how it will fit in their lives.
Painless Navigation – Unfortunately, making a purchase online has a lot in common with pulling teeth. If you haven’t seen this online checkout in real life video, take a look and you’ll understand what I mean. It doesn’t stop at the checkout process, though: a seamless journey across the whole website, including site search and category or brand pages, is critical to making the sale. Do your upper-level pages link to the right product pages? Do your videos link to featured products? Carefully think through the real paths that shoppers take and optimize your site accordingly.
Lend a Hand – In the season of giving, the hardest part is often figuring out what to buy! Depending on where a shopper is in the purchase process (are they still Googling “gifts for Dad,” have they narrowed their search to golf clubs, or are they choosing between a 9 iron or a wedge?), the information they need varies widely. Make sure you provide gift guides and great SEO for online shoppers at the top of the funnel paired with plenty of educational content (video is great for this!) and customized product recommendations to help shoppers make their decisions.
Ultimately, excellent holiday e-commerce experiences are about leaving the crowds behind without losing the impact of seeing the product first-hand or receiving assistance from a trained salesperson. Video can reduce the uncertainty of not physically trying or using a product by providing a complete picture through demonstrations of features and functions. Don’t forget about engaging video gift guides or category overviews that boost SEO and guide shoppers to products they want. It’s not too late to include video in your holiday strategies, so consider it to give shoppers what they want and boost your sales.
This article was written for Business 2 Community by Jay Leonard.
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