Top E-Commerce Trends for the 2023 Holiday Shopping Season
Marketers expect that the 2023 holiday season will be characterized by heightened consumer demand, advancements in tech (such as generative AI), and consumer habits driven by the age of thriving e-commerce markets.
Iceberg Web Design is here to help you prepare your e-commerce website for the holidays so that you can boost sales and customer engagement, and kick off 2024 with a successful start!
Brace for Incoming Web Traffic
Over the past few years, business owners have remarked that the holiday shopping season has begun earlier than ever, and the 2023 season is no exception. For many shoppers, holiday shopping begins as early as October. If you haven’t optimized your e-commerce shop for the holidays yet, no worries! There’s still plenty of time this fourth quarter to drive shoppers to your site. Expect a spike in web traffic and a heightened demand for your goods or services.
- Ensure that you’re fully stocked and the inventory numbers on your site accurately reflect stock amounts.
- Ensure that your site will reliably handle increased traffic and demand. Test your site speed (70% of consumers report that site speed affects whether they buy from a certain retailer or not). Verify that your website is easily navigable and that your content seamlessly informs or directs users throughout your site.
- In 2022, a significant 36% of online shoppers reported that they dedicated more time to researching products and brands, and looked at business reviews before purchasing. This number is predicted to increase, considering inflation’s contributions to tighter budgets and shoppers’ cautious spending. Ensure that your Google Business Profile is active, and Google Reviews are enabled. Consider placing customer testimonials or reviews on product pages, as well as adding an informative FAQ page to your site.
- Make sure your customer service team is ready for an uptick in support calls and tickets. Consider integrating an AI assistant to answer frequently asked questions or concerns (Iceberg Web Design can help!)
Make Checkout A Breeze
Nothing kills an online sale faster than a clunky, unaccommodating, and dated checkout process. Decrease your site’s cart abandonment rates and increase sales by streamlining your checkout process and incorporating third-party integrations loved by shoppers.
- Make sure that product or service costs, shipping fees, and applicable promotions are clear to users.
- Verify that your website’s cart and checkout buttons are obvious and easy to find.
- Give customers lots of payment options! Put your customers’ security concerns at ease with PayPal, Apple Pay, Venmo, or other third-party checkout integrations.
- Embrace the growing popularity of Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) financing options. BNPL checkouts accounted for 9% of total online orders in the fourth quarter of 2022, and are expected to spike again in 2023, especially in the weeks preceding Christmas.
- If applicable, consider offering Buy Online, Pick Up in Store as a checkout option.
- Ensure that your return policy is easily understood by customers! A clear and reliable return policy often factors into whether or not a user makes a purchase.
Highlight Your Holiday Promotions
Despite a decline in inflation in 2023, consumers are still set on restricting their holiday spending as they have been since 2020. Shoppers will be seeking significant holiday promotions on products and services. If you’re offering holiday promotions, deals, or rebates, ensure that they stand out on your homepage and are spread across your website. Verify that discounts are properly applied to participating products at checkout.
Get Your Online Store Ready for the Holidays with Iceberg Web Design!
Whether you’re looking for reliable hosting and maintenance to get you through the holidays, need to optimize your customer service with an AI assistant, or simply want to refresh your web design or content for the new year, Iceberg Web Design is here to help!
Give our friendly team of expert web developers a call to discuss how we can prepare your e-commerce shop for the holidays!
