Research released on Finder.com.au provides insights into Australian spending online over the last 8 months. The numbers confirm that the average Aussie is spending 5.3 hours a week online shopping, at a cost of $188. 

So how do e-commerce and retailers prepare for shopping in December? We have created our top tips to help businesses navigate the weeks ahead.

Ensure customers have a good buying experience, update your website now

Be sure to fix potential issues to your website to ensure it can cope with increased holiday traffic. Peaks in online traffic can cause websites or apps to slow down and ultimately crash. It is important to note that a slowdown is as bad as a crash. A 2017 study found as little as a 100-millisecond delay decreased conversion rates by 7 percent. Mobile shoppers are especially impatient. According to research by Google, 53% of mobile users entirely abandon websites that take longer than 3 seconds to load.

For most e-commerce sites payment plugins, shopping carts and photos of items can put stress on the infrastructure of a site. Any delays have a huge impact on your bottom line. It is so important that hiring someone to review your site for faults or to resize and upload images is money well spent. There are tests you can run on your site to check the loading speed. If you receive a low score be sure to act quickly and fix the issues now. One free tool to check out is HubSpot Website Grader.

All e-commerce websites should have plugins installed for payments, shipping and fulfilment. A seamless and automated system keeps staff members from doing the data entry and reduces the possibilities for mistakes. 

Most e-commerce websites use automated selling plugins such as Shopify or WooCommerce. For shipping in Australia, WooCommerce is now working with ShipStation for automatic generation and printing of shipping labels. It is also critical to manage is stock in an automated way. There are platforms that ensure the proper tracking of stock such as Dear Systems. Dear Systems can also assist with automating fulfillment and integrates with all major e-commerce platforms.

A solid approach to marketing your e-commerce business is based on three key things, re-engaging your existing customers, creating paid promotions on social media and partnering with complimentary brands to expand your reach.

The key to success with any business is turning customers into repeat customers. This is best achieved by building an email list and sending them offers and updates on new products on a consistent basis. Remember that during the lead up to Christmas most brands will be sending emails, so ensure yours stand out with compelling offers in the headlines. Don’t make your customer’s guess, keep it clear and simple. 

It is also important to put aside some budget for promotions on your social media channels or Google Ads. A small budget for social media is about 30 – 50 dollars per day. It is important to understand what budget you have available and then committing to getting the ads right through testing and adjustments. If possible, hire a digital marketing expert to assist with setting the ads up. 

And finally, if you have relationships with complementary brands consider any opportunities for cross promotion. This can help to expand your reach and add more value to your respective customer bases. These types of collaborations can often be achieved for less than a marketing campaign and create similar results in sales.

With the increase in traffic and purchases on your site, there will also be an increase in questions, returns and shipping problems. It is important to hire more casual staff or increasing the hours of staff who already know the systems. While it is important to maximise profits at this time of year, it is equally important to ensure customer service does not fall to the wayside. With online consumer spending increasing in Australia, if they have a good experience with you, they will remain a loyal customer for years. The goal is to turn first time online shoppers into committed converts who will shop with you for years to come. 

With the very recent increase in online shopping in Australia it can feel difficult when forecasting potential profits and budgeting for operation costs. There are some standard approaches to creating forecast based on the previous quarter instead of from this time last year.

Use your sales data from last quarter to map out the trajectory of your sales over the holiday period. The rate of increase from each month should help you to understand the possible rate of increase for the next four weeks. Of course, the forecast should act merely as target. If you surpass the projected rate of increase in the first week of December, assume that the next week will grow by the same increase. 

Remember that this year is the beginning of a new trend for online shopping in Australia. While there will be some adjustments as restrictions are lifted, the appetite for online shopping is here. We are always available for a chat about your unique challenges, be sure to book in a free assessment in our calendar. We are always happy to help.