eWEEK content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More.
2Begin Testing Early
Holiday promotions are fiercely competitive, so it’s little surprise that many retailers plan all seasonal activities in advance. To ensure you’re delivering an optimal user experience, consider testing the promotional campaigns you plan to run as early as October to be certain they run properly. A bonus? You can see which promotions your customers have a more favorable response to and adjust your strategy accordingly.
3Thoroughly QA Your Pricing
4Tune Up Your Site Search
5Test Common Navigational Paths
6Optimize Your Product Detail Pages
7Check All Steps of Your Holiday Checkout
Consider providing customer service numbers in case shoppers have a last-minute question, or offer a live chat session during the shopping experience. For customers who aren’t yet ready to buy, offer them the chance to save items to a wish list. And, if possible, consider extending your cart life since many shoppers may choose to return later to complete the transaction.
8Explore Remote Usability Testing
Even though browsing your site may be simple and user-friendly to you, will holiday shoppers agree? You should consider doing some usability testing when your holiday catalog is ready in a staging or development environment to ensure it’s as easy to navigate as possible. There could be some issues you may have overlooked entirely.
9Review Tech Stats to Ensure the Site Can Handle More Traffic
Even if you have done everything you can to merchandise your site for the holiday, it will all be for naught if the back-end can’t support the additional traffic. Work with your IT team to set up and schedule load testing to prevent downtime during the most critical holiday shopping times.