How to Decorate Your Holiday Online Store

Pull out the tinsel, rig up the lights, it's time to give your online store a little love.

When you're walking into a store, physically, it's easy to see how you would typically decorate your store, but how do you do that if you're an online store?

Let's unwrap the secrets to making your online storefront holiday-ready.

Decorate, decorate, decorate

You don't want to be that one guy in the street that refuses to put up any Christmas lights. Likewise, you don't want your online store to be the only store without any festive cheer.

Think about it. When you see the Christmas trees and lights in David Jones, you immediately know that there's going to be some good sales in-store.

As an online retailer, you need to match what the typical brick and mortar shops are doing in the Christmas experience department. Time to decorate your store for the festive season. Your customers expect to have those fuzzy feelings when they enter your store, online or offline. A great example of this is Macy's. They created a specific splash page for all Cyber Week specials.

• Red is the color of urgency, energy and increases your heart rate. It's ideal for sales and deals which is ideal for Christmas. As an added bonus, it also fits into the traditional holiday colors.
• Big headlines, with a strong value. If you look at any good sales page, what will catch your attention is the big bold headlines and colors. Mention gifts, savings and timeframes.
• Discount badges to show people what offers you have available. Add some product rows or category rows to your splash page to showcase your discounts at a glance.

Free shipping banner

Offering free shipping in the marketing world is one of the most persuasive parts of any eCommerce store's design. One of the biggest reasons for abandonment during checkout is cost - mainly shipping costs being too high. Despite this, many eCommerce stores only show banners on their product pages.

Why is this a problem?

Because customers routinely ignore web banners when they are scanning a webpage. To ensure that users are able to easily find the "Free Shipping" information, place a text call-out at the "Buy" section of your product page. "Free Shipping" site-wide banners should also be used, above-the-fold, just below the navigation for visibility.

Add some Christmas cheer to your product pages

"Well, duh"

We hear you. This may sound like an obvious technique but if it's not used properly, it can hinder your eCommerce experience, especially during a competitive time like the holiday season. The beauty of not being one of the eComm giants, like Amazon or eBay, is that you can get creative with your promotional campaigns and the holiday "mood" of your store.

If you're looking for a subtle touch, you can decorate your call-to-action buttons to give a hint of festivity and encourage your user to convert. It's also important to useholiday specific keywords to describe each visual on your website, so that search engine bots can pick them up.

Help your customers find their perfect gift

Many people notoriously hate the "gift-finding" part of "gift-giving". You want to make it as easy as possible for them to find what they're looking for. In a 2015 InfoTrends study, it found that 74% of the total participants considered catalogues as a useful medium to learn about product, features and prices. Who says print is dead. Just look at IKEA's catalog strategy. The visuals and product information, especially when it comes to styling products is what really makes this product guide so effective. You can replicate this by creating an online gift guide for your customers to download and read or a landing page featuring your most popular products. You also want to make sure that your search is optimised for terms associated with the Holidays.

Use images that resonate with your target audience

When you go to a restaurant, you're inundated with images of delicious burgers, desserts and drinks. In the same way that a restaurant will use strong visuals to draw you in, you can also use imagery that resonates with your audience to do so. For example, if your target audience are mothers, you should use imagery of women with children to maintain a sense of relevance in their eyes.

You can also use imagery to convey a sense of urgency. At the core of the festive period is a sense of urgency to find the right gift and to send it in time. Create urgency on your landing page by using a countdown timer or a specific timeframe to redeem your offer or discount. Make this visual highly visible on your landing page.