5 Tips To Get Your Jewelry Website Ready For The Holiday Season
By Emmanuel Raheb
Founder and CEO, Smart Age Solutions
As we enter the home stretch and near the end of 2021, now is the perfect time to close the year out with a strong finish to your jewelry business. Q4, the period from October to December, is the busiest time of year for retailers. Not only do you have Black Friday and Cyber Monday in November, but you also have Small Business Saturday on the same weekend. A boom for local jewelers!
Then in December you have the holidays with both Christmas and Hanukkah, and even up until New Year’s Eve which are all popular times to make sales. These are prime selling opportunities for you to grow your jewelry business.
Here are 5 tips to get your website ready to maximize your holiday sales.
- Start Creating Your Holiday Content Today
Your holiday content consists of many components. You’ll need to write promotional copy for your website, create product images, design holiday banners, and prepare your paid advertising campaigns. Everything should be in place at least a month or so before it’s needed. Don’t delay, start now. There’s a lot you’ll need to do!
- Plan Out Your Promotions
Think about what type of special promotions you want to offer. What jewelry styles or services will you push? Will you have a loss-leader to bring new foot traffic into your store? What specific discounts or deals will you promote? How many items do you need to sell in order to break even? Do you have enough stock on-hand to meet your anticipated demand? These are all questions you need to consider as you plan-out your promotional calendar.
- Make Sure Your Website Is Prepared
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are the biggest traffic days for any website. Is your jewelry website prepared for a sudden surge of visitors? Check with your web host provider and ask them what happens if your traffic spikes. Some hosts are able to scale-up quickly without interruption, while cheaper hosts will simply shut your site down. Find-out now before you invest in your holiday campaigns. You don’t want to be surprised. It doesn’t matter how much advertising you do, it’s worthless if your website can’t handle the increased traffic.
- Optimize For Mobile Visitors
Mobile visitors today account for over half of all website traffic. It’s even busier during the holiday period, with some estimates putting it as high as 70% or more. The desktop experience will never totally be replaced. You can’t match the speed and convenience of shopping by mobile. If someone is looking for engagement ring ideas or a special gift for a loved-one, the first place they’ll reach is in their pocket. It’s absolutely essential that you browse your site as a potential customer would and that starts with shopping your site from your own phone. Your goal should be to have the simplest and most user friendly mobile site possible!
- Maximize Your Social Media
Use your social media to it’s full potential. Publish holiday-focused posts. Run holiday contests. Increase your social media activity to at least 2 to 3 times the normal level. People live online now and are always searching for deals on Black Friday and looking to connect with friends and family over Christmas, Hanukkah and New Year’s. If you want to be seen during these critical periods, you have to put yourself out there. You must do everything you can to engage with your audience where they spend the most time online, which is social media.
As a jewelry retailer, your goal is to serve your customers and help them celebrate life’s special moments. Q4 is rich with prime selling opportunities and you can be there when the need arises for a special gift or a magical proposal. How you prepare your website for the holiday season today will determine your success tomorrow. Start with these tips above and you’ll be well positioned to have a very profitable ending to 2021.
