Mobile E-commerce: the guide for Christmas 2019

Christmas is a great opportunity for every merchant. For some sectors, such as fashion and luxury goods, is a real gold mine. Not to mention other dates like Black Friday and Cyber ​​Monday. The Italian online market has also been counting on it for several years, so much that every year it registers online sales records.

In short, a big increase in sales is coming, are you sure you want to lose it?

If on one hand, you risk letting so many customers escape, on the other hand, is ready also means managing the entire sales process by exploiting the channels least used by your competitors, such as E-commerce Mobile purchase. This is why we thought of a checklist to follow point by point to not miss a sale. Follow us and read on!

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How much do Christmas holidays affect e-commerce sales?

For many e-commerce, the Christmas holidays represent a real boom. To realize this, it is sufficient to briefly analyze some data.

According to eMarketer, retail sales over the Christmas period reached a record $ 1 trillion in the United States, growing 5.4% compared to the previous year. But the most astonishing figure is that, if the increase in in-store sales were limited, e-commerce grew by 16.7%, selling products for a total of $ 124 billion.

And even in 2019, the e-commerce race does not seem destined to stop.

It is now time to read our Christmas holiday checklist to see if you are really ready to take advantage of this important time for your business.

Get ready to sell where your customers buy: from Mobile

If the growth in online sales seems unstoppable, that of mobile purchases is even more surprising.

With particular reference to the Italian market, by now 39% of Italian e-commerce purchases take place via smartphone, with an estimated increase over the Christmas period of 32.6% compared to 2018.

So if you want to establish yourself online, you need to rethink your E-commerce to be mobile first.

Where to start? First of all, it is necessary to make your site as user-friendly and intuitive as possible, so that the customer does not waste time and can easily navigate all the pages of the site.

According to a study conducted by Yottaa, long loading times and difficulties in scrolling through the catalog reduce conversions by 7%.

And you know how even a single percentage point in the conversion rate can make a difference at the end of the month.

So let’s talk about the things you can do right now in your E-commerce.

1. Develop a Mobile version of your site, with layouts and sizes that can be adapted to navigation from different types of smartphones.
2. Choose a responsive design. Check that the links and buttons are working properly and all pages are displayed without problems. Make sure you use easy-to-read fonts even on a small screen. In short, a responsive design makes your site welcoming and increases sales from Mobile.
3. Test the Mobile version firsthand. In other words, you should try yourself to browse your site by putting yourself in the customer’s shoes and asking: “Would I spend time buying on this e-commerce or not?”

The Mobile version of your e-commerce is, therefore, one of the tools to exploit to increase conversions, not only over the Christmas period.

Having a site optimized by Mobile is essential in 2019.

The suggestions for bringing traffic and sales to your e-commerce during Christmas 2019 do not end there. Let’s see them together.

Real-Time Response through Push Notifications

What are Push Notifications?

These are the notifications we receive on our mobile phone without having to access or download any apps. They are automatically activated based on some triggers.

Just to give an example, the notifications that Facebook or Instagram send you, without actually being online.

But Push notifications don’t warn us only when a message or an e-mail arrives. They are also excellent promotional tools that you can use to communicate with your customers.

As a Merchant, put yourself in the customers’ shoes and think about warning them with personalized Push notifications.

Are you wondering when to use push notifications?

There are 2 main types of push notifications:

• One-time notification, which is sent occasionally to the customer and is suitable in the case of a new product to be promoted or a special offer.
• Notification based on the customer’s activity, which is activated and customized based on the user’s activity on the site and is ideal for pushing the user to buy or, better, buy-back.

Depending on the goal and the type of user you want to “hit” you can use one or the other type.

Not to be underestimated, also the landing page after the click coming from a push notification is of great importance. The question to be asked in this case is: “where do we want to land the client after having caught his attention?” There are several possibilities:

• Offers on single products or specific categories, it is necessary to refer to that product or category
• In the case of abandoned carts, you can direct the customer to the cart, perhaps adding some extra incentive to push him to purchase
• For special discounts such as Black Friday or Christmas, you can refer to the offers’ page or, in the absence of alternatives, to the home page of your site

But remember, in any case, the lower the number of clicks required to the user to complete a purchase, the more complete your conversion rate will be.

Develop your app with dedicated special offers

Another way to increase the engagement and, above all, the conversions of your e-commerce during the Christmas holidays is to make your app the center of your special promotions.

With dedicated content and offers, you will, in fact, increase downloads and the feeling of exclusivity, encouraging customers to take advantage of a unique opportunity. Since the app will need specific marketing actions, you could advertise it on social networks designed for mobile devices, such as Instagram or Facebook.

In this way, customers can quickly access your e-commerce directly from their mobile phones.

As we have already seen for Push notifications, paving the way for your customers and making your products easily accessible is fundamental to increase sales.

Offer an easy Checkout for 2019 holidays

Checkout is crucial to converting potential customers into real customers.

You don’t have to take advantage of their patients and their time, especially before the holidays, when they have little time to make gifts and would just like to buy without having to enter their personal data each time.

Continuing with our focus on smartphone browsing, a great way to facilitate purchases on your e-commerce is to optimize Checkout from Mobile.

How? With 3 simple steps:

1. Allow your customers to save login information also via the app, so they don’t have to enter them again in case of future purchases.
2. Offer more options than manually entering credit card information. For example, you can develop a scanner that records card data and saves them forever. Too complicated? It’s the future of e-commerce and if you want to keep up with the times you have to think about these solutions too.
3. Allow easy Checkout with Apple Pay, Android Pay, Google Wallet, MasterPass, Visa Checkout and/or Paypal. In this way, you will not run the risk of cart abandonment.

Highlight your advertising for 2019 holidays

The marketing for the 2019 holidays will certainly be full of catalogs and other “classic” advertising material. But you could give your advertising something extra by allowing potential customers to buy directly from the image that appears on their smartphone.

How?

For example by linking the product directly to advertising, so that the buyer can buy with a few clicks and not forget the object he wanted.

The watchword for the holidays is: optimize the Mobile version of your e-commerce!

The holidays are approaching and all the Merchants are sharpening their weapons to compete in the huge world of online commerce. Our advice is to focus on the Mobile version of your site because the trends are clear: more and more users will buy from their mobile.

With personalized payment options, easy-to-save profile data and, above all, immediate access to your products, without tens of clicks, you can emerge among the thousands of advertisements that flood your customers before the holidays and guarantee a considerable increase in sales.