Put the customer first
Much like in the offline sphere, online shops need to focus on their visitors. Think about your customers' needs before the Christmas rush hits. Ensure your online sales process is easily navigable and important information is clear to see. A web store needs to make clients feel comfortable throughout the entire shopping experience and especially during the stressful Christmas shopping period.
"I would encourage companies to obsess about their customers, what matters to them when they want to buy, and how they wish to shop," says Gareth Dunlop, managing director of web development firm Tibus. "It is essential that email is checked more regularly than normal, support queries are dealt with immediately, stock inventory is up-to-date and that the site is continuously being updated with prices and offers."
Expect a surge
The increase in footfall for physical shops at this time of year is reflected in the world of online retail. Internet shops must prepare to deal with more customers and orders than at any other time. For businesses new to internet retail, the Christmas period can come as quite a shock. Right from the first Monday of December, known to internet retailers as 'Cyber Monday', activity is likely to soar.
"Traditionally Mondays are the busiest online shopping days in the run-up to Christmas. In 2008 Realex Payments processed payments in excess of EUR1 million per hour on Cyber Monday," says Tracy Glynn of online payments firm Realex. "In total we processed over 112,000 transactions valued at EUR22.6 million. We would expect to surpass this figure in 2009 as more people look online for bargains and the online marketplace continues to grow. E-retailers need to be sure that they have the systems in place to cope with this level of volume."
Businesses must react to meet this demand. Providing accurate information on delivery timetables and final order dates for delivery before Christmas can help keep customers up to speed. Remember that clients too will be working to a tight schedule.
"Customer service is key at seasonal times of shopping as customers need to receive their goods by specific dates and can't wait for stock to come in to the store," says Louise Bready, marketing manager with online retailer Buy4now.
Cover the back end
The Christmas rush poses a dilemma for firms looking to meet delivery timetables. "The rush results in an exaggerated example of the classic 'make to stock' or 'make to order' supply chain conundrum where product demand is seasonal," says Edward Sweeney, director of learning at the National Institute of Transport and Logistics.
"Some supply chains are now sufficiently agile to enable a ramping up of supply to meet the relatively high demand associated with the Christmas period," Sweeney says, but he notes that most supply chains lack this agility, meaning there is a requirement to build up stock in advance of the busy period to be sure that demand can be fulfilled.
At the same time, businesses need to monitor consumer demand as much as possible to avoid excessive reliance on stockholding. "The ultimate objective is to ensure product availability whilst simultaneously minimising the costs associated with excessive inventory holding throughout the supply chain," says Sweeney.
Top tips
Here are some simple steps you can take to guard against calamity in your web store this Christmas.
- Watch out for spikes in activity. Demand is going to increase at Christmas so make sure you have the bandwidth and processing power needed to cope.
- Liaise with your logistics company early. Work with logistics and transport firms to ascertain the final shipping dates to different areas as you will need to ensure all items are sent by these cut-off dates.
- Analyse customer activity. Try to see which products are proving popular, and which parts of your website are getting the most traffic as Christmas approaches. Getting accurate data on this front can make life a lot easier for both stock-keeping and IT management.
- Give the customer good guidelines. It's a good idea to post a notice on your site about last order dates for guaranteed Christmas delivery.
In the next issue, we'll look at the challenges retailers face from cross-border shopping. We'll also examine security issues and provide advice on how an IT partner can help ensure your store is in tip-top shape for Christmas.