Is Your Ecommerce Site Ready For The Holiday Rush?

Labor Day is over, and you know what that means – it’s time to get ready for the holiday season. While your customers may not be thinking about shopping just yet, they will be in the next month. That means you only have one month to get your website ready for the busy season.

Back in July we discussed the shipping steps you should be taking for the holiday rush, but this time we’re going to focus on your website.

Let’s get started.

Figure Out Peak Shopping Periods

Before you start working on anything else, you need to dive into your website data to figure out when your busy season really begins. Look at data from the past few years and make notes on patterns. When do your sales usually spike? When does your website traffic usually spike? What was it that brought customers to your website during those specific times? Look at the browsing and buying patterns so you can make adjustments to your inventory as well as featured products, banner advertisements, and more.

Plan Sales Strategically

Now that you know the peak trends on your website, it’s time to use that information to create a sales and promotions schedule. Experiment with offering sales on historically busy days as well as slow ones. Sales can entice people to buy more, or just to buy when previously they were on the fence. You may also experiment with offering extra perks during certain peak times, such as free gift wrapping.

Start Marketing Early

You know that you have to increase your marketing during the holidays, but get an early start instead of waiting for Thanksgiving to roll around. Preview holiday promotions to your loyal customers. Create some free content, such as blog posts or how-to videos, to get customers coming to your website more often. Make sure you’re sharing product news and information relevant to the holiday shipping season. You want your customers to be thinking about shopping with you before the holidays get underway.

Upgrade Your Systems

What can you do now to make the busy holiday season easier? Now is the time to make upgrades to your systems for a smoother workflow during the holidays, and moving forward. What parts of your shipping process can be automated? Do you need to update product photos and descriptions? Maybe you want to have social media automation so you can focus on other things. Start working on these upgrades immediately so they’re ready in time for the holidays.

Test Mobile Performance

Is your website optimized for mobile? It needs to be. Not only are more and more people shopping using a mobile device, but Google is starting to prioritize mobile when it comes to search engines. If someone looks up your website while on their phone but the site is clunky on mobile, they may not bother to look again. There’s still time to make changes before the holidays.

Make it Easy For Your Customers

The holidays are a busy, hectic time for people. By making your website as easy to navigate as possible, you’re reducing stress and confusion for your customers. Make sure shop policies such as your return policy is crystal clear and easy to find. All shipping information should be readily available to customers before the checkout process. Your goal is to get your customer on your website and checked out as quickly as possible, and the easier you make your website to navigate, the more often that will happen.

Optimize Checkout

Reduce customer headaches by testing your checkout process and optimizing it. Test all of your coupon codes to make sure they ring up correctly. Analyze how many steps your customers must go through to actually make a purchase. Remember, the goal is for this to be as easy as possible for your customers, with as few website errors as possible.

Don’t Forget About Shipping Supplies!

Head to ShippingSupply.com to stock up on shipping supplies for the holiday season so all your orders get shipped out on time!

Start Preparing For Holiday Shipping This Summer

Don’t let yourself get complacent about the holidays just because it’s summer! The Christmas season may not yet be on your mind, but when it comes to your business, it should be. Four months from now you’ll be in the middle of the busiest time of the year.

By starting to prepare for the holidays now, you’ll save yourself a lot of stress down the line.

Here are the steps you can take now to be ready to ship products during the holidays.

1. Consider Your Inventory

Now is the time to place your orders so you have the products you need for the holidays in stock and ready to ship. Focus on stocking up on your best sellers. If they’re usually your best sellers, it is likely they will be your best sellers during the holidays. Make sure you have enough inventory!

2. Test Your Website

You have months to make changes to your website so it runs smoothly for your customers during the holiday rush. Websites that run poorly tend to cause customers to shop elsewhere.

Websites that load slowly are one of the biggest reasons why customers become frustrated by a website. Test website loading speeds using software tools to ensure everything is running smoothly. You also want to make sure your product images and copy are updated and that the website is easy to navigate.

3. Stock Up On Shipping Supplies

You need more than a healthy inventory of products; you also need plenty of shipping supplies. Make sure you have a decent stock of corrugated boxes, bubble & foam wrap, tape, poly bags, and everything else you need to properly pack and ship.   

4. Examine Shipping More Closely

Timing is everything during the holiday season, so ensuring that your packages arrive to their destination in a timely manner is extremely important.

Think about your shipping providers. Have they been reliable? Do you regularly get complaints? Could your shipping options and returns policy be updated to make your customers happier? If you’re thinking about making changes, now is the time to get started.

5. Start Hiring Extra Help

If you know your current staff can’t keep up with sales volume during the holidays it’s time to think about hiring temporary workers. We recommend hiring your temporary staff in October so you have time to train new employees before it gets busy.

How are you preparing for the holidays?

Wrap Up The Holidays The Right Way

Christmas is less than two weeks away, but until then you’re going to be busy packing and shipping. We’ve talked about preparing for the holidays, but today we’re going to give our best advice to help you get through the next two weeks.

The first thing you need to do is keep track of shipping deadlines. You have no control over when orders will come in, but by knowing the shipping deadlines you can get prepared now. Customers will want items to arrive before Christmas, so make sure you have plenty of shipping options that will make that happen. You always want to stay updated on shipping news. UPS, for example, is reporting delays. This should factor into how you ship.

You can’t control your package once it is in transit, but you can control how soon you ship it. Try to ship orders the same day as the orders come in. You want to mail as quickly as possible to keep your customers happy. One of our holiday hacks for this is to package popular items now, even if you don’t have orders for them. You’ll probably get them, and this can save some time.

And while you are packing up your products, make sure you package them to avoid damage. This means use void fill, don’t skimp on shipping supplies, and make sure each item has the proper padding. And if your product is damaged during shipping, replace it. Customers will appreciate it, especially if you make it easy for them.

Go the extra mile to make sure your products make it to their final destination. Add an address label to the inside of packaging in case the label on the outside of the box is damaged. Use extra tape or even multiple boxes to reinforce your package.

You can also make yourself stand out by making your packages more personalized. Include a generic holiday card with all shipments, a free sample, or something else that your customer won’t be expecting.

Most of all, remember that the madness will end. You can do it!

Prepare For The Holidays

It may not even be Halloween yet, but if you’ve not started preparations for the holiday season,

you’ve already fallen behind. The holidays are a crazy time and the more you have ready now the smoother the season will go. Today we’re bringing you our top tips to help you get ready for the holidays, now.

·        Plan discounts and specials now. You may already know your Black Friday deals, but what about other holiday sales? Get all of those figured out now so you can easily implement them.

·        Look at analytics and reviews from last year’s holiday season. What issues did you have? Was shipping too slow? Did items arrive damaged? Figure out what you need in stock, how much staff you need, etc.

·        Start stocking up on products now. Whether this means items you imagine will sell fast or shipping supplies to do your shipping in, doing this now is extremely important. Don’t procrastinate.

·        Decide on shipping prices and stick to it. Maybe you want to offer free shipping, or charge for it, or give free shipping after a minimum order. Whatever it may be, choose now and keep it that way through the holiday season. You don’t want to drive a customer away when they come back and see they suddenly have to pay shipping.

·        Update your return policy and make sure it is easy to find on your website. You don’t need angry customers leaving negative reviews because of confusion about returns.

·        Prepare for shopping spikes. Can your website handle the traffic of Black Friday and weekends? Most of your sales are going to happen during that time, so make sure you are ready with a fully stocked inventory and enough staff to handle requests and orders.

·        Look into shipping deadlines. Your customers are not going to be happy if they don’t receive their gifts by Christmas, for example. Know the different shipping services available to you, and know their cut-off days for package arrival. Get every order packaged and shipped before these deadlines.

·        Make a plan for operations during the holiday season. This means you want to make sure you have the staff, supplies, and equipment throughout the shopping season you need. Hire extra people for the time needed. Make sure your equipment is up-to-date and can handle the workload. Have people trained in this equipment so you don’t have to spend time doing this when you are busy.

Stand Out During the Holidays with Fantastic Shipping

We’re right in the middle of the holiday season, which means that many of you are probably sending out a large amount of products. That’s great! But you should be doing more than simply sending your customers the products they’ve ordered. This is the perfect opportunity to make your customers remember you.

So how do you stand out amid all the other companies sending out products? We’ve got some tips. First off, you may want to make some changes to your website. Customers nowadays find it stifling to only be offered one shipping method. The more options you can give your customers, the happier they will be. Ensure your customers can choose between slower, cheaper shipping options and faster, more expensive ones. If you can afford to, offering free shipping can make a huge difference in revenue. Many shoppers will gravitate towards you over competitors if you are able to offer them free shipping.

Now you’ve got the order and you’re ready to send it out. You want to make sure you are packaging all of your products properly. You will never get a good reputation if products arrive damaged, or even just in messy condition. We have an entire post about how to properly pack and ship that can be found HERE.

So, you’ve packed up your shipment? Before taping it up, consider adding some additions to the box. Unfortunately shipments are sometimes damaged, which is why it’s a good idea to include shipping and company information inside the box or mailer you are using. You can also stand out by including something a bit more personal in with the shipment. Add in a small sample or a handwritten note expressing your gratitude.  

With a rise of packages during the holiday season, you also see a rise of thieves. Requiring a signature upon delivery ensures your packages won’t fall into the wrong hands. Of course this depends on the customer, but it doesn’t hurt to recommend it on the website.

The product has been packed, shipped, and delivered, but that doesn’t mean your job is done! Send out an email to your customers thanking them for their business. You can even use this opportunity to request a review or ask customers to fill out a survey. This extra communication keeps you on your customers’ minds. Remember, the goal should be to get these customers to come back, or at least recommend you to friends and family.

Happy Holidays from all of us here at ShippingSupply.com, and we hope you have a great end of the year!

Prepare For The Holidays

The holiday season is upon us. Are you ready with the shipping supplies you need for this busy time of year? ShippingSupply.com carries all the supplies you need to make the holiday season run seamlessly. Whether you’re shipping products out or packaging up items at a brick and mortar store, we have the supplies you need to make the holiday season go smoothly.

Corrugated Boxes

We carry a wide range of corrugated boxes to suit your needs. There’s way too many to list them all here, but we’ll give you some highlights. All of our corrugated boxes are durable cartons designed to safely move your product from point A to point B. We carry gift boxes and apparel boxes for packaging in-store. We have all types of boxes for shipping products, whether those products are large, small, or oddly shaped. Shop now to get all the corrugated boxes you need for the holidays.

Corrugated Mailers

If you’re looking for something smaller to do your shipping in, or for something designed for specific products such as literature or audio materials, then corrugated mailers are perfect for you. We carry a large selection of corrugated mailers to give you the perfect fit for your items. We even offer corrugated displays in case you have a storefront and have items you want to sell at the register or on other counters.

Gift Grade Tissue Paper

Make your packaging stand out with premium quality tissue paper. The special dye resists both bleeding and fading, giving you a product that will be cheery and bright for the entire season. We carry tissue paper in a number of colors, including colors that are complimentary to the holiday season. Some examples include white, blue, red, and green. We also carry tissue paper assortment packs so you don’t have to buy each color individually!

Paper Bags

Efficiently package items in a retail setting with our wide range of paper bags. Need paper shopping bags? Merchandise bags? Hardware bags? We carry them all and more. All of our paper bags are 100% recyclable and re-usable. These heavy-duty, durable bags resist punctures and tearing. Whether you’re looking for a flat bag or a bag with handles that is capable of standing up, you will find it when you shop with us.

Crinkle Paper

Crinkle paper is a great packing material for gifts. It helps to protect items from damage during transport, and it is festive! We carry many different colors for all sorts of occasions. We even have a Christmas blend, specifically made for the holidays. Click the link above to browse additional solid colors and blends of Crinkle paper. You will receive 10 pounds of Crinkle paper per case; plenty to help you out during the busiest shopping season of the year!

These are just a few of the many items you can invest in to prepare for the holiday season. We have plenty of items for both retail settings and ecommerce. Don’t wait! Get the holiday shipping products you need, today!

Holiday Wrapping Products

The holiday season is nearly here. Now is the best time to stock up on supplies for wrapping! Don’t wait until the last minute. Doing that will only result in lots of stress while you're waiting for your supplies, plus you could be left wrapping gifts on Christmas Eve. Get your items now to avoid that! Today we’re going to feature some of our favorite wrapping items for you to use this season.

20” x 30” Red Gift Grade Tissue Paper:

What better way is there to show the holiday spirit in your packaging? This red tissue paper is made with special dyes, making it resistant to fading and bleeding. This popping red color is sure to remind people of stockings, Santa Claus, and more! With soft texture on both sides, this seasonal tissue paper is a great item to use to package and wrap gifts. Not only that, but leftover paper can be saved for Valentine’s Day in February!

20” x 30” Green Gift Grade Tissue Paper:

Much like our red tissue paper, this green tissue paper will add some festivity to your wrapping. Like the red paper, this green tissue paper also resists fading and bleeding. You can even choose to pair it when the red tissue paper! This tissue paper is great for wrapping gifts, packing into boxes, and packing into bags. You will get 480 pieces per case when you purchase this item.

10” x 10” x 6” Holiday Red Gift Boxes:

These holiday red gift boxes are great for the holidays for a number of reasons! First off, in terms of hiding the identity of your gift, a box is the right way to go. Add padding, and it will be very difficult for the recipient to guess what the gift might be! In fact, you can use these red boxes as an excuse not to wrap at all. No messy paper, tape, or cleanup! If you’re shipping gifts across the country, these boxes add some festive flair. You can’t go wrong with these boxes. Also available in additional sizes.

Precious Metal Shreds:

Looking to add extra appeal to your gift this year? These precious metal shreds are perfect to do just that! They add a beautiful festive sparkle to your gift while also cushioning your product at the same time! These precious metal shreds are sure to make your package seem more upscale. You can get it in a variety of holiday colors including red, green, and silver!

10lb. Christmas Blend Crinkle Paper:

Add fun color and unique texture to your gift and packaging with this Christmas Blend Crinkle Paper! This crinkle paper offers a combination of green and red paper. It’s sure to get people’s attention! Use this blend of paper in gift boxes, bags, or even baskets! And don’t worry, because if you don’t like the Christmas blend you can purchase our crinkle paper in many other colors!

There you have it! We hope this sample of products will get you excited for the holidays.