5 Effective Ways to Prepare Your Shopify store for Christmas

So, how can you prepare your store for this holiday season?

• Add christmas styled theme to your store
• Plan your marketing in advance
• Make your store user-friendly
• Keep the checkout process simple
• Give the choice to gift wrap their order
  

If you are looking for how the above can be done in your Shopify store, continue reading this blog and we will let you know how it is done.

There is a cultural expectation to participate in gift-giving during the Christmas season. This creates a sense of obligation to shop for gifts and many people turn to online platforms to conveniently purchase gifts that contribute to the overall increase in holiday spending.

Why is it important to plan ahead for this holiday season?

The last two months of the year are packed with holidays and it is always good to be well prepared for the season. As it is the last quarter, you can use it to your advantage to hit yearly targets, move new products, and clear old inventory.

1. Add Christmas styled theme to your store

Why should you do it?

In the realm of human nature, emotions and visuals play a significant role. 

Picture this: you're strolling through the mall, and your gaze is irresistibly drawn to a beautifully decorated spot, even if it wasn't initially on your destination list, it's simply the way we're wired. 

How can you do it?

• Use festive banner or images that shows Christmas themed products
• Modify your store logo to include Christmas elements like snowflakes, Santa claus, hats or festive colours.
• Design banners showing special offers, holiday discounts.
• Replace standard icons with holiday-themed ones to add a touch of Christmas throughout your site.

Hence, to captivate your customers, adorn your store with a visually attractive Christmas theme.

App suggestions for the theme

• White Christmas|4.8 ratings|218 reviews
• FX Seasonal Effects - Christmas |4.9 ratings|115 reviews
• Dakaas seasonal effects |4.8 ratings|64 reviews

2. Plan your marketing in advance

Why should you do it?

Designing a plan overnight will never work; it takes time and effort. Planning our marketing in advance allows for a more strategic, organized, and effective approach. This enables us to navigate through the challenges of the holiday season while maximizing opportunities for increased visibility, engagement and sales.

How can you do it?

• Post holiday-themed content and ads on your social media
• Launch a hashtag/User-generated content
• Announce your website sales on social media
• Promote your discounts on social media.

App suggestions for marketing

• SMSBump - SMS and email marketing | 4.9 rating |6200+ reviews
• Automizely Email marketing, SMS |4.9 ratings|5800 + reviews
• Omnisend - Email marketing and SMS |4.8 ratings|5300 + reviews

3. Make your store user-friendly

Why should you do it?

Making the appearance of your store a top priority is a crucial step. A user-friendly store is key, as customers may hesitate to make a purchase if navigating your site becomes challenging. Invest time in ensuring your store is visually appealing and easy to use to enhance the overall customer experience. It is always good to have a search box.

How can you do it?

• Ensure products are accurately named and tagged. 
• Provide a clear and prominent search box.
• Use auto-complete to suggest popular search terms and products.
• Allow for misspellings and synonyms in search queries.
• Optimize search results for mobile devices.

4. Keep the checkout process smooth

Why should you do it?

Make sure the checkout is quick and easy, as it's a key to a customer's journey. A smooth checkout process ensures your customers enjoy their entire shopping experience.

How can you do it?

• Keep your checkout on one single page: reviewing orders, and addresses, and allowing payments
• Add a countdown timer to quicken the checkout process
• Include a guest checkout option to prevent customers from leaving the page due to information filling requests
• Add an upsell at the checkout page to increase the Average Order Value
• Offer a variety of payment choices on the checkout page to cater to a wider audience

App suggestion for upsell

• Upsell and cross sell - Selleasy | 5.0 ratings| 1200 + reviews
• ReConvert Post Purchase Upsell | 4.9 ratings| 4300 + reviews
• Frequently Bought together | 4.9 ratings| 4300 + reviews

5. Give a choice to gift wrap their order  

Why should you do it?

Gift wrapping is often correlated with the holiday season and many other special occasions like birthdays, anniversaries,etc. The art of gift wrapping not only conceals the contents but also seals the thoughtfulness and love behind the gesture.
When your store has a gift wrapping option, it attracts a lot of new buyers and increases loyalty to your brand. 

How can you do it?

Follow the below steps to gift wrapping in your Shopify store.

• From your Shopify admin, go to products
• Click on add products
• Create a gift-wrap product just like you would create any other product
• Give the required product description
• Mention a price for the gift wrapping service or offer it free
• Click save

Now, you can use an app of your choice, to show the gift wrapping option to the customer.

The video below shows you how to do it with an app.

App Suggestions for gift wrapping

• Upsell and cross sell - Selleasy| 5.0 ratings| 1200 + reviews
• Giftship - All-in-one gift app| 4.8 ratings| 300+ reviews
• Wrapin - Gift wrap and options| 4.8 ratings| 450+ reviews

Are you ready to set up your store for Christmas?

So, get ready for the holiday season by making the most of the great sales and profit opportunities available to Shopify store owners.

Implement the minor adjustments highlighted above to ensure your store is primed for the festive rush. Keep a keen focus on meeting customer needs, and with just a bit of additional effort, you can optimize sales and experience a prosperous holiday season. 

Wishing you all success to reap the rewards of this festive shopping period!

You may also be interested in:

• 8 Easy Ways to prepare your shopify store for Black Friday sale - has links for different apps which could be used for your Christmas preparation as well.
• 14 Ways to increase AOV of your shopify store - shows different ways on how the Average Order Value can be increased for your Shopify store.