Should You Redesign Your Site for The Holidays?

The holiday season is just around the corner. That means retailers need to get ready for their busiest time of the year. Cyber Monday and Black Friday see more ecommerce sales than any other days. Last year, online shoppers spent a record-setting $3.45 billion on Cyber Monday. This year is set to be even bigger. To help your shoppers get into the spirit of the season, consider implementing a festive site design. Here’s how you can decide if your online store should redesign for the holidays.

You Have a Grand Vision

Be apprised a full site makeover will cost you time. Still, it can be a worthwhile investment. Here are a few ideas to get you thinking about a strategy:

• You Have a Fun Design Concept: People with an eye for design will likely be more successful in implementing a fun holiday redesign. Maybe you can make a special brand logo that incorporates popular holiday images, which can be used every year. Or you could take holiday-themed product photos to get people into the spirit of spending.

• Holiday Signup Lists: Email marketing remains one of the most effective tactics when it comes to boosting ROI. The holidays are a great time to get people to sign up for your email list. One strategy is to offer special discounts or free gift items to people who sign up for your email list. You can create a special holiday pop-up screen that asks people for their email in return for your offered good or service.

Make Sure Your Ecommerce Provider Offers Compatible Templates

Most ecommerce professionals don’t have the expertise to create a custom site for the holidays. This is why it’s important to use free website templates offered by your ecommerce platform. Certain website templates lend themselves well to a holiday redesign.

Just make sure of a couple things before you get yourself in too deep:

• No Effect on Pages or Menus: There are few things more annoying than an ecommerce site with unintuitive navigation controls. Make sure your pages and menus all still work and go to the correct locations when you redesign your site. Otherwise, you will lose a lot of sales—defeating the purpose of the redesign.

• Make Sure Loading Time Isn’t Bogged Down: There may actually be one thing more annoying than an unintuitive ecommerce site—a slow one. Loading speeds are crucial to the success of your online store. People will abandon slow webpages, which means you will lose sales. Make sure you test the loading speed of your site before the holiday rush. Getting bogged down on the big selling days can be catastrophic to your bottom line. Plus, Google cares about loading speed for organic search. Your products won’t find the eyes of new customers if your redesigned site is too slow.

A colorful site redesign can be a great way for your ecommerce store to celebrate the holidays. It’s a way to show your cheer, in much the same fashion as physical retailers create elaborate holiday displays. A well-executed site redesign will inspire consumers to spend more on your site, which is sure to get you in the spirit of the season.

With all of that said, the answer to the question; "Should you redesign your site for the holidays?” boils down to the resources you have available. Don’t despair if you’re lacking what you need for a full makeover.

A few festive flourishes here and there can also produce the desired effect.