One of our more recent videos included an interesting bit about the expected increase in online Holiday sales (and if you missed it, we included it at the bottom). Is your website ready to take advantage of a significant surge in online shopping? Take a minute (okay, three minutes) to learn about what businesses should expect this year, and how businesses (like yours) can take advantage of this significant increase in online Holiday shopping.

With a certain pandemic making it very hard to shop in stores, a lot of Holiday shopping (like, a lot) will occur online. According to a new report from Adobe, Holiday sales could reach $189 billion this year. And that’s a 33% increase over last year.

However, the potential exists to surpass $189 billion. If stores stay closed or a second stimulus check arrives, sales may creep closer to $2 billion dollars.

A good portion of sales will occur over smartphones. People are expected to spend at least $28.1 billion through Smartphones this year, and that’s a 55% increase over last year. Is your website responsive? Meaning, is it viewable AND usable on a smartphone? If the website elements are too small to use, people will find another website that’s correctly configured for smartphones.

All those glorious doorbuster sales that occur in stores? Well, due to obvious restrictions, most of those doorbusters will be moving online. This means more daily and weekly online sales occurring during the Holiday buildup.

First, it was Cyber Monday (kicking off November 30^th). Then, it was Cyber Week. But now? Well, due to all those online sales and specials, Cyber Week will unofficially extend to “Cyber Month.” In fact, businesses have already activated their Holiday sales. (I mean, stores are already playing Christmas music, so… yay?)

According to a recent Google survey performed by BlackFriday.com, more shoppers are prepared to take advantage of Cyber Monday deals than Black Friday specials. And this makes complete sense considering Cyber Monday sales are…

• Easily accessible online.
• Available at the shopper’s convenience.
• Completely devoid of humans trampling other humans.

Are you familiar with the acronym BOPIS? It means “buy online, pick up in store.” This represents orders that are purchased online, and then picked up at a business’s physical location (a good example of this is curb-side pickup). This particular purchasing method will also see a significant increase — at least 40% more in sales.

Want to know which spectacular device will help drive more sales through the BOPIS method? That’s right – a smartphone. Smartphones are expected to drive at least 60% of online traffic for this hybrid purchasing method.

As you can see, a lot (and I mean, A LOT) of people are shopping online this year. Is your website ready? Is it informative? Is it easy to use? Does it work well on a smartphone?

Your website is the online representation of your business. Because of this, you want it to look and behave as competently as the rest of your business. With the expected increase in online shoppers, your website has a chance to make a great first impression to brand-new visitors. So, is it ready for the online shopping deluge?

Besides the actual website, you’ll want to utilize digital marketing strategies (like SEO and Pay-per-click ads) that will make your website visible to online searchers. If people are searching online for the very products and services you offer, you want your website to come up as a valid, visible option.

Need help preparing your website for more online sales? Want help directing that online Holiday traffic to your website?

Contact us today (or, probably now because online Holiday shopping is already underway).  We’ll help get you noticed, and prepare you for the potential sales deluge.