Tips and Strategies to Optimize Your WordPress WooCommerce Store for the Holidays and Increase Your Sales

by Vipe Team in WordPress Development; Published on 08.11.2021

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It’s November already?! This can mean only one thing – the holiday craze has officially begun! Our WordPress Agency for Development is aware that the last two months of the year are the best time for online store owners.

Different holidays pretty much start to roll out one after the other. We have Black Friday and Cyber Monday in November, and the whole month of December can be described in just one word – Christmas.

The holiday season presents a myriad of opportunities for online businesses to increase their revenue for the year. For example, did you know that in 2020, Black Friday sales increased to $188 billion? That is compared to the $142B in 2019.

As you can see, the numbers are big, and they will likely continue to grow. This means that as an online store owner, you need to put some extra effort into your holiday sales strategy.

Our WordPress development agency can assure you that you have made the best possible decision if you’re already running a WooCommerce shop. The platform makes it easy to set up any kind of promotion in advance. This way, you’ll make sure your store is prepared for the increased amount of holiday traffic you’re about to receive.

With that being said, in today’s article, we’ll be sharing some highly effective tips and strategies that will help you achieve your best holiday season yet in terms of site optimization and revenue. Let’s get to it and turn your WooCommerce store into a top holiday (online) destination!

But First… Get To Know the Holidays

Before we continue with the practical tips, though, our WordPress development company wants to turn your attention to the specific sale days throughout November that basically make the month the beginning of the holiday season.

Obviously, we have Black Friday that falls on the Friday after Thanksgiving. This is the time where retailers offer some of their best deals for the entire year, making it particularly enticing for customers to spend their hard-earned cash.

And yes, Black Friday definitely marks the start of the Christmas shopping season. Our WordPress Agency for Development has noticed that with each passing year, retailers have begun to offer Black Friday deals much earlier. Some online stores even offer Black Friday promotions throughout the whole month of November.

Black Friday is massively popular. What began within the borders of the US is now an international shopping holiday that is enjoyed by people all over the world. Due to its broad appeal, Black Friday has spun off into several other important dates. Here are some of them:

Pre-Black Friday: This is the week before Black Friday when most online stores start teasing up their customers for the grand deals that are to come by offering smaller discounts.
Small Business Saturday: This is the day after Black Friday. Our WordPress development agency recommends you take part in it, especially if you’re a small business owner. If this is the case, you can consider offering special deals throughout Saturday and sometimes Sunday.
Cyber Monday: After Black Friday, Cyber Monday is one of the biggest eCommerce holidays. Essentially, this is the day when businesses offer the best deals for anything tech-related.
Free Shipping Day: Going into Christmas month, we have December 14th, when many online shops offer free shipping just in time for the most wonderful time of the year.

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Our WordPress development company is sure you know what comes after that – reindeers, elves, and a lot of presents left by a generous man with a beard and red suit. In terms of your WooCommerce store, Black Friday, the lead-up to it, and the holidays that come next are all amazing opportunities to increase your revenue.

How to Optimize Your WordPress WooCommerce Store for the Holidays and Increase Your Sales?

So, now we’re going to share with you our best tips and strategies that will help you increase your WooCommerce holiday sales and optimize your online shop for that busy time of year.

Remember that the earlier you start preparing your online store for the holiday season, the better outcomes you’ll experience. Without further ado, here’s everything our WordPress Agency for Development suggests you do to get a big piece of the holiday (sales) pie.

1. Clean Up Your Store’s Database

The first practical advice we can give you is to perform a cleanup of your store’s database. This is super important because oftentimes your database can store unnecessary data.

This unnecessary data can be in the form of many things, most of which you’ll probably never use. We’re talking about things, such as spam/trashed comments, post revisions and logs.

Our WordPress development agency advises you to use a plugin like WP Optimize that will help you to execute a quick database cleanup. Remember that regular cleaning up of your database can also speed up your site significantly and make it run more efficiently.

2. Do Some User Testing

Another thing you can do to increase your WooCommerce holiday sales is to dive into some user testing. User testing refers to the practice of navigating your store the same way your customer does.

Here are a few tests that our WordPress development company recommends you do before the holiday craze hits in its full glory:

Follow the purchase funnel to see the whole process from viewing a product to checkout;
Test the account creation funnel;
Test the password recovery funnel;
Test your coupon codes or other discounts you’ve created;
Test the functionality of any new pages, such as temporary offer pages;
Check the functionality of new products, such as bundles;
Test pretty much every aspect of your WooCommerce store that you feel needs testing. Some things to consider are abandoned cart emails, any special holiday emails, social sharing on products, etc.

Testing is an overall important thing when it comes to quality WordPress website development. It becomes even more crucial during the holiday season, where you’re likely to add some new products and offers to your online shop.

Remember that the holiday season can bring a lot of new customers to your WooCommerce store. You want to make a nice first impression, right? Then make sure to do everything it takes to guarantee a smooth process for your clients. This will make them come back to your site even after the holidays.

3. Make Sure Everything Is up to Date

We constantly talk about the importance of having your website up to date. This means regularly reviewing all of your extensions and integrations after you’ve successfully completed your WordPress website development.

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You need to take care of any bugs and issues that can potentially sabotage your site’s performance during this busy time of the year. So, make sure you tackle any emergency situation by performing regular updates on your core, theme, and plugins.

However, it is best to do any major updates before the beginning of the holiday season. Alternatively, if it’s not something critical, it’s best to leave it for after the holidays, which leaves us to our next point.

4. Implement a Code Freeze

No, our WordPress Agency for Development doesn’t want you to put your codes into the freezer. A “code freeze” actually means a specific timeframe where no major changes are done to a production environment.

So, what this means is that during this time you should refrain from adding new plugins or extensions as well as adjusting CSS. It is also not advisable to modify your shipping rules (unless it’s an absolute emergency) during “code freeze”.

The “code freeze” practice should be done before the holidays start. We advise you to begin your code freezes in early November and go until early January. For that to work out, you should obviously plan ahead of time, but it can be worth it.

5. Set Up a Smart Discount

Our WordPress development agency can also recommend setting up a smart discount for your WooCommerce store during the holiday season.

What makes smart discounts great is the fact that they automatically apply to a customer’s cart. For instance, a smart discount can take 30% off orders of three or more women’s dresses.

This means that the discount will only apply when three or more dresses are added to the cart. It’s very convenient because it doesn’t require the customer to add any discount code.

You can really benefit from using smart discounts during the holiday season because you only have to set them up once. From there, they will apply without you or the customer having to take any special actions.

As you can see, smart discounts are great. Our WordPress development company suggests you pair them with a site-wide banner or on-page notice to let your customers know about the offer.

6. Cover Shipping Costs

Do you like paying for shipping? No? Well, you’re definitely not alone. Did you know that 56% of consumers cite shipping costs as the reason they abandon their carts?

To avoid that, our WordPress Agency for Development advises you to make your shipping free as long as you can afford it. You can either make your shipping free on every order or just on orders over a certain amount.

If you’re wondering how you can offer free shipping without losing much money, here’s a piece of advice:

As long as you know what your average order value is, you can make the free shipping threshold about one product above that.

Here’s an example: say your average order value is $40, and you mostly sell $10 goods. In this case, you can offer free shipping on orders that are $50 and up.

7. Simplify Your Store’s Checkout Experience

Here’s another statistic that our WordPress development agency can give you – on average, 69.57% of all users abandon their online shopping carts. This is a huge percentage, and it is generally true for all industries.

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As bad as it sounds, though, there is a way to reduce the chances of that happening to your WooCommerce store, especially during the holiday season. How? By simplifying your shop’s checkout process.

While some users might have never intended to make a purchase, others may simply give up on your products if they become frustrated with the checkout experience. For example, they might need to share too much information or fill out too many fields. Not to mention their disappointment if they find out there are additional fees they didn’t know about.

The solution to this problem that works best according to our WordPress development company is making the checkout process as simple as possible. Be upfront about any fees you require and, if possible, try to reduce the checkout process to a single page.

8. Grow Your Email List Before the Holidays

Email lists are an essential part of any serious online business. To grow your own email list just in time for the holiday season, we advise you to use powerful calls-to-action that urge your visitors to sign up for your list. Put your CTAs in strategic places around your site.

To entice your visitors to sign up, it is best to offer them something in exchange. That could be a free eBook, or a one-time discount coupon when users sign up. Our WordPress Agency for Development reminds you that the bigger your email list is, the stronger the chances are of converting subscribers to customers with each targeted message that you send.

It is a good idea to use email campaigns to remind subscribers about upcoming holiday offers on your WooCommerce store. So, roll your sleeves up and try to get as many new subscribers as possible before the holidays arrive.

Have a Successful Holiday Season With Your WordPress WooCommerce Store!

Black Friday is approaching, and it will be best to prepare your WooCommerce store for the increased traffic it will likely get. By using the tips and strategies we shared with you in today’s article, you’ll be absolutely ready to welcome the holiday season with confidence.

Our WordPress development agency advises you to put some extra effort during the last months of the year as this is the peak revenue time for the eCommerce industry. Prepare yourself early on and follow all the latest trends recommended by experts in the field.

By optimizing your WooCommerce site’s performance and offering some creative deals to your visitors, you’ll be sure to see an increase in your sales. Remember that success comes to those who are willing to put in the hard work, so stay motivated and determined.

As always, keep reading Vipe Studio’s blog to stay up to date with everything WordPress-related. Also, don’t hesitate to contact our professionals if you’re looking for a world-class WordPress website development service. We’ve created many successful business websites and online stores, and yours can be the next one. So, don’t be shy and get in touch, we’d love to know more about your project!