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Nine top tips for Christmas e-commerce sites

By Lisa Halabi, Usability Consultant, Foviance

So this is Christmas: Slade screaming glam rock greetings at you as you enter every shop, queues so long you can read the books you're buying before reaching the till, and dozens of people stood stock still, exhausted, blocking the aisles and exits. It's enough to make your mince pies weep.

Thank heavens for the web, where the Interactive Media Retail Group (IMRG) estimates £5 billion will be spent this Christmas. IMRG says that 24 million British shoppers will spend an average of £208 each, resulting in 130 million internet shopping deliveries. Reindeers are so passé - today, it's all done by mouse.

So, how can you ensure you get your slice of this market? Here are some tips to help you ensure your website performs over the holiday season:

1. Decorate in moderation: Shoppers love to see some seasonal cheer, but don't let cartoon Santas and snow effects slow your site or make it harder to find and buy products. Remember shoppers want a quick, efficient buying process above all else. Anyone with a Flash intro on their site won't be getting any figgy pudding.
2. Smart navigation: At this time of year, many people will be browsing for gift ideas, so make it easy for them. Consider having a gift finder or grouping products by who they will appeal to. If your navigation doesn't work for users, your whole site is broken.
3. Make your site sell: People can't touch what they're buying, so you need to convince buyers using text, photos, reviews, video and sound. Think about how you can replace the experience of picking up products from a shelf with an online experience that enables people to buy with confidence.
4. How much is it?: Don't make people hunt for the price like a sixpence in a Christmas pudding. It's a top concern, and people want to see it straight away alongside the product description. Don't forget to make delivery charges clear too: customers are more likely to go somewhere else than waste time trying to tease basic information from your site.
5. Delivery is everything: Christmas Day is a fixed deadline and shoppers must trust you to meet it. Explain when you can deliver, and provide personal reassurance when shoppers ask for it. Make it easy for people to call you and respond promptly to emails: it will reassure visitors you take their custom seriously.
6. Cut the clicks: How easy can you make it to buy? Every click is a decision point, and the longer your transaction funnel, the more opportunities there are for customers to drop out. Keep it lean and keep 'em keen.
7. Measure and manage: Use web analytics to identify any bottlenecks in your transaction process, or any underperforming pages, and make adjustments. It's easier to make lots of small changes that add up than it is to execute a single stroke-of-genius transformation.
8. Make search work: The 'hunter gatherers' of the web know exactly what they're looking for and will often use the search facility to help them find it more quickly. If people can't find what they're looking for after a couple of attempts, they'll give up. Your search engine is a key sales tool.
9. Write for the web: People don't read online. They scan text and only stop to properly read things that are of interest to them. At Christmas, people can be even more impatient, so make sure your copy is punchy. Wall to wall text will drive them away.

It's not too late to make small improvements that will help those last minute shoppers buy at your site.

These same ideas will be useful throughout 2006 too: Last year, supermarkets cleared their shelves of tinsel and chocolate baubles on Boxing Day and started stocking up on Easter eggs. The record shops will be planning their January sales now. It'll soon be Valentine's Day too...