E-commerce Q4 Prep 101

It's time to make a plan...

According to the Q2 2020 report from the U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. retail e-commerce reached $211.5 billion, up 31.8% from the first quarter, and 44.5% year-over-year. What does this mean for you as an e-commerce store? GET THAT MONEYY

I started my career in retail and now support several e-commerce clients. Here are some tips as a business owner to maximize your Q4 efforts.

October is a key planning month: Get a vision for your strategy. It doesn't have to be anything elaborate and state of the art, just enough to have solid execution across the board.

Inventory and shipping logistics: Shipping has already been delayed and faced its struggles this year. Are your inventory and shipping logistics prepped for anticipated demand in advance of the holidays? Do a touch base to see where you are at.

Website and mobile: Most people visit your store or shop from their phone. Is your website optimized for mobile? Test your site to be sure it's quick and can handle extra traffic.

Marketing plan: There is a lot here, but some easy automated ways to do it. October is the time to check on your customer lists. Find out who you most engaged customers are, what channels they are coming from and conversion rates. Once you have this data you can build your marketing plan.

I love a segmented strategy. Starting Nov 1st you can test your Black Friday sale with your best customers. Segment from there, work out the kinks and then open up to everyone week 4.

Check in with some of your regular marketing messaging too. Do you have a solid welcome series? Abandoned cart flows? Newsletters? Are all these messages synced up for a great customer experience? If you use Shopify Klaviyo will be your best tool here.

This leads to my favorite piece of the puzzle....

Customer service: Saving the best tip for last. Excellent customer service is what separates the good from the great. Make sure your team is ready to handle extra customer questions, product issues, returns and are all trained to rectify them at a high standard.

If you need help getting your plan together send me a message!

US Census report linked here. Data was also featured in Tech Crunch.