How To Prepare Your Website For The Holiday Sales

The holidays are just around the corner — can you believe it’s almost Thanksgiving?! And with the holiday season here, that means holiday sales are also here. Is your website ready and in tip top shape? 

In this post, I’ll share 9 tips to help you prepare your website for the holiday sales so you can make the most out of it. 

1. Add A Sale Banner

Whether you sell products or services, you have to let your visitors know that you’re having a sale. The best way to do that: add a sale banner. 

With Squarespace, it’s super easy to do. Head to Marketing > Announcement Bar and select Enable Announcement Bar from the drop down menu. Enter your text, link it to your sales page, and hit Save. 

2. Activate Promotional Pop-Up

Another way to make it easy for your visitors to see your Black Friday Sale is to activate the Promotional Pop-Up. Remember, you don’t have to add a newsletter sign up form. You can link it to your shop, sales page, or services page if you want to offer a special deal on your service packages.

I’ve got a video tutorial that shows you how to activate the promotional pop-up in Squarespace and some suggestions for how to use it. You can watch it below: 

3. Check That Everything Works On Desktop And Mobile

Given that more than 50% of all website traffic comes from mobile devices and that mobile shopping is on the rise, you must check your website on mobile devices. This applies especially to your sales pages and your checkout process to ensure your mobile buyers have a pleasant buying experience. 

Here are few things you should check: 

• Check that sales pages, shop pages, and product pages display properly on mobile phones. Watch out for any cut off images and overflowing text that causes a horizontal scroll bar. 

• Try to complete the checkout process yourself using the incognito or private mode in your browser

• Make sure buttons are large enough to be comfortably pressed on smaller screens

• Same goes for form fields. Make sure those fields are big enough for smaller screens

• Test your discount codes or coupon codes and make sure they apply the discount properly

4. Add Testimonials And Other Forms Of Social Proof

If you want to see an increase in sales, make sure your website is credible. Add testimonials, reviews, and other forms of social proof. People trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations so you’ll definitely want to capitalize on that.  Add them to your homepage, sales page, product pages, and shop pages. 

5. Put Your Top Selling Offers Front And Center

Whether you sell digital or physical products, consider showcasing them on your homepage. This will make them easier to see when someone lands on your website. It will also facilitate finding your Black Friday deals so they can go straight to the page where they can learn more about your offer and make the purchase. 

6. Simplify Your Navigation 

While your website is in “sales” mode, revisit your navigation. Consider placing direct links to the offers you’re selling — whether that’s a course, a masterclass, a template or a physical product of some kind. You can even add a button to your navigation that draws attention to the sales page or to your shop page. 

7. Live Chat

Consider adding a live chat option to your website during the holiday sales season. This will make it easier for potential buyers to get in touch with you if they have any last-minute presale questions. 

A couple of options include: 

• Adding Facebook Live Messenger to your website

• Using a chat tool like Chatra 

Both options are easy to integrate with Squarespace and can help you convert buyers who are close to making the buying decision. 

8. Check Your Website Speed

Stats don’t lie: visitors don’t like slow loading websites. The best way to reduce your website speed is to optimize your website images. This means:

• resizing the image dimensions properly for Squarespace (or your particular website platform)

• saving them in a proper format (JPG for most images unless you’re using an image with transparent backgrounds. In that case, you’ll want PNG).

• and running them through a tool like TinyJPG to compress their size. 

9. Sale Pricing

Lastly, it’s a good idea to show the sale price next to the original price. This makes it easier for visitors to know how much they’re saving at a glance. It’s a great way to motivate them to complete the purchase. 

If you don’t want to display the sale price and the original price, consider applying a discount automatically at checkout. That way your customers can see instant savings without having to remember to enter a special code themselves. 

Final Thoughts

There’s only a few days left before Black Friday and the holiday sales season begins. Use the tips in this article to help you get your website in tip top shape for the holiday season.

And if you’re looking to update your website design before the holiday madness, I’ve got you covered. With a Ley Design Studio template, you can launch your website quickly and without any tech overwhelm. 

What’s even better, all the templates come with a website copy prompt workbook to help you write engaging and relatable website copy that makes your ideal client excited to work with you! Browse the collection of templates to find the one that fits your brand and business best and you’ll go live in no time.