Getting your website ready for a busy sales period

Whether you’re an ice-cream seller or a Christmas decorations maker, every business has its busy times throughout the year. More often than not, these peak sales periods can be predicted. This presents a great opportunity for businesses to prepare and get ahead of the competition.

Here’s a quick guide to getting your website ready for those peak sales periods, such as Black Friday, Christmas or summer holidays.

Step 1: Stabilise business processes

The first step is to get your business processes in order. From warehouses to shipping providers to accountants and CRM – there can be a lot of people and different services using the information in your website or online store, so the first thing to do is work out who will be using your website and for what purposes.

If you know what you sell and how you sell it, it’s time to move onto the next step.

Step 2: Stabilise website application

Once the business processes are finalised, your website can be updated to reflect your business. This might involve integrations with accounts software or shipping providers or even creating new features to help the different teams that work with the website.

Once the website is working as intended and your staff are trained up on it, it’s time to move onto the sales features.

Step 3: Create and test sales features

Think discount notices, sales pricing, special landing pages and eCommerce tracking. You might even need to change your warehouse processes temporarily – such as adding gift wrapping options.

Whatever you think you might like to do for a sales event, get it made and get it tested – ideally involving members of your team. Give your business at least eight weeks to devise, build and test new features.

Step 4: Setup and test scalable hosting

Prepare for success! If you’re aiming for a lot of website visitors during your sales drive, it’s now time to think about optimization and hosting. Some web hosting companies are easier than others for scaling up and down during a busy period. It’s best to test in advance.

You can also book a consultation from Silicon Dales to get advice on the best scalable hosting fit for your business.

Step 5: Book extras in advance

Do you need people in the warehouse round the clock on the final shipping date before Christmas? Will you need a web developer on-call 24 hours a day during the final two weeks of November? Think about how staffing, equipment and supplies might work during your busy sales period and book in advance for the best rates.

We can help

Want more assistance preparing for your busy sales period? Silicon Dales can work with your business to ensure your website and email are robust and scalable in time. Book now or get in touch for more help.

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