In case you haven’t heard – November is here! And that means the holidays and the biggest shopping season of the year are right around the corner. Are you ready for it? Because here at Shoppimon we’re seeing that eCommerce holiday prep has already begun for the biggest online stores.
Over the past month we’ve been keeping close tabs on eCommerce site speed and performance, as well as general health. And we’ve been noticing some key trends.
Faster Stores Suffering Fewer Issues
Stores across the OSHU Index have seen an average increase in OSHU Score of nearly 1 full point in October. These results come as 2/3 of all brands on the OSHU Index improved their user experience and general shopability during the last 30 days. They’ve cut average load times by ~9%, and have staved off more severe issues that cause immediate lost sales. But that’s not all. When serious online store problems do occur top eCommerce players are fixing them a whopping 38% faster in October than they did in September! And the average business blocking site issue is now being corrected within just 96 minutes. That’s less than half the time it takes the average eCommerce site to address severe issues.
Is it too late to start eCommerce Holiday Prep?
The answer to that question is a definitive – no! But you need to begin immediately. Last week we teamed up with Vaimo to share a few tips to help you get ready for the holidays. So in case you didn’t catch that, here are our suggestions to get your site ready for the holiday season:
- Make sure your holiday promotions and campaigns are already ready to go
- Test the full sales funnel – from add to landing page, through to checkout
- Test to make sure your site can handle expected increases in traffic
- Know it would take to scale site infrastructure up, if necessary, at the last minute
- Monitor your store, so you know when problems inevitably pop up over the holidays
Which stores are already nailing holiday readiness?
The Top 10 Stores in the OSHU Index (Online Store Health & Usability), are really getting things right. They are at the top of their game and are well into their eCommerce holiday prep. They are the fastest in the industry and give their customers the smoothest online shopping experience around. They include: Birchbox, Summit Racing, Dollar Shave Club, and more.
Do you have your own holiday tips? Sound off in the comments to let everyone know!
