Christmas Business with Shopware! What do you need to consider?

It's the most beautiful time of the year. The time of mulled wine, everywhere smells of delicious hearty food. The days are getting shorter and it is getting colder. So all the stores are bright and warm, inviting you to linger and offering great deals on top of that. - This is also true for e-commerce. Well admittedly without the warmth and the glow. (Whereby your screen and your eyes also glow with the offers. In addition, it is certainly also woolly warm at home with you. 🤓)

At this time, there is a gold-rush mood, among consumers and sellers.

It has always been like this, and it will certainly always be like this: At the end of the year, most people's wallets are particularly loose. Whether it's for yourself or for your loved ones, it doesn't matter, people go shopping at the end of the year. It's no wonder that the time around Christmas, Cyber Monday, Black Week and the like is the busiest time of the year.

As nice as this time sounds and certainly you yourself are fully occupied with spending your money, you should not neglect your own e-commerce business. During this time, you need to bring out all the weapons to stand out. After all, you want to get some of the revenue. 

In this article, you'll learn how best to prepare. Then we'll tell you which days there are every year at the end of the year. You may have already missed one or the other day, but you can note it directly in your calendar. That way, you'll be perfectly prepared for next year!

What do you need to consider when preparing for the Christmas shopping season?

Since this is probably the busiest time of the year, there are a few things to keep in mind. After all, you don't want to lose any money. The following tips should therefore be taken into account in your preparation. 

A calender with public holidays in the USA

1. Start planning early enough 

Where there is a lot to do, there is also a lot to prepare. In the best case, you start with the preparations already in midsummer. For this year that is already too late, block this time best already now for next year in your calendar and deposit all important notes, in order not to forget anything. 

2. Plan your actions in advance

No matter which of the below mentioned days you choose, or if you choose all of them. Plan thoroughly, which products you offer when, at what conditions. Of course, the offers should always fit the occasion and also be clearly visible to the customer.

Think carefully how your discount promotions should look like, percentage, gifts with the order, one item for free, bundles or or....

All this needs to be well thought out and that takes time. 

3. Offers directly on the homepage or separate ads

Make it as easy as possible for your visitors to take advantage of your offers. The best way is to create an overview of the current offers directly on the homepage or a separate page called "Promotions" or "Offers", where all offers are displayed at a glance.

This makes it easier for your visitors and most likely they will stay a bit longer on your site. By the way, even if they don't buy anything, this would be good for your SEO score.

4. Install the Rule-Builder in your Shopware store

With so many actions, it's easy to lose track of everything. 🤯 Don't forget any of your elaborately planned actions, thanks to the Rule Builder! With it, you can schedule your actions immediately and then play them out fully automatically.

You wondering how big are the costs of Shopware? Than take a look at this article.

5. Extra visibility

While it makes sense to only use channels that have already been successful in the past, it doesn't hurt to try something new. Especially at Christmas time, potential customers hang around a lot on comparison channels to save money. After all, a lot of gifts also incur a lot of costs.

Are you visible on such comparison portals? If not, then it's time! Try to gain new notoriety, especially at such peak times. Because one thing is clear, the better known your name, the more serious you appear to the outside world.

6. Advertising

Social Ads, Google Ads, Social Media, SEO, Email Marketing etc. No matter which advertising measures you choose, believe us, they pay off! Think carefully about which marketing measures you use for which action. But also keep in mind that, depending on the marketing channel, it may not make sense to use it only once. For example, social media content is only useful if you use it permanently. SEO also shows results only after a certain time.

Here we have another short bonus hint for you: Advertising with discounts is dangerous. For example, you surely know lure ads with "Save up to 75%!". This way of advertising is only allowed if a large number of products actually show such a discount. Otherwise, you may receive a warning.

7. Withstand technical requirements

Is your store prepared for a lot of traffic? Have you optimized it for user experience? You don't know? - Then we have an interesting article for you here. In this article we have already covered how to deal with increased traffic in your store properly.

Ugreen has their Black Friday special directly on the homepage

Important days in the run-up to Christmas

You probably know all of these days, after all, they have been publicized for years. Halloween, Singles Day, Black Friday, Black Week, Cyber Monday, Santa Claus, Christmas. We list these days in the right order and tell you something about the background. 

Halloween

Admittedly, a day that is not suitable for every industry.

Halloween takes place annually on October 31 and originates from Ireland. A festival to dress up scary and move around the houses. Costumes, candy and spooky decorations are mandatory at this time. The target group is especially younger people or families with small children.

However, if you are selling products that could fit this celebration, it is definitely worth doing some marketing. 

Singles Day

In Christianity, St. Martin's Day is celebrated on 11/11. - Now you're thinking "& what does that have to do with Singles Day?!". That's right, nothing. It is pure coincidence that Singles Day exists on this day and that it has been spread as a day of action.

But why is Singles Day on 11.11.? Originally, this day comes from China. The number 1 should symbolize a single person, for this reason, there are for many years in China always on 11.11. a variety of singles parties. 

Black Week, Black Friday, Cyber Monday

These three promotions always take place consecutively and form the official starting signal for the Christmas business. Black Week, is the week in which Black Friday takes place. And Black Friday is always before Cyber Monday, which means Cyber Monday is always the Monday after Black Friday.

Traditionally, Black Friday takes place on the Friday after Thanksgiving, which is the fourth Friday in November. Now comes the most obvious and least explanatory event.

Santa Claus and Christmas 🎅

Okay, we won't explain much about this now, everyone probably knows the stories and if not, there are enough other sources for that.

The fact that Black Friday kicks things off does not mean that there is less shopping afterwards. It is much more the case that the willingness to buy increases rapidly from Black Friday onwards. Another good day for offers and discount campaigns is St. Nicholas Day (December 6). Christmas itself with Christmas Eve and the two holidays offers the conclusion of this peak phase. Here you can still lure with great last-minute offers, gift promotions on your online store or sell your goods with discounts.

Year-end / New Year…

...and the conclusion of this article. At the end of the year, New Year's Eve / New Year you can start directly with the New Year offers. Here are particularly suitable fitness and slimming products. Yes, the favorite New Year's resolution, every year.

Now the year starts all over again and you can test all these measures, on all the smaller occasions, so that you achieve even better results next year at the end of the year. We wish you success in trying out our tips. Feel free to contact us at any time if you need help. 🤓