Put simply, this is our timely plea to make sure your site is in the best shape it can be in prior to the Christmas spending rush.

The festive season might seem far away, especially if you’re still clinging on to those hazy summer memories, but in customer terms the Christmas rush is mere weeks away. No need to panic though, Santa’s come early with three, easily actioned tips you can do right now to make this your best Christmas trading yet…

Be a Site Navigation Santa Claus

Picture the scene; you’ve got about 100 presents to buy and wrap, the online food shop to order, parties, nativities, deadlines, and it goes on and on and on…

We’re all stretched in the lead up to Christmas and every second feels more precious than usual, so imagine if you had the gift producing clout of Santa? Good, right?

You can provide that for your site users, by giving them a user journey that’s intuitive and easy to complete. After all, who wants to search high and low on a site to find a product category or a contact form?

Use the data available to you to identify key blind spots on your site. Where do users drop off? Where are they spending longer than they need to be? At what point are baskets being abandoned?

Plug those gaps first, using clearer signposting and improving page layouts, then build on those incremental changes using data as your guide.

Put Mobile First for Festive Triumph

We’re all aware mobile traffic has been, and continues to be, on the up, but can you confidently say your site is truly mobile first?

Having a site which works effortlessly on a mobile and showcases your offering beautifully on any size screen is crucial to festive success. Clunky menus, oversized galleries and those annoying chat, call, subscribe pop ups that aren’t quite built for mobile are a sure-fire way to get your users clicking right back to the Google results.

That’s not to say those conversion mechanisms can’t be great, our clients find they make a huge impact to conversions, just make sure they’re great on all kinds of devices.

A word of warning too, don’t abandon that desktop experience either! Over 70%* of internet users are ‘multi screeners’ and we often find that while the research phase is done on smaller devices, users often come back to the desktop when they’re ready to convert.

Think about your own habits; how often do you research on your phone during your commute, or compare products on a tablet in front of the telly? Your target customers are doing exactly the same.

Test, Test, Test

We know you’re not a festive angel and probably won’t get it right first time, so make testing your festive friend.

Split test any layout and structural changes you make, to quickly make decisions on what works best for your specific site and audience.

Not sure on the placement of an add to basket or get in touch button? Split test a new placement for a week against the control and then go with the winner.

Internally debating changing a hero image? A/B test both old and new to see which leads to the highest click through rate and ultimately the most sales.

We’re ‘people-people’ at Phoenix, so we’re also big fans of user testing. You can use all the data at hand and have the best UX guys going, but sometimes nothing beats sitting down with your audience, asking them to complete a task on your site, then getting them to feedback verbally.

So, there you have it, our early Christmas gift to you, three little presents to make your Christmas an absolute cracker! As always, our clever digital elves are on hand to help you in the run up to Christmas, so if you need anything get in touch (we promise we’ll stop with the puns now!).