When you sell online with Lightspeed eCom, you can utilize your online store power to increase sales and create an effortless fulfillment process during the rush Holiday period.
Follow the checklist in this guide to make sure your store is 100% ready for the sale season.
Adjust your online catalog to sell more
Set up discounts. You can put individual items or categories on sale from the Catalog → Promotions page. During a promo setup, you can choose to run sales in your retail store, only online, or on both sales channels. In your eCom admin, you can also offer free shipping for specific products. For this, go to Online, click the Go to eCom button, and then navigate to the Catalog → Promotions page.
How to set up promotions on products and categories →
Offer gift cards. Gift cards help uncertain shoppers to solve the What-To-Buy-For-Colleagues-And-Friends dilemma. Gift cards are especially helpful for last-minute shoppers since they will immediately get the card in their email and don't have to wait for a product to be delivered. You can enable gift cards from the Catalog → Gift cards page in POS. Your customers will have the option to redeem gift cards both in-store and online.
How to add gift cards to your store →
Upsell with extra services and related products. Prompt people to buy more by showing them related products and offering extra services at checkout. For example, since people need gift wrapping for presents, you can offer a gift wrapping option at checkout and add surcharge fees for that service. You can also show related products from the Online tab → Go to eCom → Catalog → Products → Related Products.
How to create custom checkout fields →
Sell bundles. Bundle products, known as composite products in POS, can boost average order value and give shoppers ready-made gift options when they’re short on time. You can make your bundles available for selling online.
Design your site for Holiday season
You can customize your site so that its design is relevant for a hot sales season. To speed up the editing process, use the AI tools to help you get everything on time.
Add new site sections built with AI. Your eCom website editor can create sections with AI based on your descriptions. That adds a Holiday touch to your online store in no time. The AI sections can be built from your sections library. In your eCom site editor, you click Add Section, then scroll down to Advanced Solutions and click Generate Section.
How to create site sections with AI →
Highlight special offers on your site. Your eCom site builder offers several ways to inform your customers about discounts and special offers on your site. You can add bright promo bars at the top of your site, sliders that appear right on a page, or sections that specifically highlight promotions.
How to add promo bars to your site →
How to add sliders to your site →
How to add promo sections to your site →
Let customers reach out to you right from your site. Speed up your communication with customers by using a contact widget or a contact form on your site. Both are available for adding in your eCom website editor.
How to add a contact widget to your site →
To add a contact form, add a new site section and select Contact Form as a new section.
Showcase your products with videos. Various statistics indicate that around half of customers are inclined to make online purchases after viewing a product video. Elevate your chances of making a sale by adding videos to the product gallery. It can be a video showing the manufacturing process or providing instructional content on product usage.
How to add videos to the product gallery in your online store →
Highlight product categories and brands at the top site menu. To help customers navigate your store more easily, you can display multilevel categories in the top menu of your eCom website. For example, if you sell running shoes and have categories organized by brand, you can add root categories to your menu bar to give customers a quick overview of your offerings.
How to adjust the top menu of your site →
Improve your ranking in search results (SEO). People search for what they want to buy, and SEO is the process of improving your site's ranking in the search results. Your online store is optimized for search engines by default, but you can improve search results for your site. Create SEO descriptions in seconds using the built-in AI tool. For this, go to the Online tab and click the Go to eCom button. From your eCom admin, go to Catalog → Products and switch to the SEO tab. Near the Customize page title and meta description, click the star icon to create a description using the AI tool.
How to improve search results for your online store →
Streamline shipping and fulfillment for a hot sales season
Offer pickup. To cut delivery costs, you can offer in-store pickup. What is more, you can offer in-store payment methods for the pickup option. It is also beneficial for customers since they can get their orders faster with no delivery wait time.
How to set up in-store pickup →
Have a clear return policy. Keep your return policy clear, simple, and visible everywhere. Include all the important questions upfront: How long do customers have? Will refunds be in full or as store credit? Who covers return shipping? It’ll save you time and customer support effort if people do decide to initiate a return. Plus, during the holidays, consider extending your return window to accommodate early shoppers. It gives customers peace of mind and builds trust. You can add your return policy to the Legal pages of your eCom site.
How to add Legal pages on site →
Show delivery date right away. The number of shipments increases dramatically during the Holiday season, so there might be delays. Make it more predictable for customers when to expect their purchase by adding an approximate delivery date to a product page. For this, turn on displaying an estimated delivery date on a product editing page in your eCom admin. Go to the Online tab and click the Go to eCom button. From your eCom admin, go to Catalog → Products and switch to the Shipping & Pickup tab. Scroll down and turn on the Show estimated delivery date on the product page toggle.
Inform customers about blackout dates. The Holiday season can be pretty overwhelming especially for local business and local deliveries. You may want to take a day off to manage order fulfillment or simply to take a break. To prevent customers from selecting your day-offs for delivery or pickup, add blackout dates to your store. Customers won’t be able to choose blackout dates at checkout as a date to get their order.
You set up black out days during a shipping method setup →
Speed up fulfillment with shipping labels. Each package needs a shipping label before it can be shipped. To save your time going to the post office, you can purchase shipping labels from your eCom admin. Currently, buying shipping labels is available for stores based in the US, Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands.
How to buy shipping labels in eCom →
Check your payment methods
Offer a variety of payment choices. Improve the customer experience and increase your sales potential by introducing a range of payment options in your store. For instance, alongside standard card payments, consider offering the Buy Now Pay Later option that is provided by PayPal. Additionally, if you use Lightspeed Payments you can enable subscriptions and start selling products on a recurring basis.