9 Ways to Prepare Your eCommerce Store for Summer Slowdown
Take advantage of the summer slowdown to optimize your eCommerce store
It's almost Memorial Day weekend- the unofficial official summer starter. As your weekend schedule fills up, your work schedule seems to slow down, and so does online shopping. For eCommerce businesses, we can see a slow down in traffic, but this is mostly due to the true seasonality of shopping. The average store sees a 30% slow down during the summer months, making for a tough end of Q2 and beginning of Q3.
Rather than getting bummed out over a slow summer, we think it should be seen as a time to work on small optimization tweaks to increase sales now, but also prepare for the busy season later in the year. As your store seems to slow down, take the time to work on your strategy, optimize your site with an audit, or make tiny tweaks to increase your conversions.
Multiple Payment Options
Last week we sat down to hear from our friends at BigCommerce and Paypal where they shared an interesting study; “Among PayPal mobile buyers, 63% say they are likely to use PayPal because they don’t want to share personal or financial information.” Whether it’s for security, ease of use, potential customers are looking to alternative payment options. From Venmo to PayPayl to ApplePay, offering a plethora of options can help increase conversions. 
Turn on Abandoned Cart Saver
If you’re not using abandoned cart saver, you’re missing out big time. According to SaleCycle, 75.6% of people put items in their online shopping cart only to leave it without completing their purchase. That means you could be missing out on thousands of dollars of missed income, and sometimes all you need to do is remind a customer of what’s in their cart. With a system like BigCommerce, you can turn on your abandoned cart emails to automatically remind customers of what they’ve left in their cart.
Add a Store Locator 
If your product is sold within other stores, then use your site as a tool to help convert in stores. Including a store locator not only allows your potential customers to find you through another option, but also builds credibility that you’ve got a distribution network.
Update Product Photos
If it’s been awhile or you notice you’re getting a lot of product questions, maybe rethink your product photos. Whether it’s a lifestyle, flatlay, or just a clean product-only photo, it’s important to show off your products well. Our friends at Compendium (new site launching soon!) have an incredible array of product photos that show off their products in a way that allows you to imagine it as if it was in your own home.
Allow Customer Product Reviews
We also discussed the importance of product reviews for your website not too long ago, and it remains true that people love to hear from others about your product. We know that shoppers find reviews trustworthy, sharing the statistic that “84 percent trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation,” in our last blog about reviews. Make it easy to review by using a system that send automatic emails to remind customers to review once they’ve bought your product. Our friends at nutpods (new site coming soon!) have loads of incredible reviews for their products, so they use social proof to increase chances of customers making a purchase.
Offer a Live-Chat to Answer Questions
Especially when working in a niche market, client questions can often arise and rather than them being unsure and leaving your site, offering a chat that makes you available to answering questions. Whether it’s a question about the material, fit, or size, being able to offer answers can increase conversions and alleviate future customer service issues
Write a Blog about Your Business Happenings
Keep people up to date about what’s going on in your world! Whether it’s some press you recently got or a new addition to your collection or menu, show it off and write a quick blog about it. From there, share it on your Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Not only is this great for SEO but it shows people you’ve got exciting new things happening. For example, our friends at Taylor Shellfish shared some exciting news on their blog about their future at the SeaTac Airport.
Conduct an SEO Audit
Going through your site and doing an analysis of your current standings, rankings, and competitors. Most organic SEO takes a few weeks to kick in, so by doing it now you are able to see the implementation of keywords taken in by the bots, then you're able to make tweaks from there throughout the summer and continue to hone in on the strategy that works best. If you work with an agency like, us, we can help conduct an audit, implement changes throughout your site, and make recommendations from there for other beneficial work.
Want a free consult on some ways to optimize your eCommerce website? We can help.
We like to work as consultants at efelle and truly help you figure out what the best option is for your business--maybe it's increasing your blog frequency, As a company recognized as a top Website Design Agency on DesignRush, you can trust us to help you out. We've had the opportunity to work with businesses large and small, from start-ups to well established businesses expanding our reach. Feel free to fill out our contact form, call us at 206.384.4909, or send us a message in that little chat on the right of your screen.