The holiday season is perhaps the craziest time of the year for online shoppers and sellers alike. Buyers simply cannot get over the excitement of the upcoming deals and sales that give the opportunity to shop to their heart’s content. On the other hand, the pre-holiday period spells hard work for the sellers because there is a lot they need to do to be prepared for the traffic booms and big orders. If you are running a Magento e-commerce store, you will probably know the significance of gearing it up for the festive sale and the kind of effort that goes into it.

To start with, you need to assess your readiness to face the challenges that this time of the year typically brings. Once you are done with the assessment, you will probably know whether you are all set or would need the help of a professional Magento development company to fine-tune with the standard requirements. Here are a few questions that you need to answer to understand whether your Magento store is ready for the 2019 festive season.

Is my website loading at an optimal speed?

Speed is vital when it comes to making your website capable of matching the expectations of the shoppers. It becomes all the more important when they are in a festive mood because they would surely explore their options if your site does not load fast. Additionally, the heavy images you add to the store tend to slow it down. You can deal with this issue by compressing the images. Full-page caching is another effective measure to speed up your website.

Does my store replicate the festive mood?

Since the shoppers will be in a festive most during this season, they would want to replicate the vibes in your store’s interface. So tweaking your Magento website design is a good idea to make it holiday-ready. You can add some bells and whistles in the form of festive banners and bright images on the site. Make sure that you showcase the special deals and offers with an effective presentation because you would want them to catch the attention of the visitors.

Is the store ready to counter traffic spikes?

The biggest challenge that Magento stores face at this time of the year probably the heavy traffic volumes or spikes in orders. These issues can hinder smooth operations during this critical period. Why not just gear up in time by giving your website a scalability check? Why not check whether you will be ready for the heavy traffic? After all, you would not want to suffer from downtime because this translates into the customers bouncing back and\ loss of conversion opportunities.

Does my store offer the security of transactions?

The festive season is a critical time for e-commerce businesses and unscrupulous people know this. So you need to make sure that your digital storefront is fully fortified against data theft and attacks. The best measures to ensure security are running your site on the latest version of the platform or install the latest security patches. You can hire Magento 2 developers to give your website a complete security check and take the requisite actions well before the festive season begins.

Am I ready on the mobile optimization front?

Another factor that you cannot ignore during the holidays is mobile optimization. The reason is simple; a majority of online shoppers prefer to explore the options and buy on mobile devices rather than desktops. What’s more, the chances of mobile conversions are better because of mobile micro-moments. Unless your Magento store is available on mobile and renders seamless experiences on this platform, you will definitely lose them.

Does my store have the right payment options?

Payment system availability is another consideration for holiday shoppers because they will be interested in buying only if you offer what works for them. Have all the popular payment options integrated during the Magento e-commerce development process. Further, reassess your offerings once before the festive season so that you can implement the ones that your store does not have. Besides having the right options, ensure that they work seamlessly and enable secure transactions as well because this time is risky from the hacking perspective.

Is my inventory up-to-date?

Without any doubt, you need to work on the look and feel of your storefront before the festive period. However, you should be prepared in other aspects as well. Do check your inventory and make sure that it is up-to-date. It is crucial to anticipate the demand for the season and understand what products you need to have in stock to fulfill it as and when the buyers place orders. Agility matters the most when it comes to ordering fulfillment as it has a far-reaching impact on your reputation as a whole.

Am I taking the right approach towards marketing my store?

During the festive season, your Magento store will face stiff competition. So you need to go the extra mile to market your store for acquiring new traffic and converting it as well. This is best done by creating dedicated landing pages that showcase the relevant products and offers along with festive-specific keywords. Paid ads and email campaigns are some other measures that can give you a marketing advantage.

Is my customer support prepared?



While buyers come in huge numbers during the holidays, you can also expect an equally large number of queries and complaints about the customers. Unless you have a solid customer support system in place, you may end up losing your customers due to dissatisfying experiences. If your store does not have the Live Chat feature, do get it implemented well in time. Being available 24 by 7 is what really matters to the buyers.

Is my Magento store optimized for engagement?

The long-term goal of festive sales is to leverage your reach for building long-term relationships with the buyers. For this reason, your website should be optimized for engagement. Make sure that it renders the most amazing user experience so that the customers return even after the holidays are over. From content to design, speed, scalability, and responsiveness, every single aspect of your store should be fine-tuned.

Bonus Tips

Besides following the aforementioned checklist, there are some other tips that you can follow to prep up your store for the holidays. Here is a list for you:

• Prioritize the online visibility of the store with search engine optimization

• Simplify the checkout process by reducing the form of filling or enabling social logins

• Facilitate multi-channel selling and deliver consistent experiences across all channels

• Encourage the buyers to add reviews about your products as they serve as a long term asset

• Do your best in terms of product and service quality to get positive reviews and feedback

• Shape your marketing campaign only after extensive market and customer research

• Upgrade your Magento store to the latest version so that you get the benefits of performance

Magento India is a leading Magento 2 development company you can collaborate with to get the best results for your business. We assess your website and identify what needs to be done to make it sales-ready for the holidays.