Everybody has been disappointed by that holiday gift that they didn’t want. It’s not that you received something you can’t use–it’s that your loved one failed to notice the items that you use or would like to use everyday.

You can’t completely prevent a husband from giving the bowing ball to the wife who doesn’t bowl, but you can use your site to guide him to a better decision. Here are some steps to take to make picking a gift on your site easier than ever:

1.) Post a “Gift Ideas” section on your site. Not every gift recipient is the same, but posting gift giving trends in your industry or unique ideas can help customers choose what’s best for their loved ones. Having a “Top Sellers” section can help achieve this as well.

2.) Post shipping cutoff dates on your site. It’s great to pick out the right gift for someone. It’s not so great when that item arrives two days late. The major carriers show holiday shipping cut off on their sites, and reminding customers of these dates can prevent holiday shoppers from slacking until its too late.

3.) Encourage your customers to call or email you and ask for advice. Sales people in brick-and-mortar stores can be very helpful in choosing gifts, why can’t you? Use your experience selling to others to help prospective customers make the right choice.

4.) Do not rely too much on technical specs to convert sales. A person might look at tech specs when they actually know what those specs mean, but what if they aren’t familiar with that type of product? Be sure to include uses for each item in your product description.

5.) Don’t forget to promote the all-too-convenient gift card. It might seem like a cop out, but giving a gift card feels better than going out on a limb and buying the wrong gift. Make this gift-giving safety net easy to find on your site.

What is the worst or wackiest gift you’ve ever received? Enlighten other gift givers by posting a comment about the experience.

–Michelle Greer, Marketing Specialist
http://www.volusion.com

Technorati Tags: Holiday Ecommerce, Improving Site Conversion, Holiday Customer Service, Holiday Online Store, Volusion

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Jupiter Research claims that by 2008, nearly 30% of all offline retail purchases will be influenced by research performed online. That’s quite an influence. If such a large number of potential buyers are researching online before purchasing in a physical store, think of how many are researching online before buying online. With all of this being said, there is a major word to keep in mind here, “research”. Research is defined as “the collecting of information about a particular subject”. In regards to online selling, change the word subject to product and get to

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To determine whether or not your items are priced too high, do the same thing your potential customers are doing- search the web and compare costs. According to a 2006 Yahoo!/OMD study that polled more than 4,500 online families, two thirds (66 percent) use the Internet to research products and 64 percent use a search engine every day.

Take a product you sell, perhaps one you’d like to sell more of, and compare its cost against others. An exact search with price or compare prices after the product name may help to pull up the best results (example: [tickle me Elmo] compare prices). It may take awhile to sort out

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