Get Your Store Holiday Ready
When fans visit your Spring store, the way it looks can determine whether or not you close a sale.
In fact, 82% of consumers are less likely to make a purchase if a store appears dated. Additionally, the average person has abandoned 24 online purchases this year because an online store looked unprofessional.
So with the holidays around the corner, you need to prepare your store for increased traffic.
Since you only have one chance to make a first impression, follow our 5 simple steps below to maximize your holiday success this season!
1. Customize your logo, navigation bar, and footer
To add a logo to your store, click on Stores, Edit Store. On the left-hand side, click on the Navigation bar.
Adding a personalized logo to your navigation bar sets your store apart. A logo is an important way to brand your store because it helps your buyers identify and remember you.
If you already have a logo, and want to add a festive flare, you could tweak it to feature a Christmas font or add some snowflakes, for example. If you don’t have a logo, this is the perfect time to create one! Read how here!
Beyond dropping in a logo, you can also change your navigation bar’s background and text color.
Switching them to holiday colors might be fun and exactly what your store needs to look trendy, but keep in mind that you have a brand image to uphold. So whatever changes you make to the navigation bar and footer should be consistent with your brand.
You’ll also want to re-brand your footer to match. Use a consistent design with what you’ve used elsewhere. Staying on brand in your footer and nav bar is a huge plus to the aesthetic of your store.
2. Update your hero banner
Your store’s hero banner is the first thing that pops out at a visitor. It’s one of your most important visual aspects of your store. And first impressions happen quick. It only takes 50 milliseconds to form an opinion of a website and 75% of consumers judge a store’s credibility based on it’s design.
So having an eye-catching, well designed banner can have a huge impact on your sales.
To update your banner, click on Hero banner in your store editor. There you can drop in your image.
For a trendy seasonal banner that stays true to your brand, try giving it a winter color palette.
Adding a holiday touch to your banner signals that your store is up-to-date with the season, but it’s not mandatory, especially if it doesn’t align with your brand. A well-designed banner alone can boost your credibility with shoppers and increase sales.
Consider spicing it up by incorporating festive photos of yourself or your customers. If you’re short on time or resources for photoshoots, no worries! Tools like PlaceIt make it easy to create eye-catching lifestyle mockups. Just upload your design file, and you’re good to go.
If you’d rather have a professional touch, you can hire a designer to create a store banner for you here: https://affinityx.creator-spring.com.
3. Reorganize your products
Products featured within storefronts get 58% more views and sell 20% more on average. So you want to place your best sellers and holiday favorites upfront and center.
So how do you reorganize your products? Follow these steps:
- Go to your Store editor
- Click on Products
- Click on the star icon to feature products
Featured products will appear at the top of your store and there’s no limit to how many you can feature.
Another way you can reorder your products is by removing your products from your store (clicking on the circled x) and then re-adding them based on the order you want them to appear.
New products get added to the bottom of your store, so add the ones you want at the top of your store first!
4. Connect or purchase a domain
A rock-solid domain is key to the success of your store.
What is a domain, why does it matter, and how do you connect or purchase one?
Simply put, a domain is the name of a site. A good domain name helps visitors find your site easily and allows search engines like Google to know what your site or brand is about. A REALLY good domain name is short, easy to remember, and describes your brand.
Choosing a great domain name is vital because it can attract more visitors to your site, which of course increases your chances of selling more merch.
If you want to know how to connect or buy a domain, we’ve got that covered, too.
5. Add your social profiles
50% of consumers are disappointed when a brand they want to shop with has no social media presence. So it’s important to show off your socials on your store!
To do this, just go to Stores and scroll down to Social Profiles. There you’ll be able to connect all of your social media accounts.
Once connected, you can enable “Display Links” in your store editor under the navigation bar and footer.
If both are enabled, your social icons will then appear on the right-hand side of your navigation bar, as well as in the center of your footer.
And that’s it!
When your store is branded for the holiday season, you’re setting yourself up for maximum success! Happy Holidays and Happy merch sales!