Effective Tactics That Boost Your Holiday Sales
By Brian Su, Sat Dec 10th

Many small e-tailers heavily rely on holiday sales. Meanwhile,numerous net shoppers are looking around for perfect holidaygifts in order to avoid crows in the mall. Here are seveneffective tactics that you can implement to attract shoppers andincrease online sales immediately. If you follow the tactics ina proper manner, you may see instant result. 1) Focus on OnlineShopping Benefits Holiday shopping has become a big headache formany consumers. Some don’t like crowds in the mall, many are notsure what to buy; guys are usually “don’t have time” to goshopping. Therefore, you must emphasize the following advantagesthat you may consider to offer: convenient and secure shopping,big discounts, no sales tax, fast delivery, or evens freeshipping. In one word, consumers can save big money whenshopping at your online store. 2) Make an Offer No-one CanResist Everyone who visits your store may be a prospect for yourmerchandise. Make an exclusive online offer that a visitor cantake advantage of, such as discount, cash rebate, free shipping,buy one get one free deal, etc. For example, online jewelrystore http://www.AllNaturalStuff.com offers free shipping anddiscounts on all of their merchandise. There are many creativeways to give your prospects a special offer they cannot refuse.You'll attract maximum number of customers when you offer a gooddeal they cannot get from other online stores and yourcompetitors. 3) Develop a Cash Rebate & Discount ProgramIf you don't have a cash rebate or discount program, thencreate one by offering an online printable that aprospect can download for mail-in rebate when they place anorder and/or new orders. Coupons have been proven very effectivefor many online stores. It provides additional incentive forshoppers to spend extra bucks. Spell out the terms andconditions for your program. Don’t forget to encourageshoppers to print out and give away your discount coupons totheir friends. 4) Share Your Customers’ Testimonials Your storemay be new to many online shoppers. Many prospects may consideremptying their shopping cart before they leave. If you have anysatisfied customers with your services and products, you shoulddisplay them on your site to boost customer confidence and theirfaith on your business. Customer satisfaction is the number oneissue for online business. Consider offering a liberal moneyback guarantee policy. 5) Display Your Return Policy and

PrivacyStatement

Many e-tailers have asked me the same question: "my store gets alot of hits, but I'm not making any sales! What am I doingwrong?" So many times, when I visit such sites, it is notdifficult to find the problem. Some of websites lack basicdetails on return policy and privacy statement. It isunderstandable that visitors will not buy when return policy andprivacy statements are not displayed. To boost consumerconfidence, you should have return policy and privacy to protectconsumer interests. 6) Communicate with Your Store Visitors andShoppers

If you ship merchandise through UPS or USPS, then add a link ofUPS or USPS so that you and your customers can track deliveriesonline. There are some e-commerce rating programs you mightconsider participating, such as VeriSign.com, Better BusinessBureau Online, ePublicEye.com. Sites with their logos have a bigimpact on consumer confidence. Additionally, do not delay yourresponses to customers’ inquiries. You may add online customersupport tools such as HumanClick.com or LiveHelper.com to yourwebsite so that you can provide immediate assistance toprospects who are visiting your store. 7) Update Your InventoryStatus Online shoppers will never forget nightmares with largeInternet establishments that fail to ship out orders lastChristmas due to shortage of their inventories. Many shoppersrefuse to go back to the same e-tailers this year. If you don’thave enough inventories for particular merchandise, then removethem from your online catalog, keep your website updated! Inconclusion, take a few minutes to review your online store andmake necessary adjustments to your current operation. You’ll besurprised to find out there’s room for making improvements. Aminor improvement may result in more sales immediately. Severalimprovements or adjustments to your online operation maygenerate an unexpected increase in your total sales volume forthis holiday season.

About the author:Brian Su is a senior consultant and of SmarTechLab.com(http://www.SmarTechlab.com) - an Illinois-based consulting firmthat specializes in e-business development and marketingstrategy. He also manages a popular microportal athttp://www.DollarTemplates.com that provides pre-made e-commerceweb templates to entrepreneurs around the world.