I realize it’s almost four months till the Christmas selling season begins, but now is the time to start planning for the holidays. This Christmas could be slightly different than past seasons due to the economic hurdles we’ve all encountered this year. Retailers must cope with a declining stock market, weakening dollar, bank uncertainty, continued high gas and shipping costs, the Olympics and the distraction of one of the most interesting presidential campaigns in many years.

Consumer Attitudes Have Changed
Think about how your own attitudes have changed this year. Higher gas prices encouraged people to make fewer trips and more efficient trips. Most of us have adjusted our lifestyles in some way due to the economics of the day. Many people have turned to online shopping and research on various products and services. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are spreading the word about new products faster than ever.

Higher gas prices have shown, that even when prices dip slightly, consumers are not changing from their frugal driving habits. With an 8.2% unemployment rate consumers are in conservation mode. The question remains, will they continue in conservation mode through the rest of the year?

How Will You Get Your Piece of the Christmas Pie?
Let’s start with your web site. When was it last updated? Keep in mind that people are going to be searching for products and services, not necessarily for a particular company. There are always going to be shoppers that will go to Overstock.com or Wal-Mart’s site out of habit. However, keep in mind that your web site is the one place where you can go head-to-head with any big-box store. You can look just as glitzy and just as big as they are.

Examine the products you are bringing in for the Christmas season. What are the top margin products? If there are 50 products or less, each should have it’s own page. Here’s why. Think of each page on your site as a separate web site. That’s how search engines look at your site. Search engines don’t just look at your home page; they catalog each and every page on your site, and try to find the relevance of that page to possible keyword searches.

Having a separate page for each of your best selling, most profitable items gives you a major advantage over your competition in searches for like products. You can use more keyword rich descriptions and larger pictures of your items making them more attractive to buyers. You can also add and delete offers and discounts to keep customers coming back to your site.

You can schedule sale dates and times to spread shoppers out over the day to take some of the pressure off your sales staff. You can also put coupons on your site that customers can print out and bring in. If you are running a 20% off sale, try running a “Shop With A Buddy” coupon. Many women shop together for Christmas. This coupon will bring two customers in rather than just one.

There are changes you need to think about now because it’s going to take 60-90 days for your site to be indexed in the major search engines and for your pages to work their way up the search index. Create the pages with your regular prices then make any adjustments when the season arrives.

Make Online Shopping Easy
Put a printable shopping list on your site where shoppers can just check off the items they need. Arrange it in categories such as, “Gifts for Dad Under $50.” Even better, have the list tied to an email that can be sent to the store, and employees can assemble the items for pickup. There might be a small additional charge for this personalized service or not if you have the personnel to handle it. No big box store is going to offer that kind of convenience.

Use Other Ads To Direct Customers
Use your other ads in newspapers, radio and TV to send people to your site. This takes them away from competitive advertising and makes them a captive audience. Make sure your site is easy to use and navigate. Have store hours and contact phone and email info at the top and bottom of every page on your site. Make sure your site is on your answering machine to direct after hours callers to your site.

Make the shopping experience as pleasant and as easy as possible. Take care of your customers and they will take care of you this Christmas.

Check out Tom’s Weekly Radio show at http://kmmsam.com every Saturday from Noon to 2 PM Mountain Time – Follow Tom on Facebook at facebook.com/smalltownmarketing and on Twitter @smalltownmarket