It is October, the year is at its end, and it is 3 months till Christmas! In a business’ perspective, the year is not over, in fact, it is the busiest time of the year. People are already over-loading their ‘shopping baskets’ with Christmas gifts and hunting for great specials. E-commerce shopping also made it easier for consumers to purchase online, with just a click of a button you bought all your Christmas presents without leaving the comfort of your couch.

The big question remains, how capable is your website when dealing with this increase in online shopping? Retailers must ensure that their online presence is reliable, scalable, and secure during this crucial period. That means being able to cope with naturally fluctuating demand, artificial traffic spikes, and seasonal distortions. If anything prevents access to the website, slows down the loading of a page or the processing of a payment, frustrated customers will abandon their shopping baskets and go elsewhere.

Malfunctioning of sites make for retail horror stories but it can be prevented. Ensure that the words, pictures, videos, and other components of the page gets to the user in the right order and quickly deliver immediate benefits. If the content arrives at the endpoint in a disjointed order, it delays the user’s ability to begin their browsing experience. Optimise the target device platform, such as mobile devices, tablets, and desktops. If not executed correctly, that too will impact the customer experience, usability, and sales conversion rates. Lastly, protect your website from massive bad traffic. Content delivery platforms can act as a ‘man in the middle’ and orchestrate the rejection of rogue and malicious traffic intended to take down a site while letting legitimate users through to enjoy their online shopping experience.

Your site must look the same on all devices, work the same and work quickly enough to keep customers engaged. Don’t let the stress of the peak shopping season get you under, contact Catch the Beat for expert website design and development services!