Great news for retailers who sell online: Forrester Research predicts online retail sales in the U.S. will reach $44.7 billion -- an 8% increase over the 2008 holiday shopping season.
Is your website ready for the holiday shopping rush? Larry Chasin, President & CEO of Ideal Diamond Solutions, an online technology platform provider, says that how you display and organize your online inventory is just as important as how you treat your in-store merchandise.
Use these online inventory tips to help your website thrive in holiday sales:
- Feature “Online Only” Products: Offer your customers the most robust selection you've ever had with “virtual inventory.” This approach -- showcasing products on your website that are available only online -- is a great way to have something for everyone, and can help differentiate you from your competitors. It also neatly sidesteps two areas of concern for retailers: coping with increasingly stricter terms from suppliers, and going deep into a jewelry line without the heavy investment ordinarily required.
- Create Easy Virtual Browsing: While it is fantastic to offer numerous product categories and deep selections within each, be careful not to overwhelm viewers with an endless array of product offerings. Visitors can start floundering if they are faced with too much -- and they'll go somewhere else. So Segment your merchandise as best you can to make a large inventory more manageable.
- Extra Tip: Do not feature products online that you don’t have in stock. If an item is no longer available, even temporarily, remove it from the site.
Take The Tip:
Ideal Diamond Solutions (IDS) offers virtual diamond inventories and other website enhancements as add-ons to your existing website and also included in their website packages. Jewelers of America provides members with great discounts on website packages from IDS. Click here for details.
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