Handling the Christmas rush....

May 4, 2012 - PRLog -- Christmas is the time that retailers perhaps wish would happen every time of the year. With sales of ecommerce businesses shooting up many-fold; there can be no better or sweeter time. Some amazing statistics point out to why Christmas is the ultimate time for ebusinesses:

IMRG (Interactive Media in Retail Group), the UK’s industry association for e-retailing, has estimates for the UK ecommerce market, considered the world’s most mature one. In its analysis called IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index, it says that:

Ecommerce business in the UK this Christmas is expected to be in the region of a whopping £7 billion;

Unlike last year, when most of the sales happened during the five weeks starting November 28, this year, it will be spread out over a shorter peak period of two weeks;

This spreading out of the peak sales is attributed to access to more, faster broadband connections at home, which means shoppers don’t have to wait till Monday to come to office and shop on a faster line.

A robust ecommerce –an indispensable tool

What does this signal to an ecommerce business that is seeking to target UK buyers? It shows that this is the fruitiest period of the year that they have to make the best use of. For retailers who want to do this, the most essential tool to enable this is a sound ecommerce website. Without an ecommerce business website that has the resilience to deal with peak traffic, a retail business is as good as non-existent. Going beyond the obvious, consider the perils of having a site that does not have this ability:

An Aberdeen Group research suggests that the tolerance threshold of online shoppers is so low during this period that just a single second’s delay in response can reduce customer satisfaction by 16 percent and fail to convert a visitor to a customer by as much as seven percent;

Not having a website that offers multichannel experience contributes greatly to the loss. Some reputable online businesses lost tens of millions of pounds in business because they did not have a well-planned multichannel strategy. Conversely, some relatively unknown businesses made millions because they offered integrated customer experience.

Be choosy about your ecommerce site

Given these facts, the importance of having a reliable ecommerce website cannot be overstated. You should choose an ecommerce website that has not only the looks to entice the buyer, but also the suppleness to handle huge loads and not cut down on performance because of this. Make sure it has no glitches when it has to take care of rush traffic. NicheSuite is one such site. it is designed to handle the heaviest of loads and ensure smooth working of its features in the toughest of situations.