Ecommerce Web Design Blog

Every year, consumers in Australia, New Zealand and all around the world spend up big at Christmas in stores and online too. With online traffic at high and growing levels, you can expect Christmas 2008 to be a big one. For example, in New Zealand Visa International survey results released in October 2007 showed that over three quarters of New Zealanders spend online - with a strong proportion of spending being overseas in Australia because of the strength of the New Zealand dollar. Given the similarities between the two countries, similar figures may be expected in Australia.

If you're thinking of getting your business online to take advantage of Christmas spending sprees, now is the time to start thinking about it.

At Osc Works you could have your fully professional ecommerce online store up and running in just a few business days, fully configured for doing business in Australia or New Zealand. Here are some great online ideas for sites or promotions that you might want to consider:

• Christmas Decorations and wrapping paper - save your customers the hassle of going to stores, or offer specialised christmas crafts not available in stores
• Children's fashions - while in many families adults only give small Christmas gifts to eachother, children often receive gifts from many people in the family. Children's fashion is big business on auction sites, so why not have your own ecommerce store too?
• Office Gifts service - contact wholesalers of your choice and offer direct purchases for customers of gifts for office employees. If you are friendly with a senior corporate executive, you could encourage a whole department or company to purchase their 'secret santas' from you
• Online Christmas cards - at the last minute, expats or travellers often go online looking for christmas cards to send. While there is plenty of choice in stores, if you're a graphic designer or anyone artistic with Photoshop skills, you could produce cards that can be easily printed, sold online and dispatched. Or downloaded as a PDF for them to email on. Sure beats generic or North American based ecards.
• Gift buying service - if you like shopping this is for you. People purchase from you a voucher indicating how much they want to spend and then you (or your shopping delegates) purchase gifts on their behalf. Your ecommerce site could include a survey tool to find out more about the person you're shopping for, your cart could just have free text for your customers to tell you about the person. This business can extend to a Valentines Day or birthdays gift buying service too after the xmas season is over. Ask us about the Gift Wrapping options in ozCart stores.
• Crafts - whatever your hobby from pottery to painting, selling your products and services online could net you a tidy profit this Christmas. People looking for something unique and interesting for their special someone will be sure to be using the Internet to be looking for gift ideas. If you're online, you could be cashing in on those searches.
• Personalised Santa Letters - great for hamper stores - Children love to receive personalised letters from Santa and if you're a talented artist or graphic designer you could profit. If you're running a gift hamper store, these could be a great addition and a way to drive additional sales this
• Christmas Christmas lights - many people like to make a real statement with lights on their home. Run an online competition where people log in and vote - and entrants can purchase discounted lights for their home from you.
• You could sell candles and lights at other times in the year.
• Already have an online business? here's a promotional idea - shipping discounts or free shipping days - to drive additional sales consider running promotions on shipping costs. Shipping may be a small percentage of the cost of your products to you, but is often a cost that makes the difference to consumers.

Whatever your business idea, make sure you have your distribution strategy carefully planned. One of the biggest fears from customers and the complaints they will about ordering online are finding that perfect something for their loved one and then it not being delivered in time for Christmas. Make sure you are clear to customers about your service guarantee (and have this arranged with your distributors or courier company in advance).

Merry Christmas and happy selling. If you don't have your own ecommerce online store yet, it's not too late. Osc Works could help you have your own shopping cart solution and be online in just a few business days. View our ecommerce solutions page to find out more.