For those in the retail sector especially, Christmas and over the summer holidays is prime time for you to reach optimum online sales potential. However, competition from your peers will be rife, meaning you will need to do everything you can to stand out from the crowd of other businesses just like yours vying for that last minute festive trade.

For many businesses Christmas shopping accounts for between 40% and 80% of annual sales, so it is vital that you seize this opportunity and get the most out of it.

Website visitors and customers love seeing a business get into the Christmassy/holiday spirit. Even if you don’t sell from your website, you can still make it look festive!

While promotional discounts and special deals may well be the primary driving force behind your December profit, it is the appearance and the aesthetic of your website that will create the emotional desire to make a purchase.

Seasonal web design is not only visually appealing, it also shows your website to be active, dynamic and fresh. However, there is a fine line that can easily be stepped over by cluttering your website with cliché decorations and over the top festive embellishment.

If you don't want to make major changes to your web design, no need to worry, there are other ways to get around this! One way to spruce up your website for Christmas is by simply adding a few holiday themed images or a graphic festive banner. This is a great way to begin the festivities without having to spend too much. See our special offers above.

Many of you will actually have products or a service available especially for the Christmas season and will want to highlight this on your website.

Make the most of your database with Christmas email campaigns but try to avoid email subject lines such as ‘Best Christmas Deals’ or ‘Free Christmas Delivery’, as these are extremely common and will not help you stand out! Having an appealing subject line will make your recipients want to open and read your mail. Playing around with the words or using puns is a good way of accomplishing this.

When designing the email, don’t stray too far from your current branding, as customers still need to relate to who they are receiving the email from. However, it does need to have an identifiable Christmas theme so perhaps using colour pallets such as warm reds and greens, whites and soft blues, will work to achieve a festive feel. Animated gifs associated with the festive season are also a great way of adding a Christmas touch. These could include light up Christmas trees, sleighs, snow, baubles and holly wreaths etc and are sure you light up your email content!

Competitions promoted on social media are a good way of attracting more traffic to your website. To ensure its success, be sure to promote it across all your active social media platforms. Everyone loves an early Christmas present, so make sure you add a prize to the promotion!

These are just a few cost effective ideas to make sure you maximise your Christmas profits.

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They receive an enormous amount of visitors and are extremely well ranked in the top search engines - if you're not there you're missing out !! All you have to do is forward us 25 words about your business - a breeze surely!! Your classified advertisement will be linked to your website and can also have an email link on it if requested.

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