4 Easy Ways to Increase Your Online Sales This Holiday Season

Online shopping is continuing its rise in importance among shoppers of all ages this holiday season. With 46 percent of all shoppers saying that they plan on doing online shopping instead of going into physical stores, you have to have a solid online presence and understand how to catch as many of those shoppers as possible in order to meet your holiday shopping quotas.

If your store hasn't yet made the leap into the digital world, if you're an online-only marketplace, or if you're an online marketing expert looking to increase your sales this season, here are four ways to grab consumers' attention and start raking in the orders.

1. Start Early

Holiday shopping starts earlier every year, and that's a great thing for you as a retailer. It means you have more time to grab more customers who have gifts on the brain.

Start offering holiday deals as early as possible and make your store a go-to for presents. One way to do this is to begin tagging your items and your item descriptions with relevant keywords that shoppers are looking for. By adding the hottest keywords to your web pages, you'll begin to increase your search ranking for those terms.

If you're not sure what keywords to use, use the Google keyword tool to see which ones are getting the most searches. Start adding those keywords into your item titles, descriptions, tags, meta-tags, social media posts and blog posts.

2. Offer Free Shipping

According to a National Retail Federation survey, 93.1 percent of online shoppers are looking to take advantage of free shipping this season. If you're worried about taking the hit on shipping costs, tie your free shipping offer to a minimum order amount that will keep you in profit.

Increasingly, online shoppers view shipping costs as an additional tax on their purchases and are always looking for retailers who offer discounted or free shipping. If you do only one thing this holiday season, offering free shipping deals is the way to go.

3. Encourage Social Sharing

Social media is a gold mine for retailers, if you know how to use it properly. Engaging your existing social media following in a meaningful conversation will increase your social mentions and put your brand into the feeds of people who otherwise might not have seen you. Start asking your social media followers to tweet or post about what they're grateful for this holiday season and mention you in their posts for a chance to win a free gift or prize. Send out an inspiring holiday picture and ask your followers to add a caption and share it with their friends and family to spread holiday cheer.

The holidays is a time when people want to feel good; they want to feel connected and they want to be generous. Tap into those positive emotions and align your brand with being charitable, being in good spirits and spreading holiday cheer in order to increase your brand's visibility on social media.

4. Be on Mobile Phones and Tablets

Shoppers use their mobile phones to buy, to research products and to read reviews. Overlooking mobile phones and tablets is a huge mistake that too many online retailers are making. Even though the percentage of purchases on mobile phones may still be lower than on desktop computers, shoppers use their mobile phones to find and research the products they will eventually purchase. Make sure that your products are easily accessible across all mobile devices, that your product reviews are prominent on mobile and that you're featuring mobile deals to your mobile customers.

Online holiday shopping is here to stay and is only growing in popularity. Make sure your brand is correctly positioned to grab attention, get more shoppers and increase your sales this shopping season.