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Food is not only the glue that holds holiday family gatherings together, but it is also in the top 5 categories of gifts that holiday shopper’s purchase.

More than half of holiday shoppers are researching their gift purchases now and nearly 9 in 10 shoppers research products online. 31% of holiday shoppers are looking for food-related gifts. 54% of holiday shopping website traffic came between November 1 and 23.

Have you considered how to optimize your website for the holiday season?

We outline 5 ways to get your website ready for holiday shoppers and provide a brief checklist for each so you can ensure your customers have a great grocery shopping experience.

1. Roll out the Recipes

Make your website the go-to destination for holiday recipes—creative versions of traditional dishes, healthy alternatives, cooking tips, etc. Since meal kits are in high demand, assemble kits with all the ingredients needed to make holiday favorites like stuffing from scratch.

• 77% of consumers look for recipes on social media weekly

• 45% of home cooks shop for recipe ingredients within 48 hours of finding a recipe online

• 78% consumers want grocers to develop their own meal kits for in-store purchase

Holiday Prep Checklist:

•  Put holiday recipes on your website
•  Include select recipe ingredients on your sale items
•  Place photos and info about your meal kits prominently on your website & other digital channels
•  Share holiday recipes on your digital channels (email and Social Media especially)

2. Centralize the Circular

Since the average consumer spends almost $600 on holiday gifts, any savings are appreciated. And grocery shoppers rely on the grocery insert to help them find the best deals.

• 56% of grocery shoppers look at the printed circular at home

• 74% of consumers have viewed a circular within the past 30 days

Holiday Prep Checklist:

•  Put your circular in a prominent location on your website
•  Emphasize your holiday-related sale items on your circular

3. Enable Ecommerce

Ecommerce is growing in importance for holiday shoppers.

• Internet shopping was the #1 holiday gift shopping channel in 2016, surpassing department stores, outlet stores, and toy stores.

• Free shipping enticed 64% of holiday shoppers to make a purchase last year.

Holiday Prep Checklist:

•  Ensure that ecommerce functionality is bug-free
•  Designate personnel to regularly monitor transactions and order fulfillment
•  Put up new promotions throughout the holiday shopping season

4. Look for Lists

Lists add both value and convenience for holiday shoppers. Remember that holiday shoppers still have personal shopping lists! Since 13% of last-minute shoppers plan to buy gifts at a grocery store, put a special last-minute gift idea list on your website.

• 63% of holiday shoppers want to utilize more retailer online wish lists/registries for purchasing gifts in the future, which is almost 2/3 of all shoppers.

• The majority of holiday shoppers bought an item that a retailer recommended, with 58% of men and 51% of women more likely to do so.

• Over 70% of holiday shoppers bought gifts for themselves during the holiday season.

Holiday Prep Checklist:

•  Prepare gift/wish lists with ideas and gift suggestions/stocking stuffers
•  Distribute your gift lists to your customers as gift inspiration via your digital marketing channels
•  Make sure your customers’ shopping list website function is bug-free & is easy to add items from your recommended gifts and promotions

5. Responsive-Ready

Smartphone use is becoming more prevalent in all stages of customers’ shopping experiences. That’s why it’s important to ensure your website is responsive (automatically adjusts to the device used to view the website). 

• Almost 2/3 of customers used a mobile device to look for holiday gifts in 2016, an 18% increase in mobile product searches from 2015. More than half of customers use a smartphone to monitor deals, which is a 15% increase from 2015.

• Conversions fall by 12% for every 1 second delay in site load time and 53% of people will abandon a mobile site if it takes more than 3 seconds to load.

• 61% of users are unlikely to return to a mobile site after a negative experience. 40% will go to a competitor’s site.

Holiday Prep Checklist:

•  Designate a team member to view your website from a mobile device
•  Double-check that product information, list functions and ecommerce are easy to use from a mobile device
•  Check your mobile website’s site speed