Boxing Day shoppers start early, on phones. Have the sale page live before anyone arrives, keep online stock in step with the shop floor, state return terms for sale items before payment, and keep the site light.

The sale starts before the doors open

It is Boxing Day, and for many shoppers the sale began on a phone: last night after dinner, or this morning before anybody was dressed.

They are comparing prices from the couch, checking whether the thing they want is in stock, and deciding whether it is worth the drive or better ordered for delivery.

By the time a shop opens its doors, a good share of the day's decisions has already been made on websites.

Many Boxing Day sales run for a week, so whatever went wrong this morning can still be put right tonight.

What has to be true by seven

The third is where Boxing Day goes wrong most expensively. A product sold twice, once at the till and once online, ends in a refund, an apology and a customer who stops trusting your stock figures.

Ready the night before

Many store platforms can schedule sale prices to start and end on set dates, directly or with an add-on. Used that way, the sale goes live overnight whether anybody is awake or not.

Check it from a phone as soon as it starts: the sale page, three products, the cart and the checkout.

A price that shows on the product page but not in the cart is a common fault, and it stops orders.

For a sale that changes through the week, set up each day's changes the evening before, and check them first thing, before customers do.

Stock that sells twice

When a store and its website share the same stock, the website is only as accurate as the last time the two were matched.

Many small stores update online stock from the till overnight, which is fine on an ordinary day. On Boxing Day the floor can sell out by ten, and the website keeps selling until tomorrow.

Three fixes work.

Match stock far more often for the week. Set aside a fixed number of each sale item for online orders. Or mark items with only a handful of units as in store only, with the price still shown.

A worked example

A family-owned audio and home theatre shop with one showroom ran a doorcrasher last Boxing Day on a receiver it had three of.

The showroom sold all three by half past nine. The website, which took its stock figures from the till each night, went on selling the receiver until the next morning.

Four online orders had to be refunded, each with a phone call explaining why.

This year, doorcrashers are marked in store only on the website, with the price shown. Two units of every other sale item are held back for online orders, and stock is matched every hour until New Year.

The sale page was built on the twenty-third, checked on a phone on Christmas Eve, and went live overnight on its own.

Return terms, stated before payment

A sale shopper's first question after the price is whether they can bring it back.

If sale items are final sale, say so on the product page and again at checkout, not only on the returns page. If the usual terms apply, say that too; it is a reason to buy.

Provincial consumer rules, BC's included, also expect an online store to set out its return and refund policies before the customer pays, so the wording belongs where the decision is made.

Boxing Day is a day of exchanges as well. The returns page will be read today by people who received your products as gifts, so make it plain.

Delivery and pickup, stated plainly

A Boxing Day order lands in one of the slowest shipping weeks of the year, with carriers catching up after Christmas and fewer people packing.

Say on the product page and at checkout when orders will actually ship, even if the answer is after New Year. A shopper who expects two days and waits eight remembers it.

If customers can reserve online and collect in store, say so near the top of the sale page. Pickup takes the item off the shelf at once, which also helps with stock.

A site that can take the morning

The traffic arrives in bursts, mostly from phones, often just after a sale email or post goes out.

Keep the sale page light: compressed photographs, no autoplaying video, no pop-up covering the screen. Make sure the site's caching is on, and that somebody knows how to reach the host if it slows down.

And change nothing else this week. A new plugin installed on Boxing Day morning is a gamble with the busiest days of the season.

Watching through the day

Somebody should open the site on a phone every hour or two, place a test order early, and read the order notifications as they arrive.

The real-time report in Analytics shows whether people are arriving. If visitors are coming in and orders are not, test the checkout again.

Answer messages quickly. A shopper asking whether an item is in stock is about to buy it, from you or from somebody else.

Write down what goes wrong as it happens. Next December, those notes will be worth more than anybody's memory.

The counter-case

An online Boxing Day sale is optional.

A shop with little stock and loyal walk-in customers can run its sale in store only. The website should still say so clearly, with the hours, so nobody hunts for an online sale that does not exist.

And a business that does not discount at all loses nothing by sitting the day out.

Where there is an online sale, though, the page, the stock and the terms need to be right before the first shopper arrives.

For the rest of Boxing Week

  1. Open the sale page on your phone now.
  2. Check prices in the cart, not just on products.
  3. Match online stock with the shop floor often.
  4. Hold back units for online orders.
  5. Put return terms beside the buy button.
  6. Schedule tomorrow's changes tonight.
  7. Write down what went wrong for next year.

Step three protects everything else. Prices and pages can be corrected in minutes, but an item sold twice turns into a refund and an apology that cannot be taken back.

For a shop that only sells in person, the smaller first steps are covered in Cyber Monday for a store that is not online yet.

Frequently asked questions

When do Boxing Day shoppers start looking?

Often the evening before or early in the morning, on phones. Many decide what to buy, and where, before any shop opens its doors.

How do I stop selling stock twice?

Match online stock with the till far more often during the sale, set aside a fixed number of units for online orders, or mark scarce items in store only.

Where should return terms for sale items appear?

On the product page and at checkout, not only on a separate returns page. Shoppers decide there, and provincial consumer rules expect the terms before payment.

Should sale prices be changed by hand?

Better to schedule them in advance where the store platform allows it, then check the sale page, a few products, the cart and the checkout from a phone.

How do I keep the site fast during the sale?

Keep the sale page light, with compressed photographs and no autoplaying video or pop-ups, make sure caching is on, and change nothing else this week.

Does every store need an online Boxing Day sale?

No. A store can run its sale in person only, provided the website says so clearly with the hours, so nobody hunts for an online sale.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Boxing Week sale running on your site?

Send us the sale page. We will check the prices, the stock settings and the checkout from a phone today.

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