Holiday Reminders From BookSense.com

It's Thanksgiving weekend, and that means one thing to retailers: the holiday selling season is finally here. While sleigh bells are ringing and cash registers jingling, booksellers can expect traffic to their BookSense.com websites and online sales to peak each Monday between Thanksgiving and Christmas. (What "Black Friday" is to storefront retailers, the Monday after Thanksgiving -- "Cyber Monday" -- has become to online retailers.)

To prepare for the increased exposure your store website is likely to have over the next several weeks, here are a few simple reminders to help make the shopping experience better for your customers.

Store Hours

If store hours change for the holidays, be sure the new hours are posted on your website. (Do this by clicking on the "Edit Store & Contact Info" on the left-hand navigation bar of the main admin page.)

Holiday Content

Reinforce the store's brand as well as the website brand by making the content online complement in-store displays. Also, be on the lookout for content material in a new issue of Your Content Conscience, the BookSense.com content newsletter, coming soon.

Gift Cards Galore

Gift cards are among the top-selling items across the family of BookSense.com sites every year, and this holiday season is expected to be no different. If you sell/redeem gift cards via the store website (BookSense.com websites are integrated with the Book Sense Gift Card Program), consider promoting them in your "Store Greeting" (Admin site, "Edit Local Content") and/or in your e-newsletter.

Shipping Notice

BookSense.com recommends putting a note on store sites that says something to the effect of:

Order any item with an inventory status of "Usually Ships in 1 - 5 Days" or "On Our Shelves Now" by close of business on December 17 and receive it in time for Christmas.

Whatever language is used, the idea is to make sure customers know that books ordered after a certain date may not arrive in time for Christmas.