Is your online shop ready for Valentine's Day?

Valentine's Day, a calendar fixture for so many couples all over the world, is getting closer. It's true, love can move mountains - and it helps us do other amazing things... It's all about the chocolates, getaways, and hearts on the 14 February isn't it? Maybe, but for many businesses it's one of the hardest and most important days of the year for online sales. In this post we'll look at some ways to make sure your e-commerce site conquers all this Valentine's Day.

Define your product and target audience

Valentine's Day has become an essential date for the majority of business' online strategies, as a day to boost sales. That's why it's so important to define both your product and your target audience, before you launch any campaigns.

According to a Google study, key target customers are those between the ages of 25 and 44, with younger women and older men standing out when it comes to intention to buy. And there's a growing trend for the day to be about more than just romantic couples, and extend to the concept of "love" in general, covering friendships too.

It's also very important to make sure you have a line of products adapted to your previously defined target market: jewellery, beauty products, cosmetics, and fashion continue to be safe bets... and don't forget the flowers! Technology products are also starting to up their market share, a growing trend in recent years.

Think about your SEO and SEM positioning

In the days leading up to Valentine's Day searches relating to the patron saint of loved ones intensify, but when it comes to typical keywords like "Valentine's Day gift" or "Valentine's Day ideas", competition is fierce. So it's important to use your creativity and fine tune those keywords. You might want to use tools like Semrush, KWFinder or Google's Keyword Planner Tool to do some research on the keywords that are the best fit for your online shop.

And if you're thinking about sales in several countries, it's essential to plan a solid international SEO strategy, putting your trust in professional, native translators, who are experts in digital marketing. It's a common mistake to translate keywords for search engines in foreign countries literally, when often the keywords used in the source language don't work in the same way in the target language.

Update your design and give your online shop a Valentine's Day vibe

But bear in mind that your customers are used to the images, typography, and illustrations you use on your site, so we don't recommend you go for any radical changes - you don't want to risk losing your brand identity.

Instead, you could think about adding some subtle details to evoke Valentine's Day - hearts, or a change in colour palette to reds and pinks. Your potential customers need to know that the 14 February is as important to your brand as it is to them.

You might choose to change aspects such as the mouse pointer or progress bar to something romantic, something that's sure to give your visitors a nice surprise. Finally, you could add banners or other visual elements and use your creativity to win over your customers.

Check your e-commerce translations

If you're thinking about selling to customers overseas, you should know that it's the brands that adapt their websites to the languages their potential visitors speak who'll get the extra profit margin - up to a 20% increase in revenue. So if you want to increase your international sales from your Valentine's Day campaign, translating your website could be a decisive factor.

And if you take the plunge and decide to internationalise your online shop, it's essential to leave the revision in the hands of a professional translator. Why? Well, according to Hexagone's research, 80% of online shops contain serious mistakes that could cause a business to lose 15% of potential sales to foreign customers. If you don't want to be a part of that percentage, why not try Website Translator, which gives you the opportunity to translate your website into several languages for free, then be revised by professional translators.

At AT Language Solutions we have more than 20 years' experience helping businesses internationalise their products and services. We can help you increase the number of potential customers visiting your online shop, improve your image among foreign audiences, and offer perfectly translated products in all languages.