eCommerce sales expected to grow 15% in 2021; many eCommerce stores unprepared for holiday shopping spike
This year’s traditional holiday shopping period, led by the five-day Cyber Weekend that includes Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday, is shaping up to be the biggest eCommerce shopping period ever. A recent report from Deloitte forecasts an increase in eCommerce sales up to 15% compared with the same period in 2020. The report projects that 2021 eCommerce holiday sales are expected to reach between $210 billion and $218 billion this season.
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“Between our ability to build custom, enterprise solutions based directly on our clients’ needs, and the security, performance and peace of mind that comes with WP Engine, it’s a combination that really sells itself”
Yet many eCommerce retailers find themselves unprepared for the surge in traffic to their sites. With the Black Friday/Cyber Monday kickoff to the holiday shopping spree right around the corner, many retailers are worried about bad vendor support, lack of scalability, unnecessary downtime and security concerns while preparing for this Cyber Weekend.
“We know e-tailers of all sizes are struggling to find the right solution to be fully prepared for Cyber Weekend and beyond,” said Seth Halpern, Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Small and Medium Business Segment at WP Engine. “With many eCommerce sellers making much of their annual revenue in the holiday shopping season starting with this five-day period, it’s critical that they have the right tech solution in place to keep their sites running smoothly and open for business, and that they can provide their customers with the right options to help them convert from browsers to buyers.”
To hear more about the challenges retail eCommerce sellers face and the solutions to overcome them, register for “Essential WooCommerce Tips to Ensure Your Best Cyber Weekend EVER.”
Preparing for the Shopping Blitz
The surge of online shopping activity in 2020 accelerated what was an already booming eCommerce marketplace. In 2019, for example, eCommerce sales reached $600 billion in the U.S. alone, making up more than 10% of overall retail sales. In 2020, that number jumped to $794.5 billion, up 32% year-over-year, representing more than 14% of total retail sales.
When it comes to the actual experience of online shopping, consumers are very clear in their preference for superior search functionality, through technologies like Elasticsearch. For online store owners, this is a critical imperative, especially when you consider that 43% of shoppers on retail sites go directly to the search bar and spend more than double the amount other shoppers do who don’t search. An overwhelming majority of online shoppers (68%) say they won’t return to a site with a poor search experience.
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WP Engine and eCommerce: A Powerful Solution for Cyber Weekend
For those retailers who want their eCommerce sites to be 40% faster and earn up to an 18% increase in sales, WP Engine offers a dynamic eCommerce Solution that allows e-tailers to create a stunning, mobile-friendly WooCommerce site quickly and easily. Owners will be able to have blazing-fast product searches that can increase revenue; optimize an existing online store or build a new one with a quick setup wizard; take advantage of ready-to-use eCommerce themes; drag and drop tools to add content and products in seconds and use WP Engine’s automated plugin updates, which save valuable time and allow store owners to relax knowing their site is secure and updated.
The WP Engine eCommerce Solution is the easiest way to launch or grow an eCommerce business on one of the fastest and most secure WordPress platforms in the industry.
- Enjoy the advanced search features of Instant Store Search powered by ElasticPress with only one click and experience revenue increases of up to 18% for stores that enable it.
- Effortlessly launch and optimize WooCommerce stores with a fully customizable store creator and easy-to-use design tools, or easily migrate an existing WordPress store from another host.
- Sell more knowing your store is hosted on industry-leading infrastructure optimized for site speed, security, and scalability
- Obtain the latest features and security benefits with automatic site and plugin updates from WP Engine’s Smart Plugin Manager.
- Take advantage of 24x7x365 support from WP Engine’s award-winning WordPress experts.
Customer Testimonials
“By embracing WordPress and other open source systems while building on WP Engine’s platform, Great American Cookies has absolutely crushed their foray into digital commerce,” said David Feldman, Founder and Director of Strategy, 3 Owl. “Combining our skillset for the design and implementation of this solution with all of the tools and benefits that come with building on WP Engine’s platform allowed us to quickly provide Great American Cookies with the enterprise-grade eCommerce solution they required.”
“Between our ability to build custom, enterprise solutions based directly on our clients’ needs, and the security, performance and peace of mind that comes with WP Engine, it’s a combination that really sells itself,” said Nick Miers Head of Delivery, Frank Digital on the eCommerce solution they created for Gregory Jewelers.
“We explained what we were looking to do, and we provided a bit of background on what we expected to happen as far as traffic and the number of users that might come to the site,” said Marc Keegan, Senior Manager of Digital Transformation at Metcash. “WP Engine was fantastic and came back to us in a handful of hours with their recommendations. They aligned exactly with what we were hoping for, so we pulled the trigger, and had our site up and running, without the niche customizations, within a couple of hours.”
To hear more about the challenges retail eCommerce sellers face and the solutions to overcome them, register for “Essential WooCommerce Tips to Ensure Your Best Cyber Weekend EVER.” In this Ignite virtual event, scheduled for October 27th at 11 a.m. CDT, Christie Chirinos, Partner Community Lead at Codeable; Sam Gomes, Head of Business Development and Partnerships at Saucal; David Vogelpohl, Vice President of Growth at WP Engine; and Alex Zuniga, Senior Solutions Engineer at WP Engine will discuss the one thing retailers must do to ensure their WooCommerce store not only survives but thrives from Cyber Weekend throughout the whole holiday period. They will also share specific tactics eCommerce sellers should do immediately, and the must-have WooCommerce add-ons and plugins that will take their eCommerce store to the next level this holiday season (and beyond).
