On the Web: An E-Commerce Holiday Checklist, Part 1

Here's a checklist of some of the most important things you should do with your website to get ready for the upcoming holiday season:

Merchandising
Promote in-stock messaging. Availability is a big issue for a lot of folks, especially around the holidays, so make sure your messaging provides product availability and delivery times near the pricing information. Use phrases like "In Stock!" or "Ships Today!" If you're already an availability messaging whiz, test rolling out deadline tickers that emphasize urgency and cause people to act fast. "Need it tomorrow? Order within the next 3 hours and 33 minutes and you'll get it by noon!" Amazon.com does a great job with this.