'Tis the season to deliver

The internet is changing how people shop and the levels of service they expect – so to enjoy a prosperous festive season, businesses must get their online offering right.

 
It's December and businesses around the world are gearing up for their busiest time of the year, with sales and promotions launched by retailers as the countdown to Christmas begins in earnest.
For shops with an online presence as well as a high street branch, it will be even more frantic. According to figures from marketing experts Experian, there were 2.8 billion clicks on UK online shops in December 2012, up by nearly a third from 2011. For those who are not organised enough to buy gifts online well in advance, last-minute shopping is still in vogue; in 2012, Saturday 22 December was the busiest day on the high street.
Even when all the presents have been opened, the demand does not end – in the UK in 2012, there were 113 million visits to online retailers on Boxing Day and a 52% rise in footfall from 26 to 27 December, as shoppers started to track down bargains on the high street.
There's apparently no need to worry too much about the uncertain economic climate, either – recent predictions indicate spending will rise this Christmas thanks to the increasing financial confidence of young consumers.
Which all sounds like great news for SMEs – but is it? Demand, and, thus, revenue, may be increasing, but customers also have high service expectations. The changing nature of festive shopping and customer demand is having a real impact on small businesses. Many shops launched their sales on Christmas Eve in 2012 rather than wait till the end of the festivities, which meant a huge rise in traffic to online retailers on that day. This means December is becoming increasingly hectic for SMEs.
If businesses don't already have an online presence, it's something they should consider as soon as possible: a recent FedEx report shows that e-commerce is thriving at three to four times the rate of traditional retail buying and, within the next two decades, "e-tail" will account for more than half of all sales. Even if an SME focuses on a product or service that requires the customer's presence, such as restaurants or beauty treatments, having a strong online presence helps to drive traffic to the business.

 Source: http://www.theguardian.com