Summer ready: how to prep your website for the new season

April 18, 2024

Summer is coming (despite what the UK weather might have us believe), and it’s more than just your wardrobe in need of a refresh. Summer means big business for many ecommerce stores, especially across the fashion, sports and outdoor living sectors. 

With more people browsing and shopping online during the warmer months, now is the perfect time to spruce up your site and attract those sun-seeking shoppers. When it comes to any sort of seasonal event, it’s always best to be prepared well in advance, as many consumers will want to plan ahead for these things. 

Here are some essential tips to prepare your website for summer.

Refresh your design

Just as a brick-and-mortar store might change its window display with the seasons, your website aesthetic should also reflect the feeling of summer. Consider switching up your homepage banners or videos to seasonal imagery, bright colours or summer-themed graphics to create a visually appealing browsing experience, and guide users to your best-selling seasonal products or collections.

Get writing

Your blog is the perfect platform to promote your summer collections and demonstrate how they meet the needs of your target customer. Product reviews/comparisons, styling guides, seasonal buying guides and lookbooks are great for showcasing your products. Plus, crafting long-form content around the topics that your audience are searching for during the summer season will help to boost organic traffic. Perform keyword research to discover specific, long-tail terms that you can target in your content. For example, a grocery retailer may publish seasonal recipes for summer barbecues or cocktails, while a furniture brand may take the opportunity to showcase their outdoor living collections with some summer styling inspo. 

Launch seasonal promotions

Take advantage of the summer shopping mindset by offering special promotions and discounts. Consider running limited-time sales, multi-buy offers, or free shipping promotions to incentivise purchases. Leverage email marketing and social media channels to promote your summer deals and drive traffic to your website.

Be clever with merchandising

Highlight summer products on your site, across your homepage and key category pages. Whether it’s swimwear, outdoor gear or refreshing beverages, make it easy for your potential customers to find and purchase the items they’re looking for. Consider creating curated collections or seasonal product bundles to inspire shoppers to increase their orders. You can also curate your evergreen collections by customising the order the products appear in, moving the summer-themed items to the top to ensure your website visitors are immediately greeted with the products most relevant at the time. Ecommerce platforms like Shopify make this really easy to do – you can simply drag and drop to play around with the positioning of products within each collection. 

Failing to capitalise on seasonal sales? We can help you get your website ready for summer and beyond – send us a message to get started.