Contentsquare, a digital analytics authority, reveals that category pages hold the highest engagement rate at 32.7% among all site pages.

With increased activity linked to better outcomes for engagement and conversion, ensuring these pages are optimised, and friction-free should be a priority for retail brands preparing for the year's busiest season. 

Understanding how customers behave online and why this is critical to a successful customer experience strategy remains a priority for brands as they solidify their year-end plans.

As the peak holiday shopping season nears, Contentsquare recommends four actions brands can take to help prepare their sites for increased traffic and drive additional revenue.

Action one is understanding that peak season must equal peak customer experience. The actual "peak" of Peak Season globally only comes once a year, so it's critical to take every step possible to optimise the experience of customers to maximise conversions. Monitoring and measuring content performance is essential to optimising user journeys and ensuring customers are engaged every step of the way.  

Action two is for retailers to follow the lead from campaigns to conversions. Most retailers allocate significant spending on campaigns to drive traffic during peak shopping season, so it's essential to make the connection between campaigns and on-site activity. Integrating Digital Experience Analytics with web analytics and campaign tracking can help brands maximise the ROI from campaign spend by creating engaging and converting experiences.

Action three involves embracing real-time analysis. Increased traffic increases the possibility of errors and other obstacles that can impact peak season results. Contentsquare's analysis of 2.6 billion user sessions during last year's peak season showed a +21% increase in the number of sessions with errors compared to expected. Setting up real-time alerts is critical to identifying and fixing issues quickly before conversions are impacted. 

Lastly, Contentsquare suggests that businesses check their speed. When customers are forced to wait for pages that take more than two seconds to load, bounce rates reach 49%, with nearly one in two visitors bouncing, according to Contentsquare's 2023 Benchmark report. Slow loading times also hurt content consumption. Customers exposed to slow page loads view one fewer page on average.

The slew of online shopping events, including 10.10, Singles Day, Black Friday and Cyber Monday leading up to Christmas, bring enormous opportunities for brands to gain wallet share and stand out. 

Despite a challenging macroeconomic climate this year, Contentsquare says investing in a holistic digital strategy has never been more critical. Moreover, with high web and app traffic on the horizon, making a great first impression is the first step to winning over customers and boosting retention.   

Dave Anderson, VP of Product Marketing and Strategy at Contentsquare, says: "A successful holiday season starts with preparing your site to provide a positive CX that drives conversion and maximises increased traffic."

"On the other hand, if you aren't actively monitoring your front-end experience, you run the risk of losing customers and revenue. And most of these customers won't come back."

Anderson will dive further into the topic at the third edition of Contentsquare's CX Circle in Sydney, Australia's premier digital experience analytics immersive experience for leading brands and CX experts, on 11 October 2023. 

The event takes place at Allianz Stadium and heralds the new era of digital experience with a lineup of speakers from different industries. Among the speakers are Jeremy Nicholas, Digital Channels Executive at Telstra; Jason Markou, Digital Accessibility Lead at the University of Sydney; Maddy Baxter-Smith, Ecommerce Manager at New Balance; Scott Shillinglaw, Senior Digital Product Manager at Koala; Paula Mitchell, GM Digital at Freedom Furniture; and Tracy Jones-Harris, Head of Digital & Ecommerce at Camilla.

Topics to be discussed include the pivotal role of digital experience in building brand equity and business impact, strategies for embarking on an accessibility journey, leading global organisational change through data and customer insights and navigating career shifts in an evolving landscape.