Spring is one of the most energising times of year for eCommerce businesses. People are coming out of their winter mindset, starting to spend on their homes, gardens, wardrobes and lifestyles, and they are very much open to discovering new brands and products. If you have an online shop, this is a brilliant time to make the most of your SEO, social media and paid advertising, and to start thinking about how you present your brand to the world.
Here is a look at some of the things worth doing this spring to get more from your eCommerce website.
Before you push any traffic to your website, it is worth making sure your product pages are in good shape. Spring is a good prompt to audit them. Check that your descriptions are clear and accurate, your images are high quality, and your pricing is up to date. If you have been meaning to add size guides, care instructions or FAQs to certain products, now is the time.
Well-written product pages do more than just inform. They also help you rank in search results. Google wants to see pages that give users everything they need to make a confident purchase decision, so the more useful detail you include, the better.
Spring brings a natural shift in what people are searching for. Searches for garden furniture, outdoor clothing, home décor, sports equipment and gifting (Mother’s Day and Easter both fall in spring) all tend to rise significantly between March and May. If any of those categories are relevant to your products, this is a great window to push your SEO efforts.
Think about the specific phrases your customers use. Someone might not search for “outdoor seating” but they will search for “garden chairs for a small patio” or “bistro table and chairs for a balcony.” Targeting more specific search terms, sometimes called long-tail keywords, is often more effective for smaller eCommerce businesses because there is less competition for those phrases.
If you have a blog or news section on your website, spring is a great time to publish helpful, seasonal content. A gift guide for Mother’s Day, a “how to style your outdoor space” article, or a “what to look for when buying X” post can all bring in traffic and keep people on your website for longer.
Spring content performs well on social media because it is naturally visual and uplifting. Brighter days, fresh colours and seasonal themes are things people respond to, and that energy can work in your favour if you are putting out content regularly.
A few things that tend to work well for eCommerce brands on social media during spring:
Research from Space & Time’s UK eCommerce statistics report found that search engines are the primary way UK adults discover new products and brands online, followed by recommendations from friends and family, and then social media advertising. That does not mean social media is not worth your time. It means the best results come from using all three together, and each one reinforces the others.
If you run Google Ads or Meta Ads for your eCommerce business, spring is a good time to revisit your campaigns. Refresh your ad copy and creatives to reflect the season, update any promotions that are running and make sure your product feed is up to date if you are running Shopping ads.
Spring also gives you natural hooks for your ad messaging. Seasonal angles tend to perform better than generic product descriptions because they tap into what people are already thinking about. “Perfect for the Easter weekend” or “Ready for the garden this spring” is more compelling than “Buy now.”
It is also worth looking at your audience targeting. If you have been running ads for a while, you will have data on who converts best. Spring is a good time to tighten your targeting and focus your budget on the audiences that have performed well, rather than casting too wide a net.
Email might feel less exciting than social media, but it consistently delivers strong results for eCommerce businesses. Your email list is made up of people who have already shown an interest in your brand, which makes them much more likely to buy than a cold audience.
A spring-themed email campaign does not need to be complicated. A short roundup of new arrivals, a seasonal offer or a helpful piece of content is enough. The key is to make it timely, relevant and easy to act on. Keep your subject lines clear and direct, make sure the email looks good on a mobile phone, and give people one clear thing to do, whether that is shop a new collection, use a discount code or read a blog post.
If spring is bringing more visitors to your website, the last thing you want is for them to leave because pages load too slowly or the checkout is awkward on a mobile. More than half of all online shopping in the UK now happens on a smartphone, so a good mobile experience is not optional.
Check how your website performs on a phone. Is the text easy to read? Are the buttons easy to tap? Is the checkout process quick and simple? If you spot problems, it is worth getting them fixed before you put money behind driving traffic.
Spring is packed with moments that give eCommerce businesses something to talk about. Mother’s Day, Easter, Earth Day, the May bank holidays and the start of warmer weather are all genuine reasons to connect with your customers and showcase your products. You do not need to tie every campaign to a specific date, but having a loose content calendar with these events marked out will help you stay consistent and plan ahead.
The businesses that do best with seasonal marketing are the ones who start planning a few weeks early rather than scrambling at the last minute. A Mother’s Day campaign that goes out two weeks before the day will always outperform one that goes out the day before.
If you want to stay on top of SEO, paid advertising, social media and eCommerce trends, these are some of the most reliable places to keep an eye on.
Whether you want to improve your search rankings, get more from your paid ads or make your website work harder for you, the team at b:web would love to help. Get in touch and let’s talk about what spring could look like for your business.
