If you have an online store, a good part of the year is spent between November and January. Black Friday, Christmas and sales concentrate a huge part of the turnover in a few weeks.
And it is just when there is the worst time to discover that something is not working.
October is the month to review. There is still room to fix without rushing, and any changes can be tested with normal traffic. This is the list.
1. Check that it can really be bought
It seems obvious and it is the least done. Don't look at the product sheet: complete an entire purchase, from start to finish, actually paying with your own card (then you get reimbursed).
Check the entire route:
- Add to cart, change quantities, delete
- Apply a coupon
- Fill in the shipping information
- View correct shipping costs
- Pay with each method you have active
- Receive the confirmation email
And do it from your mobile, which is where most people buy. Many checkout issues only appear on small screens.
2. Check payment gateways one by one
If you have several payment methods, try them all. It is common for one to have been failing for months and no one knows about it, simply because the clients who tried it left without warning.
Also check:
- That the gateway certificates and credentials are not expired
- That you are not in trial mode by mistake (it happens more than it seems after an update)
- That strong authentication (3D Secure) works
3. See if it can withstand the peak of traffic
Your store works well with visitors on any given Tuesday. The question is what happens with five or ten times as many people at the same time.
Critical points:
- Cache. Fundamental, but be careful: the cart and the checkout should never be searched. If frisked, customers can see another's cart. Check that they are excluded
- Hosting limits. Talk to your provider and ask directly if your plan can withstand a spike. Many allow you to temporarily expand resources
- The database. In WooCommerce it is the one that suffers: every order, every cart and every session writes to it
4. Balance the stock
Selling something you don't have is one of the worst mistakes in a campaign: you cancel, return the money and lose the customer forever.
- Check that the system stock matches the real one
- Set up low stock notifications
- Decide what happens when something is out of stock: is it hidden, is it shown out of stock, is reservation allowed?
- If you sync with another system, check that the sync works
5. Prepare automatic emails
WooCommerce emails are part of the shopping experience and are almost always as they came out of the box.
Check that they arrive (and that they don't go to spam), that they look good on mobile, and that they say what they have to say: confirmation, order in preparation, sent with your tracking number.
A specific check: make sure that the “order completed” email does not arrive before the order is actually shipped.
6. Make the shipping and returns policy clear
During the Christmas season, two questions decide many purchases: Does it arrive on time? and can I return it?
- Publish the deadline to receive before Christmas, clearly visible
- Extend the return period for gift purchases, and say so
- Make shipping costs clear before checkout, not as a final surprise
This is not technical, but it converts more than almost any optimization.
7. Back up more often
During the campaign, each hour contains orders. If your copy is daily and needs to be restored, you could lose an entire day of sales.
Increase the frequency while the peak lasts. And check that the restore works before, not the day you need it.
8. Freeze changes when boot
This is the most important rule and the one that is most difficult to comply with.
Once the campaign starts, nothing is updated. No plugins, no theme, no WordPress, unless it is a critical security update.
Make all updates now, in October, with time to check. And starting in mid-November, the store is not touched except in emergencies.
A simple calendar
- October: updates, full review, trial purchases, performance adjustments
- First weeks of November: last checks, increase frequency of copies, prepare campaign texts
- From mid-November: freeze changes, monitor
- January: resume updates and review what failed
And if you prefer to have someone watching
A store is more delicate than a corporate website: it handles payments, stock and customer data, and a failure has immediate costs.
Our plan for WooCommerce stores It includes payment gateway and cart monitoring, more frequent copies and priority support, just thinking about these periods.
But even if you take it: make the list above in October. In November there is no time to discover problems.
Would you prefer us to review it? Take a look at our WordPress maintenance service either tell us what your website needs and we will respond to you in less than 24 hours.