Update on Summer 2020 Seasonality Trends

Summer, and therefore a holiday season, brings many challenges for the e-commerce industry. For some, it is the best time for sale, for others – the dead period. To make the most of the upcoming months, it is worth looking at user’s search trends so that we can better plan content on our site and optimize the online store for the most popular key phrases of the season. 

Trends Now

In June, we can prepare for summer sales, e.g. clothing, which for many online stores is a great opportunity to sell collections in stock. As it gets warmer outside, many consumers are looking to buy garden pools and other water accessories to ensure their own comfort and refreshment during hot summer days. Stores offering water equipment may already see greater interest in their product range in June, which will continue for the next two months.
Online bookstores, in line with search trends, should also extend their promotional efforts to summer books, which readers are already searching for online in June.

Let’s check Seasonal Trends in Numbers

Summer sales (search volume – 18 100)

Above ground pools (search volume – 550 000)

Kiddie pool (search volume – 246 000)

Kayaks for sale (search volume – 165 000)

Summer books (search volume – 4400)

What are the upcoming trends? Summer 2020 Seasonality Trends

In the coming two or even three months, e-commerce industries offering typical summer and holiday products will experience a real sales boom. It is worth remembering that the competition is not sleeping and those owners of online stores who prepare in advance for the season will gain the most.
Therefore, June is the last moment to look at upcoming trends in our category and optimize the store for popular key phrases of the holiday season. Over the next two months, especially if summer turns out to be extremely hot, product categories such as: summer clothing, air conditioners, school accessories (i.e. preparation for return to school) or bicycle equipment will grow in popularity.

Summer outfit (search volume – 1 600)

Air conditioner (search volume – 1 200 000)

School supplies (search volume  – 368 000)

Bike shop (search volume – 550 000)

What Are the Pro Tips for the Summer Season 2020?

1. First of all, it is worth preparing your store in terms of relevant content related to the summer season, so that your products will be easier to find for users. A good step towards increasing the visibility of the store in organic results in the season is optimization of metadata, category or product descriptions for phrases related to the summer.
   
   
2. If you have a blog or a guide section within your store, prepare a compendium of knowledge about summer products for your customers.
   Share some tips on choosing the right size, product model or matching the clothing to the shape of their figure. If you offer specialized products, such as water or sports equipment, publish articles that answer questions frequently asked by customers. Remember to point out products to accompany your recommendations.
   
   
3. Use the power of conversational keywords and add them into the blog section content.
   For example, instead of using the header “Above ground pool in our online store” use the phrase “Where to buy above ground pool?” and then answer this question by pointing to your store. This way you will increase the chance that your store will appear in the voice search results.
   
   
4. Prepare your server for increased traffic in the summer season. Thanks to this, you can prevent the situation where users are not able to view elements of the page in the period of the greatest interest in your products.
   
   
5. Monitor the position of key phrases related to the summer offering. If you notice drops or current positions are below the top 10, thus not generating organic traffic to the site, take a look at the technical aspects of the store which can negatively affect the store’s position in the search results. You can also think about implementing off-site activities, such as link building.

What if summer is a dead season for your store?

Of course, not every e-commerce will experience an increase in traffic in the summer – it is closely related to the type of product range. If your store practically does not generate sales in the summer, but it does so around Christmas or at the beginning of the cold months, use this time to prepare for “Your season”. Remember that it usually takes from 2 to 4, or even 6 months to see the effects of SEO efforts, so if you start to implement some solutions now, you can expect them to yield some results in December.

1. Create a section dedicated to your Christmas offering in your store. It can be a separate landing page within the domain of the store or an existing store category that you will optimize for Christmas phrases, eg “Christmas gifts”, “Winter shoes” etc.
   
   
2. Prepare gift guides or stylebooks related to your product lines. Strengthen them with internal linking within your store and start promoting them with external activities, e.g. link building. With this, you will increase the chance that around November, when users start searching the Internet for specific topics, your guide books will occupy top positions in search results.

Did you know that Google announced the implementation of a very large and important update called Google Page Experience Update in 2021? So use the dead season to prepare yourself for it. In the article on our blog, you will find some tips on what to pay attention to: https://insightland.org/2020/06/05/user-experience-in-seo/

Take advantage of summertime to increase traffic on your site

Regardless of whether your product range is very popular in the summer or not, it is a great time to work on increasing the number of visits on your e-commerce website. The tips I’ve shared with you are a great starting point. If you want to use the upcoming months even better, I’ll be glad to support you with my experience. Both in terms of technical improvements affecting the position of the store in search engines, and insightful content strategies that will help you stand out from the competition. Have a great summer season!