Diwali falls on 23 October this year, which leaves a little over three weeks. For a small online seller, these weeks can bring more orders than several normal months put together. They can also bring the worst customer complaints of the year if a gift box reaches someone on the 25th, or reaches them crushed.
Most of the trouble we see with Diwali online store orders has nothing to do with marketing. It comes from stock running out, courier delays, unclear cut-off dates and nobody answering the phone. So before you put up a single festive banner, it is worth spending a day on the boring parts.
Start with stock, not with offers
Look at what sold well over the last few months and around last Diwali, if you were selling then. Decide which products you will push for the festival and make sure you actually have enough of them, or that your supplier can deliver more within a few days.
Then be honest on the website. If a product is out of stock, mark it clearly or hide it. Few things annoy a customer more than paying for a gift and getting a call two days later saying it is not available. If you sell made-to-order items, such as personalised hampers or printed boxes, put the making time on the product page in plain words.
For food products, especially sweets, dry fruits and namkeen, check shelf life against delivery time. A product that is fine for ten days may not survive a slow courier to a small town plus a week in the customer’s cupboard before the festival.
Know your courier cut-off dates
Every courier gets overloaded in the week before Diwali. Call your courier partner, or the account manager if you use an aggregator, and ask directly:
- What is the last pickup date for delivery before Diwali to metro cities?
- What about smaller towns and remote pin codes?
- Will cash on delivery orders take longer?
- Are pickups happening on Sundays and on Dhanteras?
- Will the office be shut on Diwali and the days after, and for how long?
Write the answers down and add a buffer of two or three days to each. That gives you your own cut-off dates. Put them on the home page, on product pages and in the cart: “Order by 16 October for delivery before Diwali in Delhi NCR, Mumbai and Bengaluru. Other cities, order by 13 October.”
Customers can plan around a clear date. What they cannot forgive is being told nothing and receiving the gift after the festival.
Gift orders need a few extra fields
A lot of Diwali orders are gifts sent directly to someone else. Your checkout should make this easy:
- A separate shipping address from the billing address, clearly labelled.
- A gift message box with a sensible character limit, printed neatly on a card, not scribbled on the invoice.
- An option to leave the price off the packing slip.
- A phone number for the receiver, so the courier can actually reach them.
If you offer gift wrapping, show a real photo of how it looks. If you do not, say so. Do not let the customer guess.
Check how your invoice is printed and packed. A gift that arrives with a price sticker on the box can embarrass the person who sent it.
Packing for a rough journey
Parcels in October travel through crowded sorting centres and get stacked high. Glass jars, diyas, idols and decorative items need more protection than usual. Use proper cushioning, double boxes for fragile items, and “Fragile” labels on more than one side.
Pack a few test parcels and send them to friends in different cities before the rush. It is a cheap way to find out whether your packaging holds up.
Cash on delivery: decide your limits now
Cash on delivery is how many Indian shoppers still prefer to pay, and it often brings more orders. It also brings more refused parcels, and in festival season a returned parcel can mean stock that missed its window and a courier charge for nothing.
Some sellers set a maximum order value for COD, or switch COD off for the last few days before their cut-off. Others call COD customers to confirm before dispatch. Whatever you choose, decide now and mention it on the site so customers are not surprised.
Also test your payment gateway with a real small order. Make sure card, net banking and wallet payments are going through and the confirmation emails are reaching inboxes, not spam folders.
Make sure the website can take the traffic
If you are planning to run Facebook ads or send an email campaign, more people will land on your site at the same time than usual. Cheap shared hosting can slow down or fall over. Talk to your hosting company or developer about what to expect.
A few basics to check:
- Open the site on a mobile phone on a normal data connection. How long does the home page take?
- Do a full test order, from adding to cart to the confirmation email.
- Check that the contact number and email on the site are correct and someone is actually monitoring them.
- Take a backup before you change banners, prices or plugins.
Avoid big changes to the website in the middle of the season. A new theme or a plugin update on the 15th is how stores go down on the 16th.
Customer messages that save you phone calls
Most “Where is my order?” calls can be avoided with clear messages. Send an order confirmation that repeats the expected dispatch date. Send the tracking number as soon as the parcel is picked up, by email and SMS if you can. If a parcel is delayed, tell the customer before they ask.
Put your Diwali schedule on the website and your Facebook page: last order dates, the days you will be closed, and when you will start dispatching again after Bhai Dooj. Keep it in one place and link to it from everywhere.
Finally, decide who will answer customer queries during the festival days. If you are a small team, it is fine to say “We will reply to all messages on 27 October.” It is not fine to say nothing.
Then think about promotion
Once the operations side is sorted, promotion becomes simpler. A gift guide by budget, a few clear product photos in festive settings, a reminder email to past customers and a short Facebook ad campaign aimed at the right cities are usually enough for a small brand. The big marketplaces will be running loud sales this month. You do not need to match their discounts. Reliable delivery, careful packing and a personal touch are reasons people buy from smaller online stores in the first place.
If you would like us to look over your store before the rush, from checkout fields to cut-off messages, get in touch this week. There is still time to fix most things before the orders start.
