Ready Your Business for the Holidays Before Winter Comes
Ready your business for the holidays – it’s never too early! If you have a retail business, no doubt you know that the holidays can be the most profitable time of the year. But if you’re not prepared for them, it can be the most headache-filled time of the year.
Ready Your Inventory and Supplies
Start by looking at last year’s sales numbers to get an idea of what products or services will top your sales. Then you’ll want to order extra inventory, or raw materials. And if you’re shipping your products, don’t forget shipping supplies. Do this well in advance to avoid shortages.
You may want to concentrate on your core best-sellers and keep the focus on them. Limit new items to a select few.
Ready Your Staff
Figure out if you need longer business hours, and plan out employee shifts ahead of time. You may discover you need to take on extra staff for the busy times. Try cross-training your staff so they can cover gaps when things get busy.
Drawing on previous years’ experiences, plan ahead for your cutoff dates for orders and shipping in time for the holidays.
Ready Your Marketing
Make sure your email list is up-to-date. Then you can send ongoing emails to loyal customers and new subscribers. Use your emails and your website to release special offers in phases. You can aim for Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday, for example, and keep your customers aware of those cutoff dates you’ve got planned. Offer some last-minute gift possibilities for those procrastinating customers.
And speaking of your website, make sure your online store is mobile friendly, since a majority of your customers will probably be using their phones to shop. Make sure your website loads quickly, and play up the holidays on your landing page. And make a splash with holiday decorations at your brick-and-mortar location, if you have one!
If you do have a storefront, be sure to plan some in-store events. Families especially are looking for fun things to do during the holidays. Also, consider creating gift bundles for different kinds of recipients (men, women, teens, pets, etc.) – pre-wrapped, even! Shoppers tend to spend more on a bundle, and they aren’t as readily available through big online retailers.
Links
The Small Business Administration has a Small Business Saturday webpage to help both small businesses and shoppers take advantage of the once-a-year opportunity.
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