Three Ways To Ensure Your Business Has A Successful Christmas Season
Christmas is just around the corner, and everyone knows that it is the most important and crucial time for businesses. A successful holiday season can set up a company for the next year, allowing them to further develop and ensure a good head start for spring and summer. Planning is key to success, and while planning for the Christmas season should start very early on, there are always things you can add to give you that extra push.
Here are three quick tips that you can easily add to your strategy to ensure that you have a great holiday season as a business.
Make sure that your online presence is strong
Solidifying your online presence can have a massive effect on the growth of your revenue this upcoming holiday season. First of all, due to the pandemic, most people will be shopping online from the comfort and safety of their own homes. Lightspeed surveyed small retail businesses and found those who sold both online and in-person in 2020 saw a 75% increase in sales. This means that your consumers need to be able to, firstly, see you in the online space and, secondly, know and be informed as to what is happening with your brand this Christmas period. Even if you have a physical brick and mortar store that will remain open, engage with your customers online via social media platforms, and keep them up to date on specific deals, and new-in products. Not only is this a great way to solidify your relationship with them, but it will also result in greater revenue and sales margins.
If you’re considering expanding your online capabilities, it might be wise to outsource to highly skilled data engineers who can ensure your digital infrastructure can handle the increased demand during the holiday rush. Nearshore outsourcing allows you to scale your development resources up or down as needed without the complexities and time constraints of hiring and firing full-time employees.
Offer a discount on deliveries
Whether your customer has to order in store due to a product being out of stock, or they are ordering online via your eCommerce platform, offering discounts on deliveries in the big run-up to Christmas day is a great way to boost your sales. Delivery costs put many people off from shopping online, so it is an excellent incentive to encourage your visitors to convert into fully-fledged customers, especially during a time where many people have no choice but to shop online. They wouldn’t pay for delivery if they were to buy in-store, so offering a discount is also a great way to empathise with your customers during this difficult time. You could also consider giving an extensive discount, or even, free next-day deliveries to target last-minute shoppers. Not only will it boost your sales, but it will also increase your company’s presence and broaden your reach at the same time, thanks to consumers recommending you to their friends and family. If you are concerned about shipping and delivery costs, check how much your business can save via affordable freight shipping, especially when it comes to large quantities and international deliveries.
Plan your stock
With the instability of the current economic climate and the subsequent impact this has had on businesses, it is understandable that it may be hard to know how to plan stock levels and what to expect this year in general. While Christmas hasn’t been cancelled, the one certainty that we all have is that it is going to be different from previous years. That being said, do some prior research and figure out your best selling products and ensure that you always have a backup, or a similar product alternative, for when you run out of your most popular items. Another great way to gauge which products to re-stock is via an online notification option should a particular item or size sell-out. Customers who are after this item will sign up to an email alert which will notify them when it is back in stock, providing you clear and reliable information directly from the consumers themselves as to what stock you should have in supply.