It’s the holiday season and your business is ready to make some happy shoppers and gift givers. But keeping customers happy and keeping your business focused through the holidays can be trickier than driving a one horse open sleigh. Paying attention to the following 5 ways will ensure your business is laser-focused through the holiday stretch, and will provide your business with durability for any shopping rush.
Keep Product in Stock
Nothing is worse than a customer wanting a product you sell and it is out of stock. Ok, there could be worse things, but that is one that you don’t want to worry about come mid-holiday season. Prepare for the long haul by keeping product in stock. Supplying larger amounts of inventory could lower the upfront cost to stock the shelves per unit, and if the items do not sell you can push them beyond the holiday season. Stock up to sell out.
Coordinate Coverage
Hiring and staffing for the holiday season should also increase as you anticipate an increase in customer traffic. Finding coverage in advance is crucial to ensuring you don’t get distracted by staff calling out sick, leaving for holiday vacations, or the unfortunate circumstances that arise when working with temporary holiday staff. Coordinate the coverage as far in advance as possible, and create a plan to guarantee that if one employee falls out of the mix, your whole plan for staff duties does not unravel.
Set Benchmarks
Finding out what the upcoming season looks like one day at a time could cloud your judgment, business decisions, and plans for the totality of the holiday stretch. Outline your next few months of holiday rush with a “syllabus” of sorts. Map out benchmarks, sales, and marketing ideas. Structure the staff, supply, and price points that you want. When holidays come around, execute the plan and follow the predetermined benchmarks. Don’t base your decisions on one day’s worth of good or bad business.
Enjoy the Business
While the holidays can be stressful, try to enjoy the increased sales, new faces, and products you are getting into the homes of possible new or new long-term customers. Try to enjoy each transaction and allow yourself to profit from not only the financial aspects, but from the relationships, new contacts, and extra attention at your store.
Prepare Now
Don’t wait to plan for the holiday rush the week before. Plan and prepare now. Try and assess what products may be best sellers, survey your customers on what items they may want for holiday gift giving, or even start developing promotions for the holiday deals you will be offering. Do not wait for the season to get underway before you start planning for what you want to accomplish. Prepare now.
It’s the most wonderful time of the year and your business can be ready to embrace it and capitalize on it. Start today and implement the 5 tips to keep your focus during the season so you can pay more attention to sales and customers, and less attention to hoping reindeer will land on your roof bringing you extra customers. Start planning today so you can enjoy the holiday rush!
