Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. I love Thanksgiving, but retailers and other businesses care about only one thing…the day after tomorrow, the first day of the Christmas shopping season. For most businesses, especially retailers, Christmas business accounts for more than 80% of their annual revenue.
This year’s shopping season is more important than ever. The entire economy is counting on retailers having a good shopping season, on you and I showing our confidence in the economy by shopping til our cards are smokin’.
I’m writing today because I probably won’t tomorrow just to pass on a couple of bits:
First, if you’ve just started a business venture, Christmas can be a wonderful time, a time when people will try and buy bunches of things they might not ordinarily buy. When I started my first business, the Christmas shopping season gave me my first real shot in the arm–financially speaking. I owned a coffee house on a college campus. I’d been open 4 months and hadn’t sold any of the nifty coffee and tea merchandise I’d stocked my shelves with.
Then, right on cue, the holidays hit and my now dusty merchandise starting flying off the shelves, as did my “I-printed-this-on-my-home-computer” gift certificates. All I had to do was put a little holly and snow men on the packaging and in my windows. Suddenly, everything I sold was a great gift idea.
Last year, I started an affiliate marketing business. Last Christmas was the practice season, my opportunity to work out the kinks in time for next season. It was a rather barren season because, while I made sure that I had product to sell, I neglected to line up my advertising and marketing efforts to draw customers. Needless to say, I didn’t have a great holiday.
The moral of this little tale is that you need to be prepared for your peak shopping season, whenever that is. Here’s how.
6 KEYS TO MAXIMIZING YOUR PEAK SHOPPING SEASON
- Begin your planning as soon as possible. Remember that many retailers begin setting their Christmas aisles the day after Halloween.
- Create a checklist to guide your preparation.
- Estimate the quantities of each of your merchandise or products you believe you can sell based on your prior sales trends. Don’t over-order, but do order enough to maximize your sales.
- Don’t forget to order bags and packaging, especially gift boxes and envelopes for gift certificates. Packaging makes ordinary gift cards or everyday merchandise seem more festive or seasonal. Don’t forget to bundle hot items with slower movers, where it makes sense. This way, shoppers get the hot items and you get rid of a lot of old inventory.
- Plan advertising and marketing. Nothing worse than having a party and forgetting to send invites.
- Staff your business generously. If you have an online or mail-order business, make sure your technology (order processing, payment processing and shipping) works. Keep your webmaster on-call for the big day.
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