According to data published by NRF, over 90% of Americans celebrate winter holidays like Christmas, Kwanzaa, and Hanukkah. Hence, the winter holidays generate more sales than any others. In fact, 20% of all retail revenue is generated during the winter holidays.
Preparation is the foundation of success, so you need to be ready. Let’s take a look at three powerful tips to help you prepare for high-volume December sales.
1. Keep Additional Stock On-Hand
One of the greatest revenue killers is a lack of inventory. The last thing you want is to run out of a hot item prematurely. If this happens, you’ll end up practically siphoning money right from your door to your competitors. Try to predict which products you’re likely to sell the most during the holidays. Then, make sure to order additional stock of these items. Your customers will be happy to buy your stock.
2. Hire Extra Customer Service Staff
What happens when you don’t have enough employees to handle an influx of shoppers, orders, and complaints? Potentially, you are left with irreparable damage to your reputation. All it takes is one terrible review or social media post to make people talk. And, once your brand image is tarnished, it’s difficult and sometimes impossible to repair. Build out your customer service team during the holidays to keep shoppers satisfied.
3. Upgrade Your Tech to Handle Higher Traffic
An often overlooked aspect of holiday sales preparation is technical bandwidth. Think about your website, your POS system, and your WiFi. Imagine what it feels like for your website to crash simply because you have too many orders coming through at one time. Does your current technology have the capability to handle double the amount of traffic and sales it normally manages? If not, consider temporary upgrades to your systems. To do so will help you avoid a tech crash.
Final Thoughts
Maintain your stock, increase your holiday staff, and strengthen your tech so your business is sure to reap the financial rewards of the most wonderful time of the year. Do you have enough cash flow to reach your holiday sales goals? If not, we can help. Apply for working capital to make sure you have everything you need to conquer the seasonal demand.
