As summer draws to a close, businesses should start gearing up for the holiday season rush. The end of summer is the perfect time to begin preparations to ensure a smooth and successful holiday season. In this blog, we’ll cover a comprehensive checklist to help you get ready to make this your business’ best holiday season yet!
Review and Analyze Last Year’s Performance
The first step in preparing for the holiday season is to analyze your performance and analytics from last year. Take a look at your sales data and determine what sold well and what didn’t. There’s no sense in spending funding to stock items or prepare dishes that didn’t have a solid ROI. Take a look at reviews from the holiday season last year. Were there weak points in your customer service? Take note so that you can improve them this year. Lastly, look at what items flew off the shelves early and prepare to increase your inventory this year.
Plan Your Marketing Campaigns
Whether you do your marketing in-house or work with an agency, now is the time to start your preliminary planning. During this phase, start by setting the goals you’re looking to achieve and laying out what your expectations are. Create a calendar that has product launches or major events you need to advertise. Plan your marketing activities, email campaigns, promotions, and social posts around these benchmarks. If you’re planning to have a theme for your holiday marketing, now is the time to choose so that your marketing team has time to create more detailed content.
Update Your Website
If your website is not optimized or updated, now is the time to make sure you’re taking steps to get it done. With every holiday season more and more shopping is done online and having a website that is not optimized is guaranteed to lose you business. Ensure your website is mobile-friendly, as many shoppers will be browsing from their phones. Optimize your website to handle increased traffic and reduce load times, especially if you’re planning large product launches. Also, make sure your website is easy to navigate, with clear categories and search functionality so customers can find what they’re looking for with as few clicks as possible.
Stock Up on Inventory
Now is the time to start analyzing last year’s data and current trends for your business to make inventory decisions. It’s time to start discussing your needs with your suppliers and having a plan in place for when holiday deliveries should start, ensuring that you build in enough time to make corrections if there are any errors with your orders. Depending on the nature of your business, if you need supplemental storage you should start making those arrangements now so you are not trying to run a business during a busy season with an overflowing storage space.
Enhance Customer Service
Tensions can often be high during the holiday rush, so dedicating time to enhancing your customer service in advance is key. Make sure that you are training staff and running through stressful scenarios that might arise. Decide early on if you will be having extended holiday hours so your staff can make accommodations and you aren’t faced with a last-minute lack of staffing. Develop your customer support strategies now whether it’s a live chat feature on your website, a dedicated email line for complaints, or a point person on your staff who will handle customer support.
Optimize Your Shipping Process
If your business sees a large uptick in patronage during the holidays, now is the time to make sure you have plans to handle the upcoming shipping demand. Calculate shipping deadlines, the farther from the holidays that your deadlines are, the earlier you need to inform your customers of those deadlines. Explore all of the shipping options available to you and make the decisions now about which methods will be best for both you and your customers. Don’t forget to stock up on shipping supplies as well!
Decide on Promotions and Discounts
Do not wait until two days before Black Friday to decide to run offer promotions and discounts. Deciding on promotions well in advance gives your business time to stock up on inventory, develop loyalty programs, or advertise discounts so your customer base is aware of them and can plan to shop your sales. Give your marketing team time to prepare for special discounts and promotions to ensure that your deliverables are up to standard for your business.
Review Return Policies
Some shoppers start their holiday shopping early, so if you’re developing new return policies for the season, now is the time to make those policies clear to your customers. They should be clearly stated before your customers make a purchase. While no business wants returns, consider offering extended return periods and customer-friendly policies as a way to build good faith with your customers. In some instances strict return policies are necessary but if the nature of your product does not necessitate harsh policies, consider offering generous and hassle-free return policies so customers who do make returns are more inclined to make future purchases.
Plan for Staffing Needs
Don’t wait until all of the best staff are hired for the season to decide you need additional staff. Talk to your employees about the previous season and assess where they felt they needed additional staff, if at all. Put feelers out early so you have ample time to hire competent holiday staff. Also, pay attention to peak times in your schedule. Ensure that you have enough staff during your peak times, especially since your employees are more likely to have events or illnesses that could lead to them calling out.