Retail Holiday Readiness: Getting Started

Welcome to our new mini-series on getting ready for your busiest time of year! For the next month we’ll help you double-check that your online retail shop is ready for the shopping season to begin.

Are you ready for your sales to grow by 12% this season?

According to the National Retail Federation, online holiday sales are forecasted to grow 12% from last year. But as much as you love to see sales increase, a huge growth in such a short  period of time can cause problems. In the coming month, we’re going to explore the path to a smooth and successful holiday season, so that you’re primed to take advantage of the growth potential.

To get be prepared for the holiday season, you’ll need to

1. Stock up + scale up

2. Help the buyers find you

4. Make it easy

5. Make it special

We’ll discuss each of these steps in detail each Thursday, but before we set off, you need to gather some numbers and answer some questions first:

What were your holiday sales (November + December) last year?

What would a 12% increase look like? What’s the number?

How well are you stocked now? Of course you’re planning to stock special holiday-appropriate items, but how many more products will you need to have in stock in order to reach a 12% increase?

Now take a minute to think through your business - everything from ordering, to marketing, to how a sale is made. Where are the inefficiencies? Where do little problems pop up regularly? Now, imagine that with a holiday increase, all of those little problems are going to increase at the same rate...so it’s much simpler to solve them now, before they start costing you serious time and money. For now, make a list of those inefficiencies (and any ideas on fixing them) and we’ll dig into it more next Thursday. 

• taraswiger's blog