by Angie Ash, Executive Vice President
Ah, summer. The season of barbecues, lazy weekend days at the pool or beach, vacations and lemonade stands. Depending on your sales history, it can also mean a generally slower time of year for your business. Take advantage of the extra time you may have on your hands to start planning for your biggest sales season, the holidays, with your staff.
Things to do:
Plan your store decorating scheme. From simple to elaborate, all-white to sparklingly colorful, setting the tone for your store’s holiday vibe now will go a long way toward making you feel more relaxed once it’s really time to deck the halls. Get into your holiday décor storage area to see what may still be useable and purge broken ornaments or light strands that no longer work. Decide on any special holiday wrapping paper and trimmings to coordinate with your theme. Don’t forget adding a holiday playlist or two to keep the atmosphere festive. If you regularly offer coffee and water to customers, consider adding cocoa and holiday cookies to your offerings.
Go over last year’s promotions and discuss what worked and didn’t work. Do holiday offers need to be adjusted? Examine your marketing plan and the dollars you spent on advertising during the holidays. Do any of your advertising mechanisms need to be changed? If you are going to offer special pricing on popular classics during the holidays, make sure you plan to order accordingly. Take stock of your inventory and make sure any jewelry orders you placed to be ready for the holidays will still be arriving on time. If you had a holiday party, review any notes you took on the amount of food or spirts you may have served and what kind. Did you run out of anything? Does the party timeframe need to be adjusted? Were you so slammed that you couldn’t fulfill sales?
Review your inner workings. Were there any staffing issues? Do your holiday hours need to be changed? What were your peak selling periods? Is everyone trained on your POS? There is no better time to acquire customer data. Discuss wish lists and their fulfillment.
Don’t forget about your website. Make sure you plan to have it updated in a timely fashion with your holiday hours. Change up a few banners to reflect your holiday theme. Consider adding a holiday product gallery of popular pieces.
Be charitable. Investigate a local food bank, children’s charity or other nonprofit to support. When holiday madness ensues, it will help center you, knowing you’re giving back to those in need.
By getting a jump start now, you can stress less this coming holiday—and maybe even enjoy a glass of holiday cheer or two!
If reading this article makes you realize you need some holiday help stat, email us at suits@fruchtman.com.
