5 To do’s for a successful season with your e-commerce store
I know the kids haven’t long gone back to school, the Halloween candy hasn’t been eaten and as for preparing for Christmas this year there is all kinds of scare mongering about whether we’ll be eating Christmas turkeys or pot noodles.
Either way, as e-commerce store owners you should now be busy preparing, if not even implementing, your Christmas strategy to ensure a successful season for your business.
I’ve put 5 to do that’s you must do to prepare for a successful season.
Be Prepared — the tech
First and for most be ready.
Your website needs to start showing signs that you’re getting ready for Christmas, now this can be as simple as a blog post, a few mentions on social media or even going all out with a dedicated Christmas category.
You should be ensuring your e-commerce store can handle both a surge of traffic at any point as well having all the correct pictures, wording, specifications and more.
Don’t forget to also start hinting towards your current customers about some of the exciting treats or events that you may be running for Christmas. Some ideas could include doing a special give away on each day of the 12 days of Christmas.
So send your current customer base an email, all Christmassy like.
Get creative with your strategy but ensure your tech is up to date and you’re ready for the demand.
Christmas Stock
Its no secret there is a shortage of lorry drivers, depending on your view point you can blame Brexit for that or even the media.
However a business that doesn’t have the stock to fulfil its customers orders isn’t going to be around for very long. So get those orders placed with your suppliers now and get the marketing done ASAP.
Ensuring you have enough stock in place will ensure your customers are not disappointed.
Ensure you have researched what products, within your industry are going to be at the top of everyone’s Christmas list this year.
Black Friday
If you’re in the UK you will remember the pandemonium of the first attempt of Black Friday with people literally going mad for TV’s at £199 a throw.
However, today we’re a little more civilised some retailers are promising to start their Black Friday at the beginning of November. The official date for the event is Friday November 26th.
However, if you’re contemplating in taking part in Black Friday remember and this will come as no surprise, Amazon leads the way with the best deals and bargains.
This is closely followed by the major retailers including Currys PC World, John Lewis, Argos and for those who are looking for HP orders Very.
Keep an eye on your margins during Black Friday and take the time to find what products are hot and which of those products can deliver the best return on your investment.
Christmas Packaging
Hey, look, its Christmas so let's not be a scrooge about things.
Spend a bit of time investing in Christmas packaging for your products. This could be as far as offering gift wrapping services for your customers to as simple as delivering the products wrapped in Christmas theme, branded packaging.
Spend sometime on this and really deliver that sense of Christmas to every persons door this year, after all it has been one hell of a couple of years with Covid.
Logistics — don’t screw it up
Each year there are customers that don’t get their orders. The items are either lost in the post, don’t arrive on time, arrived damaged or worse get eaten by the dog.
As an e-commerce retailer it is your responsibility to ensure the product leaves your hands safely and ideally lands with your customers in the same manner it left your warehouse.
So ensure your items are properly packaged up and are sent in good time. If you’re offering guarantees like, “guaranteed by Christmas” then make sure it is delivered by then. The day after Boxing Day isn’t in time for Christmas.
Equally, it comes as no surprise that the shortage of HGV drivers has had a major impact on logistics. So make sure you’ve secured your logistics provider and they have the capacity, as well as a plan B should there be a problem with HGV drivers.
Let's make Christmas a good one this year and have no disappointments for your customers.
Go get them.
Robert Haylor
