Christmas survival guide: Advice from small businesses to small businesses
After a year of uncertainty, we can be sure that Christmas 2020 will be like no other. The pandemic has caused underlying trends to accelerate and there has been a structural shift to a move online. Despite shops opening in June, online spending continues to boom and consumers are shopping earlier than ever for the festive season — searches on notonthehighstreet are double what they were this time last year.
So what does this mean for the hundreds of thousands of small businesses up and down the country, for whom Christmas is critical to their year round survival?
SMEs have, in main, been able to capitalise upon their agility and swiftly adapt to the changing situation caused by Covid-19. As part of Make Do & Meet, our annual gathering of the 5,000 entrepreneurs who sell with notonthehighstreet, we asked four of our small businesses Partners to share their lessons from previous Christmases, give advice on how to make the most of retail’s peak spending period, without burning out, and to answer questions from the wider Partner community.
Prepare to be busy
Kate and John, the husband and wife team behind A Year of Dates, talked in depth about being prepared for a huge spike in sales — particularly if your products are being promoted in the notonthehighstreet Christmas marketing campaign. This can be a shock for new businesses who aren’t used to seeing large order volumes. While no one can ever predict how many items you will sell, establishing a well-honed conveyor belt system to get your products assembled and out of the door that is understood by all involved will certainly help. They also cautioned fellow businesses not to feel overwhelmed and to reach out if it all feels too much.
Prepping in advance was also advocated by Sanjay, founder of Spice Kitchen. Having been caught short at a previous Christmas he recommended buying in as many non-perishable supplies ahead of peak as possible.
Sanjay also talked about hiring staff ahead of peak so they can be fully trained for when the busy period hits. He advised not to feel reluctant to hire or guilty for not being on ‘the shopfloor’. If you are spending your time packing boxes, he questioned when will you be able to focus on the areas that can grow your business and ensure you can survive year round.
Norfolk based jewellery company Eclectic Eccentricity talked about consumers being ‘sale savvy’ around Christmas, with people holding off for Black Friday deals and other discounts. Last year, 60% of their sales happened in the last five weeks before Christmas. To prepare, this year the business is already staffing up and hiring to try and get ahead of the rush.
Check your stock
Family-run Steepletone talked about the issue of stock management and how hard it can be to anticipate what you might need, particularly if you offer a range of options. His advice was to look closely at what was popular last year but to be prepared to sell around four times the amount what you would normally. His top tip was to not offer too many options to customers — while personalisation of a product is brilliant, too much choice may be confusing and there is a danger of the interest not converting to a sale.
All our Partners agreed that having enough stock was a big issue for small businesses to meet demand, but preparation ahead of the busy weeks was the key to success. The pandemic is also causing some delivery problems and lead times to increase, so give more time than you think is necessary so you aren’t caught out.
Avoid the burn out — staff when you need to
The conversation moved on to how to staff at Christmas, particularly if you are working alone.
Spice Kitchen talked about how difficult it was to let go of the mentality that you have to do everything in the company, even when you do hire staff. Having a good team around you to support you through the peak will really help — and plan to have time off in January as November and December will be an intense period.
The need for the right kit at peak was also highlighted by A Year of Dates. They shared that their first Christmas as a small business their equipment only allowed them to create one personalised gift every 30 minutes, and demand almost outstripped what they could physically do. As a result they had to work around the clock. The company chose to invest in more equipment rather than staff for the following Christmas to change their production time to six boxes every five minutes, dramatically increasing their output.
Steepletone also noted that when hiring staff as a small business, it is important to reiterate to employees that roles will be multi-functional and often you need a ‘all hands on deck’ mentality in order to get through peak.
For Eclectic Eccentricity, social media is a strong recruitment channel. The pandemic has also forced them to reconsider how they recruit and staff up for peak, while keeping their studio socially distanced. Their solution has been to train new team members up to work from home, and this has also opened up recruitment of people who are looking for flexibility as to where and when they can work.
All the Partners agreed that small gestures when work is really busy go a long way to motivate staff — a free breakfast, thoughtful note of praise or even an earlier pay in December were some of the suggested ideas.
How to keep your customers happy
The session wrapped up with questions from the virtual audience. Many of the businesses who joined notonthehighstreet this year were keen to know if customer enquiries changed at Christmas and how to best prepare.
Eclectic Eccentricity noted that Christmas is a time of high emotion and, when time is tight, they often find that the customer’s don’t read the information provided as carefully as they normally work, particularly around delivery times.. They suggested preparing a set of thoughtfully written template emails answering key questions — and to always make sure you have the customer’s name right when responding.
Spice Kitchen noted that high levels of customer service is key to setting your business apart from competitors, and that it is crucial for SMEs to offer the personal touch that big companies simply can’t do.
Setting aside dedicated time to answer enquiries, rather than allowing them to pepper through your day and become a distraction, was another top tip from A Year of Dates.
All the small businesses agreed that ‘Where’s my order?’ was the most common question asked in the run up to Christmas, and advised tracking your deliveries to save admin which can be so time consuming.
With Christmas less than 100 days away, the panel closed on a high talking about their excitement for the next quarter, in what will surely be a busy but fulfilling time.
To see what notonthehighstreet has in store for Christmas 2020, click here.
If the advice has inspired you to set up your own small business or if you would like to sell with notonthehighstreet, our application form to join our Partner community is here.
