Top 6 Ways to Prepare Your Business for Holiday Sales

As the year ends, that means the annual Holiday sales are approaching. Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas shopping, Boxing Day. There are a lot of times during November and December when customers have learned to expect deals on products and services. Taking advantage of this can mean bigger sales and you can attract more customers that can become repeat customers.

Use your inventory effectively

Take stock of what inventory you have. Also, make sure you stock up on your most popular items. Make sure to use information from your previous year to help you understand what items you should stock up on. Also, find the items that sold out too quickly even if they are not your most popular items. Determining your weak spots can help you have a more successful holiday season.

Don’t just offer deals on items and services

Marking down products is not the only way you can offer deals. You should first determine what you are expecting from this holiday sales season. How much profit are you expecting? What are your financial goals? Have you accounted for all of the costs including, for example, marketing?

Rather than offering deals on specific items, maybe you can offer deals on the entire order. One discount strategy is to offer a discount on an order if the customer spends a certain amount. For example, a 15% discount on your order if you spend over $50. You could also offer free shipping as well.

If your business provides a service you can do more than offer a one-time discount. Instead, when someone signs up for your subscription you could offer a free month at a higher tier, for example. Or offer the premium version of the soft for the regular price.

Reward repeat customers or customers that already have an account with you. You can do this by offering people who have purchased something with you in the past a discount on their order. This is also a good strategy to gain repeat customers. Getting people to think of you means they will have a higher chance to support your business throughout the rest of the year.

Prepare your website

The world is increasingly moving online. If you are a store that currently only sells products in person, consider creating an online store. Also, make sure your online store is easy to buy from a mobile phone. On Boxing Day, 63% of Canadians made their purchases from a mobile phone. The ability to purchase, schedule and interact with your business online removes barriers. Fewer barriers mean deciding to actually make a purchase much easier.

If your site is slow or not prepared to receive higher-than-average traffic then you are missing out on sales. It can be hard to estimate how much traffic your small business will receive during the holidays. Using online sales services such as Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce and more can help you create an online store that can handle the traffic. Also using tools like Squarespace and WordPress can help you create a website for your business.

Reconcile your books

Before the holiday season, it is a good idea to reconcile your books. If you don’t know, reconciling your books means comparing your financial statements and other records to records from external sources. These external sources include your credit card statements, banking information, and other sources. Making sure you aren’t behind on your books important before the holidays.

Use social media effectively

Social media is very useful in letting your customers know what you are offering for your sales. Make sure you also make use of any email marketing you have set up. A newsletter to your customers is a great way to get repeat business. If you can, offer people who view your social media and also your email newsletter customers exclusive discounts to your business. Consider marketing your sales to local news outlets or local community sites. This is especially important if you have a physical store in your community.

How we can help

Running a business is a lot of work. Managing your products and also making decisions for your company takes up a lot of time. But, having to go over your financial records takes a time-consuming process. Our experts at Headquarters Inc. are here to help your small business have more time with our bookkeeping and full management services.

We can help you manage your transactions and other records from your online shopping presence. This includes your Shopify page, selling products through Amazon, your sales from eBay and more. If you need help with figuring out sales taxes, transactions, chargebacks and also processing fees, let our team help you. Contact us today!