Wondering how you can boost Christmas sales this year as a retail business? Here are 10 key October preparations for product brands to maximise Christmas sales.
Boost Christmas sales: 10 Must-Do October Actions for Retailers
Hire & train additional staff
- Q4 is one of the busiest retail seasons, so ensure you have enough staff (or helpers) to cope with the increased Christmas orders.
- Training them will ensure they can support you over the busy festive period.
- Create documents on processes so they know what they are doing and can refer back to them.
- Key areas for training will be:
- Packing orders
- Customer service
- Product knowledge
- The unique challenges that come with your retail business.
Tidy & organised your studio.
- Organising your studio and office space increases productivity and reduces mistakes, which is key during the Q4 Christmas rush.
- Save time now and ensure you have everything in place from products to packaging.
- Put a plan in place to keep the studio tidy throughout Q4.
Create customer service template replies & autoresponders.
- Make your Christmas admin life easier with autoresponders on your email, order notifications and DM’s on social media.
- You can set up autoresponders in all of these areas and they should include your most FAQ’s such as:
- How often you send orders
- What the current delivery time is
- When to get in touch for a delayed delivery
- Any product-specific questions you get a lot.
- This way your customer gets a response straight away and you can help manage expectations about delivery and minimises overwhelm for you.
Continue Valentine’s & Mother’s Day product development.
- Straight after Christmas is Q1, with Valentine’s Day in February and Mother’s Day in March.
- So it’s time to plan ahead and ensure you have products ready for the next gifting occasions that happen straight after Christmas.
Ensure any renewals for business services will not need attention during November & December.
- Avoid any distractions by checking now if any of your business services (like web hosting, payment systems, or software subscriptions) are up for renewal during November or December.
- Set them to renew automatically or handle any updates in advance. So you’re not scrambling to fix critical systems when you should be focusing on sales.
Update product descriptions to reflect seasonal themes e.g. adding ‘stocking-fillers’.
- Customers needs to be led and told how to buy your products. It inspires them to shop and who your products can be bought for.
- Adding seasonally relevant keywords such as:
- Gifts for different types of people
- Stocking fillers
- Secret Santa options.
- Tweaking your product descriptions in this way emphasises how your items can fit into the Christmas season.
- It improves SEO performance, helping your products appear in festive shopping searches and boost Christmas sales.
Let your wholesale stockists know of the last order dates for Christmas delivery.
- Your wholesale stockists will need new stock or stock refills over the Christmas period.
- Getting in touch (by email and phone) means you can let them know how to order and your last order date for the festive period.
- Clear communication helps manage expectations and ensure your products are delivered on time. Plus avoids a last-minute scramble to fulfill late orders.
- Plus it will boost your income!
Be aware of all planned promotional dates for any partner organisations e.g. notonthehighstreet.com/Etsy.
- If you’re selling through marketplace platforms like Etsy, Notonthehighstreet.com, or other retail partners, keep track of any site-wide promotional events or sales they may run.
- Most sites will run a Black Friday sale, so decide now if you want to take part and what your level of discount will be and on what products.
- Align your own marketing and stock levels with these dates to capitalise on increased visibility and traffic.
- Marketplaces bring new eyes and customers to your brand. Take advantage of these opportunities to maximise exposure during peak shopping times.
Check any important local dates you could tie in with your social media e.g. switching on Christmas lights etc.
- In addition to online events, look for local happenings such as Christmas markets or the lighting of the town’s Christmas tree.
- Tying these events into your social media marketing can help you connect with your local community.
- This attract customers looking to shop locally for their Christmas gifts.
Launch your Christmas marketing!
- Christmas marketing should start early to show sneak peeks of new products.
- Showcase your festive range of products that are perfect for Christmas gifting.
- Build excitement and give your customers time to plan their Christmas shopping.
- Identify what marketing platforms you will use from email newsletters, social media posts, blog posts, Pinterest and ads.
By preparing in these areas during October, small product businesses can ensure they are organised andcustomer-focused. And ready to take full advantage of the festive selling season and boost Christmas sales.
Plan Your Best Christmas Workshop
Need extra help planning for Christmas?
Take away the pressure, guesswork and stress of preparing for the festive season.
This step-by-step, action-taking workshop will mean you will leave with a product strategy, sales targets and 16-week marketing plan. Completed in under two hours.
Thanks for shedding light on this subject.
I can’t wait to see more posts like this.