Tips to Prepare for Retail's Busiest Days: Black Friday + Cyber Monday
Halloween isn't here, yet your customers are jumping in line for pumpkin spice lattes, which means only one thing it's time to start thinking about Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Whether you're a brick-and-mortar shop, an online store, the holiday rush is coming, and it's time to prepare your business for success.
Here are six tips for getting your retail business ready for the holidays:
Review your inventory
Whether you have a storefront or are strictly an eCommerce store, it’s important to take stock of your inventory before the holiday season hits. The last thing you want is misleading information stalling sales and you’ll want to ensure you have enough of your most popular items to capitalize on the season.
Check Your Current POS System
It's essential during the crazy holiday season to take as many payment options as possible. If you don't already have a robust point-of-sale system in place, it's time to consider improving your payment options.
Square's POS allows stores to accept cash, credit cards, debit, and gift cards from one access terminal. In addition, their system will enable you to send email receipts (or you can purchase a receipt printer if your business requires one), and their analytics dashboard makes it easy to review your busiest days and most popular products.
Amp up your Marketing
Begin to utilize your social media platforms to begin notifying your customers of upcoming promotions. If you have an e-mail list, send out an eblast inviting your customers to stop by your store. Look towards offering additional incentives to your social media followers and e-mail customers to encourage people further to follow you. Develop creative ways to make a buzz within your community and encourage local media outlets to report on your business.
Clean up your books
Before you jump into the busiest retail season, it’s essential to review and reconcile your accounting. November and December can get crazy for small businesses, and you won’t want to wake up months behind on your books come January.
Start Hiring
Most companies hire extra staff for the holidays. Rather than being caught training a last-minute hire, start thinking about hiring and training in advance. You’ll want your new employee(s) trained and ready to sell well before the rush hits.
Leverage the Holidays
As Black Friday has morphed into an all-weekend affair, consider capitalizing on other sales opportunities with Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday deals.
On top of offering discounts and sales for Black Friday and the holidays, consider offering a free shipping threshold . Many small businesses are hesitant to offer free shipping because it can be costly. However, Kissmetrics recently did a study showing how free shipping offers can actually increase order sizes.
Black Friday is a fast-paced selling season. Even more so now than ever, if your customer doesn’t get the experience they expect, you might lose a future sales opportunity.
Utilize new technology for to stay on top of cash flow to purchase enough inventory, manage stock, manage staff and promotions, and keep things running smoothly at the online checkout.
