Consumers spent over $108 billion online during the 2017 holiday shopping season. Between Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday, there’s plenty of time to get in on the spending frenzy sales. The hardest part of encountering all of these open wallets is the effect a sudden influx in sales can have on a business.
To ensure your company is prepared to make the most of the holiday shopping madness, read these tips:
HIRING
Hiring extra employees may seem like unnecessary payroll, but remember: frustrated and unhelped customers will leave, and clients counting on you to manufacture extra inventory will look for other companies if you can’t meet the increased demand, both leading to a loss in sales. Find the best talent by hiring early.
Inventory Stock
Empty shelves are a flattering sign that people love your product… but it can be a turn off for those who were planning on buying from you. If you don’t invest enough in purchasing inventory upfront, you can end up losing out on a lot of sales later on when your merchandise runs out.
Customer Service
More customers means more questions. Make your company reachable through email, online chat, phone, and social media accounts. If you have these services and don’t monitor them, you may end up making a confused customer more upset.
Market Events and Sales
Most consumers start planning their holiday shopping several weeks in advance, which means marketing for your sales should start early to mid November. Look at where your target audience is and be the first to catch their attention with ads. Social media marketing is easier than most business owners realize!
Create a Backup Web Server
If your business is an online storefront hosted on a single web server, you need to look into a backup. Black Friday weekend sees an incredible amount of online traffic, causing many servers to crash or slow down and businesses to lose money. By having a backup and a failover service, your traffic will automatically be rerouted when your primary server starts to underperform.
