Are you ready for Christmas?
You might think that’s a strange question but in the e-commerce retailing world you need to look ahead. A wise man once told me, if you are not preparing for Christmas in the summer you’ll be a busy fool come winter. By this he meant there are certain things you must consider before the Christmas peak…. And of course we as sellers help parents become Santa for the day – here’s what to consider and why…
1. Santa’s Stock – have you considered your current stock holding and purchasing more for the busy period? Have you ensured supply by checking with wholesalers and suppliers? Have you ensured you have good stocks of the most popular items? Look at your previous years sales reports to be sure you are going in the right direction… In StoreFeeder you can report on sales by channel and by SKU, this will help enormously when re-ordering with the PO function.
2. Christmas Market – Has the market changed since last year? Have you extended your reach into new markets? If so what is the likely uplift in sales going to be? Choose the right product too, try to avoid products which are on a decreasing price/margin cycle. You may wish to sell different products at different prices on different platforms – simply make adjustments in StoreFeeder to allocate different pricing per channel.
3. Pesky Elfs – Other merchants are always a key factor in what you plan to do for Christmas – some sellers will sell at stupidly low margins to get the sale – so looking for products with less competition will also preserve Average Selling Prices (ASPs). It’s sometimes better to sell on a market which allows you to sell less but at a higher margin. Take note of trends in your sector and keep an eye out for the competition, markets move quickly. StoreFeeder’s repricer can help stay ahead of the game on Amazon so that you can help thousands of parents deliver on Santa’s promises.
4. Christmas Time – Have you looked at cutting out core time wastage? Have you looked to automate core tasks such as StoreFeeder’s order processing via scanner rather than manually? This improves accuracy and saves time. Have you looked at simple things like label printing from your courier, could this be printed in a peel label invoice to save paper and improve speed? Simple things but with good time savings all round…I’m sure Santa uses StoreFeeder, he’s got such a slick operation!
5. Willing Elfs – Without the help of a chirpy Elf or two, Every sales operation has increased staffing to think about over extended sales periods such as Christmas. The peaks in processing can cause the need to look externally for temporary staff, unless of course you can automate some processes yourself. Our advice is to get all core staff familiar with StoreFeeder in plenty of time so that core systems and procedures are fully automated, this should see the need for extra staff countered with some good net time savings.
6. Father Christmas’s Reputation – Have you considered the reputation Father Christmas would have suffered over the centuries had he been late with his sack of gifts? Had he turned up on 27th December, or worse still not at all, we’d all have lost faith a long time ago. Ensure you have in stock what you say you have online, you can do a lot of damage to your reputation if your stock control is shot. Happily our clients can relax secure in the knowledge we are helping maintain Father Christmas’s good reputation.