Christmas is one of the busiest and most profitable times of year for the retail industry.
But managing extra staff and high customer expectations means that it can easily become one of the most stressful times of year.
The key to managing a productive and stress-free holiday season lies in being prepared. Whether you’ve already started thinking about Christmas or not, these steps will help you to maintain your cool when the going gets tough.
ACT EARLY
Take action now, before the holiday rush begins. Make sure you have a strategy in place and that you have all the materials you’ll need to make a success of the festive season. It might be worth looking back at last year’s accounts to get an idea of what to expect.
TAKE ON EXTRA STAFF
Christmas is an exceptionally busy period and you may find that your existing employees will need a bit of extra help to handle the Christmas rush. If you find yourself hiring, do it a few weeks before the season starts to allow yourself enough time to train up new staff.
ANTICIPATE DEMAND
Predicting sales can be difficult. On the one hand you need to have enough stock to avoid running out, but on the other you don’t want to risk ordering too much and get stuck with unwanted stock. Look at how much you sold last year and stock up on items that have sold well throughout the year.
MAKE YOUR PREMISES FESTIVE
Customers love getting in the Christmas spirit, and if you don’t keep up with the competition you might lose out. Try and make your premises as inviting as possible to increase footfall and to turn window shoppers into sales. You can influence buyers by making sure that your most desirable products are prominently displayed.
HOLIDAY PROMOTIONS
At this time of year customers are looking for gifts and they will buy – you just need to make sure they buy from you. Entice your customers in with offers that they can’t resist. Whether that means offering gift-wrapping as a free extra, or simply knocking 10% off items, those little extras might just be enough to make that sale. Don’t forget, the January sales are just around the corner too, and they’re starting earlier each year.
We’re helping stores across the world to make their lives easier in the build up to Christmas. Whether you’re managing extra members of staff or simply planning for longer opening hours, our workforce management software can help you make the festive period look easy. Scheduling, staffing and time reporting has never been so simple.
