How should eCommerce store owners prepare for Christmas and New Year sales?

We are approaching the Christmas and New Year season and it is high time for all eCommerce store owners to introduce changes to the marketplaces. Then you will get the most out of the holiday season and bag a high volume of sales at the end of the year.

Here are some useful and effective tips that you will need to keep in mind when you are preparing your online store for Christmas and New Year sales.

• Craft a proper holiday plan

You should begin your efforts by crafting a proper holiday plan. When you don’t have a plan, there is a high possibility for you to get distracted. This will keep you away from achieving what you want. That’s why it is important for you to craft a proper holiday plan.

Here are some of the factors that you should focus on at the time of crafting the holiday plan.

1. 1. Take a look at the sales from the previous year:
      You can take a look at the analytics and understand how your business performed in the last year. Then you will understand how many orders you will get this year. Then you can look at your inventory and staff to make adjustments. In case if you come across any issues in the past year, you need to iron them out before this year’s Christmas and New Year season.
   2. Understand what people prefer to buy:
      You need to have a solid understanding of what people prefer to buy. Then you will be able to offer them to the people. Demand forecasting can also contribute a lot to the positive results that you will get. That’s because you can list some tending products this year and secure a high volume of sales.
   3. Carefully following the news:
      You are encouraged to think about the following news carefully. This will provide you with the opportunity to understand what people expect to get in the upcoming Christmas and New Year season.
   4. Follow Google Trends:
      It is better if you can follow Google Trends as well. Then you will get a better understanding of upward trends and downward trends about certain products.
   5. Follow social media networks:
      You will be able to find some trends popping up in social media networks. It is better if you can follow those trends.

• Come up with a pre-launching campaign

After defining the plan, you will need to create a pre-launching campaign. Here are the factors that you will need to consider at the time of creating the pre-launching campaign.

1. 1. Get ready with the photos:
      You need to have compelling photos uploaded to the online store to grab the attention of visitors and get them to purchase them. Due to the same reason, you need to capture compelling photos. You can seek the help of a professional photographer to create such compelling photos.
   2. Start working on the deals:
      As the next thing, work on the deals. Everybody expects to get their hands-on excellent deals in the upcoming Christmas and New Year season. Therefore, you don’t have any other option to consider than offering them. We will share more details about the offers that you can give in the next section.

• Special offers to give in the upcoming Christmas season

A variety of ideas are available for you to give special offers in the upcoming Christmas season. Here is a list of some gift ideas. You can go through the list and figure out what the best offers that you can provide are.

• Discounts

People are hunting for the best discounts during the holiday season. People want to spend their money in the holiday season. However, they prefer to get their hands on discounts as well. Therefore, stay ahead of the game by providing the best discounts. It will take some time for you to plan these discounts, without creating a negative impact on the profits that you can make. Therefore, engaging yourself to pay special attention to this fact.

• Bundled 

Bundled products are a good idea available for you to consider in the Christmas and New Year season. Then you will make your offerings more attractive to potential customers.

• Offer faster delivery

Most of the people tend to purchase their Christmas goodies in the last minute. Therefore, you will need to think about providing faster delivery. The delivery just before Christmas eve or new year eve would be best. This can help you impress your customers.

• Free shipping and returns

If you don’t want to make your holiday discounts complicated, you can think about offering free shipping and returns. Customers are nowadays not only want fast delivery but also free shipping. Then you will encourage more people to go ahead and purchase what you offer.

• Gift cards

It is possible for you to think about providing gift cards as well. The gift cards can provide an excellent boost to the number of sales that you can generate in the upcoming Christmas season. You should distribute the gift cards before the Christmas season. In most instances, your customers will spend more than the amount that they can get with the gift card. Therefore, you will secure great profits.

• Free packaging

During the Christmas and New Year season, most people tend to purchase gifts for others. You can think about considering this as an excellent opportunity to increase the profits that you can make. Come up with gift bundles and then promote them to the people who are interested in buying them. You can also think about offering free packaging to your customers in the upcoming Christmas season. This would benefit people who are purchasing products to be given as presents to others.

As an eCommerce owner keeping these facts in mind and keeping the inventory ready for such holiday seasons is very important. ZapERP Inventory management software connected to the multiple eCommerce channels can help the owners with faster order fulfillment, packaging, shipment and applying special discounts to individual orders and products. ZapERP will also help to recognize the best seller items you need to keep in stock by referring to previous sales and forecasting. Integrating with CRM software’s help with pre-sales and marketing your holiday seasons offers. So login and connect your eCommerce channels start managing our orders, sales, inventory and get the most out of this Christmas and New Year season.