Are you Prepared for a very Challenging Retail Holiday Period?
With projections that the economy is facing some of the most challenging obstacles in decades, small retailers need to intelligently plan how they will maximize their holiday sales. Going into the Christmas Season without a prepared strategy may be very risky proposition.
Despite the challenges anticipated there are a number of tactics that small retailers can employ to increase the odds of making a reasonable profit. Customers tend to lower their shopping expectations during the busy holiday period, due primarily to the general lack of decent customer service they receive. We suggest that small retailers consider this retail phenomenon a major opportunity and differentiate themselves to earn a sizable share of their customer’s wallet.
Make it your goal to impress the increased number of shoppers you will have during the holiday period, as they may not regularly come into your store during other times of the year.
Specific steps we suggest small retailers employ to improve their business and maximize the performance of their retail establishment in this turbulent period include:
- Honestly assess your retail offering and your readiness for the holidays looking for weaknesses
- Make sure you have a decent “game-plan” to prepare for a sales increase
- Insure your store is physically attractive and shop-able
- Insure your signage is attractive and properly communicates the messages you intended
- Insure your cash-wraps (cash register areas) are organized and well stocked for a sales increase - Make sure your inventory is ready for the holiday period
- Insure your merchandise is properly organized, is in-stock, reasonably priced, and is well presented
- Insure any demo items are in good condition and present a positive image
- Insure you have a plan to rapidly replenish fast moving items and “recover” the sales floor
- Know and feature your high margin items
- Perform on-going recovery at pre-set times during the day and perform store re-stocking during off-hours
- Have a plan to deal with slow-moving merchandise (special bargain areas, clearance racks, etc)
- Create an “exit-plan” to deal with merchandise you could not sell after the holidays are over
- Be aware of the value of impulse items and add those to your merchandise mix as needed - Tune-up your customer service offering
- Know what type of service level you want to offer – define it and manage it
- Re-train your associates on desired customer service behaviors
- Make it a point to observe how your associates deliver customer service and coach them with feedback to reinforce desired behaviors
- Have a plan to deal with staffing absences in case of a call-in - Make sure your business systems and management reports are ready for the business increase
- Insure your systems are efficient and can process orders, receipts, sales, returns, stock adjustments, etc productively
- Insure your management team understands how to use your management reports and can react to what they are telling you
- Meet with your staff regularly during the holidays to review operational plans and make sure your entire team is on the same page
