Top 5 tips on how to prepare your SME for Christmas

No matter what you are selling, or what type of industry you are in, Christmas is typically the biggest time of year for business. People are considering gifting, they may already be purchasing and you want to ensure your business is top of mind and visible to consumers when they are online shopping this Season. It is quite common for some retailers to make 60-70% of their custom during October through to the end of December... so what do you need to know to ensure your SME is prepared to make the most of this peak time in sales? We have created 5 easy tips to prepare your SME this Christmas to ensure maximum sales:

ORDERING

Get stocked up well in advance! Even if you are currently sold out of products but are in production, ensure you have a pre-order function available for delivery before Christmas on your e-commerce store. Review previous peak periods for historical data on how much additional stock is required to be ordered, factoring in annual growth, and order ahead of time. You can always look at urgent air shipments for replenishment of additional items that could be particularly popular during this time. So... get ordering!

PRESS

If you have a media or PR list, now is the time to begin reach outs to them for coverage of your goods as gift ideas. If not get cracking on creating one! Search out blogs, review sites, and local and national publications with an interest in your market. Call or email them, and ensure you have media images and content available to be easily downloaded to make coverage of your product as easy for them as possible. If appropriate, send samples of your goods to them to review so your product coverage can be as genuine as possible. Make your goods an experience, take them on a journey.

Follow up with an email or call once the goods have been received and ensure direct links to the product to be purchased are listed for them so it can be easily included in any coverage. Once coverage has occurred request to be sent a link or PDF so you can promote the exposure through your networks and social channels. Ensure a thank you note or email is sent to them after coverage, it always pays to keep the press on your side!

CREATE A GIFT GUIDE - MAKE IT EASY FOR CONSUMERS TO GIFT YOUR PRODUCT!

A good place to start with this is creating a blog on your website around a gift guide for "gifts under $xx amount this Christmas", look to noncompeting products to feature here as well, and provide shoutouts with backlinks or tags on socials to increase reach. You will feature your product/s throughout this guide alongside other reputable brands.

Creating online gift vouchers redeemable on your e-commerce store is also a great way to engage with your customers at this time, eliminating their need to make a definitive decision on what to purchase and the added benefit of being able to be purchased at any time without consideration for delivery windows.

Gift packs! Creating bundles of items to purchase on your e-commerce store to increase customer spending and provide something unique is also a great way of engaging with your customers during this Season. Make it easy for them to gift your product!

SOCIAL PLANNING

Having decent momentum with regular content loading and visibility on various social media platforms is crucial in the run-up to Christmas. Advance plan your content, review whether or not you may have a competition and involve supporting brands to increase reach and visibility, and spend time creating a content schedule as it's such a busy time of year that content loading may fall by the wayside.

Also, don't forget to engage with your email list at this time. Alert them of any Christmas sales, gift packs, or newsworthy content such as Christmas shipping cut-offs (this will ensure they get their orders in nice and early).

CONTACT US

Having a reliable and trustworthy logistics partner at this time of year is also imperative to running a successful pre-Christmas sales campaign. You can chat with our Sales team at Image International Freight about your requirements, and for any urgent and last-minute air freight quotes (we know this happens a lot this time of year to get the product to you asap) call us for a competitive quote +61 2 9773 1378 OR email sales@imageinternational.com.au. We also have an online quote request form that you can utilise at any hour of the day, please click here.

We hope this article has been helpful with useful tips for navigating and planning this Season.