Is It Ever Too Early To Prepare For The Festive Rush?
It’s the most magical time of year; Christmas only comes around once every 12 months, but it’s safe to say that we begin to see countless advertisements for brands and festive marketing campaigns as early as November, and then right on through to the 25th December. With half of the population seeming to complain about this onslaught of festive cheer, when is the right time to start preparing your business for the Christmas rush? Here, we’re taking a look at whether it’s ever truly too early to start getting prepared and what you can do to get a head start.
Delivery
Over the Christmas period, there is always a busy rush and traffic in terms of deliveries, so you need to think about advertising your products in advance so you can guarantee that your orders will be shipped out to your consumers in time for Christmas. With a majority of shoppers now searching online for their festive presents sometimes months in advance, you could begin to hint at Christmas as early as the middle of October, if not the beginning of November after the Halloween excitement.
‘Delivery’ also covers your response delivery. It is important that your festive marketing campaign has been not only on your social media, but on your website itself well in advance, so you are ready to kick start the season with a fast, efficient and responsive website.
Data
It is highly recommended that you take a look at any data you may have from sales of previous festive periods, as well as put together a fully analysed projection model, so you can be fully prepared for the upcoming Christmas. By anticipating the customer demand for your services or products, you can make a sensible decision as to how much stock you require and whether you have enough staff to cover the needs of your consumers.
Staff Training
In addition to having enough staff in general, it is also important to consider whether they need any additional training before the festive rush hits. New employees hired for the Christmas rush may not be as well prepared as your previous, ongoing employees. For this reason, all of your staff, whether seasonal or permanent, should be fully trained before things can get busy.
If you do have to employ more staff over the Christmas period, it can also be difficult to find the balance between annual leave allowance for existing staff and ensuring that there are enough new staff to cover any absences. As a small business owner, it is recommended that you finalise and plan your Christmas rotas in advance, as well as ensure that you have trained all of your employees to an excellent standard.
Order Your Bags!
Promoting your brand through your bag design is a great way to engage your customers and present your brand’s image on a larger scale. Adding festivity to each design will show uniqueness and fun to your company, therefore, you need to work out how many bags you are going to need for the rush without overstocking or understocking. Take into account what you’ll print, which type you’ll order and which company you are going to use for your printed bags, so you can calculate the overall cost in advance.
New Year
It is also important to think ahead of the festive rush to the New Year and be prepared for an anticipated drop in trading. There are many variables that could affect this, such as the weather, exchange rates and consumer debt. By preparing for the lull before the next January sale rush, you can keep your employees moral high and things ticking over, whether through organising social activities or planning additional training for new staff you’re considering keeping. What’s more, you can take the opportunity to ask you staff ways they think you can improve your business and start to put these into place.
As you can see, with all these factors needing to be considered in order to prepare for the festive rush, it is never too early for you to get organised, so you can achieve the highest possible sales. For more information regarding how you can prepare for the festive rush, don’t hesitate to contact us here at The Printed Bag Shop, today.