10 ways to prepare your business for Christmas

With just under 10 weeks until Christmas, time is running out for businesses to get themselves ready for the biggest shopping event of the year.

It’s been a hard year for business, especially retailers. With major company collapses and a consumer base that is still unwilling to spend, it’s going to be harder than ever for businesses to rake in a good holiday season.

In order to make the most out of your Christmas season, you need to be starting now. Experts say you need to be thinking about marketing, rosters and even the aesthetics of your store if you hope to make a good impression this holiday season.

“Christmas is all about preparation,” says JB Hi-Fi chief executive Terry Smart. “It’s such a peak time for everyone that you need to be thinking about everything well in advance.”

Here are 10 ways you can make sure you get the most out of this Christmas shopping period:

Work the email list

No doubt there are plenty of retailers that have a good, substantial email marketing list. Unfortunately, too many of them don’t use it and are missing out on crucial sales as a result.

Reseo chief executive Chris Thomas says it is imperative that you start looking at this list and think about your Christmas promotions, and you can combine the two. “Now is the best time to work that mailing list,” he says.

“Plenty of retailers are doing competitions at the minute, so they can get their email list with these great offers.”

“It needs to be a co-ordinated approach, you can’t just go all guns blazing, but you want to be using that tool in the best way you can.”

Fong agrees, but says you need to carefully plan out how you’re going to use that list and then figure out the best promotions for the email format.

“Christmas is not a time for you to simply react to conditions. You need to have your marketing efforts planned out for every week in November, December, and even October!”

“You’ve got to work out which promotions are going out when. Chances are, by the time you get into the actual heat of things, time will be scarce.”

Nurture your relationship with suppliers

More than any previous year, the relationship between suppliers and retailers has been incredibly contentious. The need to get the lowest price possible is causing plenty of arguments, and more than ever before SMEs need to be nurturing that relationship.

These experts say maintaining the relationship between retailers and suppliers is critical, and you need to be doing it straight away. But it won’t do you any good if you’re just figuring this out now – this is a long-term problem.

“Retailers should absolutely have already figured out their product strategy, and as a result, they need to be thinking about that relationship between suppliers and themselves,” Retail Doctor chief executive Brian Walker says.

“You want to be in a situation where if you need product on very short notice, then you’re able to get it.”

Terry Smart says suppliers need to be given enough notice well in advance of what will be happening, so they have a heads-up on the amount of stock they’ll need to provide. Eliminating surprises should be your aim.

“We’ll be forecasting supplies well in advance, and we’ll be working with our suppliers to ensure we have a good knowledge of what we’ll need, and that all the stores have as much as they need for the entire Christmas period.”

Pretty up the store

More than ever, businesses have to be careful about how they present their stores. With consumers eager to find a deal online, SMEs are going to have to do a lot of convincing to make sure customers feel the need to walk into their store.

Walker says businesses need to set out how they want their stock set out – the best towards the front – and then make sure they have planned out how exactly they want the store to look. Ambience, he says, is critical.

“You need to think about your promotions, your store themes, and think about how you’re going to make your stores compelling.”

“You also need a reason to make your existing customers come back into the store. For example, you could have a VIP night in the evenings leading up to Christmas, which can generate sales and populate stores.”

Maintain the rosters properly

If there’s one thing that can be a pain during Christmas time, it’s making sure your stores are staffed properly and there are enough employees handling the higher influx of customers. Alternatively, you don’t want to have too many staff on either as you’ll erase any benefits you would have had from higher sales – and it doesn’t look good if too many stand around doing nothing.

Terry Smart says the Christmas season is all about planning.

“Preparation is just a huge part of the system, and rosters are a big part of that. We need to be planning a few months to ensure we have the best system in place that we can during that time.”

Plenty of businesses hire extra casual staff over Christmas, but not everyone has an idea of how they’ll roster them on. Get ahead of the competition and ensure you have your timetables organised before December begins.

Add some value

Shoppers are hungry for a bargain. While many retailers are responding by discounting, OzHut chief executive Wai Hong Fong recommends a different approach – adding some extra value.

“Christmas tends to focus around gift giving. So is there any way you can add value to your customer as they strive to buy a gift? Maybe a free Christmas card?”

“Maybe it’s a discount voucher for the person they are giving it to. We gave a $25 Fred Hollows gift of sight card for every telescope we sold in Christmas last year to our customers.”

“This was the cost of a cataract operation and our customers loved being able to not just give a present, but their recipient also gets to celebrate the fact that someone out there was blind but now they see.”