How Your Small Business Can Make the Most of the Holiday Season

Even though businesses often sell more of their services and products during the holidays, they also face more competition. You need a good strategy to beat the competition and take full advantage of the holiday shopping frenzy.

Here are six tips to help boost your holiday sales as well as increase the awareness of your brand during the holiday season.

1. Set Sales Targets

Schedule a meeting with your team members and set sales targets you want to achieve for the rest of the year. You should set your minimum goals, attainable goals, as well as stretch goals. Never hinge your goals only on revenue; instead consider other aspects of your business, such as customer engagement as well as social media following.

2. Launch Holiday-Themed Marketing Campaign

Holiday campaigns can be fantastic lead magnets that draw in new customers, converting them to loyal patrons of your products or services. To create an effective marketing campaign, analyze your target audience, their social media channels of choice, the time when you can get the most engagement, and more. The more aware you are of your audience’s behavior, the more successful you will be in crafting an effective and appealing holiday-centered marketing campaign.

3. Stock up the Extra Inventory

Don’t leave your inventory levels to chance. You don’t want excess inventory that will take up too much space in your warehouse. However, you also don’t want to disappoint your customers by not having items in stock when they need them. Forecast your inventory estimates to prevent understocking or overstocking. If you’ve run your business for a while, you should make estimates using your historical data. What are your yearly sales? What level of inventory did you need in the past? During the previous holiday seasons, when did sales start to accelerate? How long did the accelerated sales last? By finding answers to these questions, you can figure out your inventory needs. Ensure you don’t just consider the sales from your previous month. The holidays can increase your sales immensely. November and December sales make up to 20% of annual retail sales.

4. Decorate Your Store

Decorating your store is a key component of great retailing. The holidays should inspire you to create magical décor for your customers. Good decoration can inspire, calm, and give hope. It can also attract shoppers’ curiosity and encourage impulse buying.

5. Hire More Hands

If you’re likely to be busier during this holiday season, you may consider bringing a few extra employees on board. Invest your resources in training them properly. Better training will likely translate to better customer experience and less stress about unexpected rushes.

6. Streamline Your Tracking

Invest in software that will help you streamline your inventory tracking, employee, and facility management. Such software will allow your operations to run efficiently and smoothly, saving you both time and money.

The holiday seasons are important for businesses, but the time before the celebrations is equally important. With proper preparation, you can boost your sales, improve your brand image and find fun, peace, and relaxation during this hectic time. If your business is in Ventura County, you can access more business resources via Business Forward Ventura County. Contact us today to get started.