It is officially Fall, and that means the holidays are just around the corner! Thus, beginning the start of Christmas wish lists, holiday planning, and people going into a shopping frenzy trying to find the right gift for their mother, friend, or significant other. Has your business started preparations for the 2018 holiday season?
According to a growing number of analysts, retailers should be able to expect a decent to even strong holiday spending season.
“The National Retail Federation recently announced that retail sales are exceeding earlier projections. Tax reform, paired with a number of positive economic inputs, has resulted in more jobs and more spending,” according to this recent column in Forbes. “With this encouraging outlook, retailers have a lot of reasons to be excited about and anticipate the holidays — especially considering some retailers reap as much as 30% of their annual sales during the season.”
Be properly staffed
The high volume of customers expected to shop this season will require businesses to be properly staffed. To ensure your business is prepared, you should begin your hiring process now so that these new hires are sufficiently trained in the skills this additional business will require.
You need to determine what areas of your business will need more help. Since you know there will be influxes of inventory coming in and out, you may need more employees to handle the workload and ensure nothing gets misplaced or becomes out of stock. Customers will need help making returns and finding gifts, so hiring extra people will help get things done quicker smoother.
Keep track of your deliveries
Making sure anxious customers get their packages on time is essential to being successful this holiday season. You do not want your customer to be expecting a package and then not receive it. We recommend using a last mile delivery or courier service that helps keep your customers informed of their deliveries. For example, we recently announced that we have started using two new programs, ZipWhip and Whip-Around, that make customer service and fleet management even better. This makes it easier all around for us to serve customers!
Expand your network
You will need to advertise your brand in any way you can throughout the holiday season. Because most people have access to social media in just seconds, you should be promoting your business through apps such as Instagram, Facebook, and even Twitter.
Many retail businesses in the NWA, Little Rock, and Tulsa areas are locally owned. This gives you an edge because you can create posts that are fit to your brand and customers specifically, something a business such as Walmart does not have.
You should continue to market your brand through TV, magazine, radio ads and social media. This will help your business reach a wide range of people.
Let us help!
OTL offers last miles delivery services in the NWA, Little Rock, and Tulsa areas. Contact us if you need a reliable delivery service during this holiday season.