Preparing your small business for the holiday season

What do you get for the entrepreneur who has everything? A helpful度假中心for local businesses, of course.

Unwrap useful tips on seasonal hiring, marketing, and standing out from the competition during the holidays and year-round.

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For many small businesses, the holiday shopping season can be “make or break” time. According to Meta’s 2022“Global State of Small Business Report”, 25% of small business owners expect to make more than half of their annual revenue in the last months of the year.

And from the looks of 2023 forecasting, sales will come from both in-person and online shopping. Experts fromOutbrainexpect physical retail sales to return to pre-pandemic standards after increasing 2.8% from 2022 to 2023. The number-crunchers atDeloittebring some more good news for businesses as they predict an increase of sales growth of between 3.5% and 4.6% this coming holiday season compared to the last. The report estimates that holiday sales between the months of November 2023 and January 2024 will total over $1.54 trillion with e-commerce sales expected to rise over 10%.

So what’s the best way to prepare your small business for the 2023 holiday season and make sure you’re part of that growth? Here are some suggestions for making this year as successful as possible.

1. Create deals that benefit both you and the customer

Researchers are in agreement that shoppers for the 2023 holiday season are looking for the best deals. According to a 2023Numerator survey, 67%的消费者会购买打折商品save money and help combat inflation. Matt Pavich, senior director of strategy and innovation at AI-driven price optimizing company Revionics, said customers are smarter than ever, and this will be even more apparent this gift-purchasing season: “Retailers need to be aware of this and offer great products at great value across channels while considering some less traditional retailers as competitive threats” (RetailDive).

Take a moment to strategize what products could be offered at a markdown to create deals that will make both your customers and your business’s bottom line happy, whether that be taking a look at slow-selling items that are taking up shelf space or products that you have an abundance of stock of.

2. Stock up and ship out

The holiday season is a hectic time across the full supply chain, so it’s a good idea to keep up with your suppliers to see if there are any delay expectations instead of being in the dark and dealing with disappointed customers when the time comes. If you’re out of stock, it’s more than likely that you’ll also be out of customers.

Shipping delays may also impact goods going out to your customers, not just inventory coming in. Encourage early shopping with discounts or promotions that end earlier in the holiday shopping season—this allows time for goods to reach their destinations. You should also make a very clear shipping deadline for gifts to reach their intended recipients by the holidays, and post this on your website, on your social media channels, and in store.

3.Staff up

Whenhiring and training seasonal staffers, they should be up to speed on all promotional deals,store hours, and any upcoming sales events. Make sure they are trained on commonly asked questions, even those that may come up outside the holidays, so they can help all types of customers, no matter what they’re looking for.

Here are some other helpful tips to prepare your employees for the holiday season:

• Allot time to specifically train your staff especially if there are new hires.这可以通过将新员工与“mentor” employee that has experience working seasonally or providing them with a seasonal employee handbook that includes important information that they should know during the holiday season.
• Hire people that genuinely appreciate the business.One of the many positive aspects of owning a small business is your ability to connect on a more personal level with your customers. You shouldn’t always be on the lookout for new employees but if the timing is right, some of your most loyal customers are new hiring possibilities.
• Streamline your hiring process.During the busy holiday season, efficiency is key. In order to draw top-notch employees, be specific about what you’re looking for and what you can provide to your staff in the job description. Another way to be more efficient is to tighten your hiring process to the essentials—that could look like reducing multiple interviews to just one or having your first round be over the phone.

4.Start early and promote locally

Before the holiday selling season officially kicks off with Black Friday and Small Business Saturday, it helps to have a promotional plan in place. The earlier you start marketing your holiday deals, the better.Tinuiti’s 2022 Holiday Shopper Studyfound that around 30% of consumers begin holiday shopping in October or even before.

To get your business discovered by local customers as a great source for holiday gifts, check out your chamber of commerce and city or county websites to see what type of promotions they do for small businesses.

Sausalito, California encourages keeping spending dollars local with theirThink Local, Buy Local, Stay Localprogram, which makes sure customers know which stores are open for business and includes helpful information like parking, shopping hours, and how shopping local helps the city as a whole.

5.Make both in-person and online shopping easy

A report byeMarketersaid that brick-and-mortar holiday sales reached an all-time high of $1 trillion in 2022 and are expected to rise for the 2023 season. For a winning combo, be sure to prepare your ecommerce channels as well—Tinuitireports that in 2023, 62% of consumers surveyed still plan to “buy mostly online”. Put equal time and effort into making the shopping experience equally seamless for both online and in-person shoppers.

Developing and implementing a fully-functional ecommerce system might be cost or time prohibitive, but here are some ways to make every form of shopping enjoyable for your customers.

• Offer quick and free shipping.After surveying over 1,000 online customers, shipping Software providerShippofound that the information customers find the most important when holiday shopping are shipping costs, price, and expected delivery date of the purchase. Fast and affordable shipping is an easy way to get and keep customers especially during the holiday season when there will undoubtedly be a lot of last minute shoppers.
• Create an attractive return policy and process.The sameShippo report sharedthat when it comes to online returns, 45% of consumers said free shipping is the most important aspect while 24% specified the ease of processing the return. Providing an easy and accessible return experience is a way to increase customer satisfaction and loyalty towards your business.
• Consider offering “Buy Now, Pay Later.”According toPracticalEcommerce, buy now, pay later took up 7% of all online orders in 2022. Offering a buy now, pay later option for shoppers is a way to keep customers who might not be able to pay the entirety of their purchases upfront.