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Do you own your own handicraft business? Are you planning to boom your sale during the festive season? We are nearing the end of the summer holidays and entering the second half of the year which means getting into the holiday season.
We all know how busy the holiday season can be. Preparing for the holidays at the end moment can make you busy and get you tiresome. But as a small business, you don’t want to miss out on them too. Why do you ask? Because it is also the season of high revenue for your business.
Since the pandemic, most businesses have gone online. People have also been shopping online due to ease and convenience. And you should too take your business online.
So it is better to start prepping your online business for the holiday season early. However, you might think it is too early to start preparing for the holiday. But we reckon the end of summer is the best time to get your business ready to make sure you can fulfill your customer's demands.
Are you wondering how to prepare your business for the holiday season? Well, to help you to prepare your business online for the holiday season here are 6 ways to secure your business.
Pre-plan Everything
Starting to prepare for holiday at this time of the month might seem early. It seems like there’s plenty of time to get your business ready for the holiday season. But as we have mentioned, planning at the last moment can be tiresome.
You can start by pre-planning for your business. But what goes on in the pre-planning process? Well, here are a few points to plan.
- First and foremost, keep track of key dates. Begin by marking the calendar with major holiday dates and plan ahead of time for each occasion.
- Next is to set a goal. Set specific sales targets for the year. If you already have a business, look over last year's results and make plans for this year.
- Check on competitors and examine their trends if you have just established a new business.
- Keep track of your shipping company as well. They give final delivery dates for holidays and make sure to meet them in order to ship your products on time.
- Identify the highest selling time of year and product for each occasion.
- You should also keep an eye out for emerging trends that are relevant to your business. Try coming up with new concepts and items to attract clients to your firm.
Pre-planning is an essential process for any business. Pre-planning helps you to get through all the processes in systematic order. The next process after pre-planning is to manage your inventory for the year.
Manage Inventory
As a business establishment, nothing is worse than running out of products that are best sellers in your business. You should ask yourself, what are you going to sell if you don’t have any products?
So it is important to prioritize your inventory and stock for your business ahead of time. Now you might have questions about how to manage the inventory? Here are a few things you can do.
- Unless you are starting new, tally up all your remaining inventory of your business. Start adding low-stock products to your shop.
- Research your best-selling product from the previous year. Analyze if you need to order extra for this yea or maybe increase the price slightly.
- Pre-order from your best product supplier that provides everything you need in one place. This can help you to save time and effort in buying different products.
- Check if there is an increasing trend of old products and other new trending products. Find those products and add them to your inventory.
Managing inventory helps in the smooth operation of your business in the future. Thus, order early to avoid delays in shipping that can happen during the festive season. Also, keep an extra budget for the company to buy products if they tend to sell out early.
Quick bonus tip: You can get a better discount if you buy in bulk. Thus choose a supplier that provides different products in one place.
Manage Your Online Store
With the festive season arriving, we can see people decorating their shops with a different themes. Why do people decorate their physical store during the festival or holiday season? One simple answer to that question is to attract customers. It is the same with your online store too.
Managing an online store or your website can be a daunting process. But with a headstart, you can easily manage your website to attract more customers to your business.
- First and foremost, make sure the website is ready for your business. Make a website that defines your brand image, theme, etc.
- The website is the face of the online company, giving the website a holiday look with all the themes.
- Check the compatibility of the website on a different platform and see if it is user-friendly.
- Update the security of your website.
- Check the order processing and checkout process of the website. Simplify the purchasing process from your website for the customer.
- Enhance the photos, graphics, and overall look of the website to attract customers.
From the photos, and the theme of the website to the easy purchasing and check-out process of the website, the looks and user experience make an impact on the customer. Just a simple makeover of the website can help your small handicraft business grow in the holiday season.
Promote Online
Having a business online only will never attract customers to the shop. To reach the targeted audience, you will need to market them in a variety of methods. This might help in attracting clients to your company.
You can simply market your business online using various social media sites. Social media is ideal for promoting your business as it allows you to reach out to a large group without limitation.
Social networking can even help you establish your brand. You can advertise your page on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, and other social media platforms. A single post can easily reach a large number of people. Social media can be the best free marketing tool for small businesses too.
And when you combine it with promotional strategies, product sales, discount offers, and so on, you can expect your internet business to thrive in no time.
Running advertising isn't the only way to promote yourself online. You can also create a variety of content to attract clients. On the other hand, making content alone will not attract customers. To attract clients' attention, you must be creative. Create engaging content to keep your target audience on your website.
This will direct people to your website, which will lead to the sale of your products. However, compelling content may not always be enough to attract customers. You must optimize your content so that people can locate you quickly. This brings us to the next point: Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
SEO
As mentioned above, simple marketing of your business only will not get the number of customers you want for your business. It is important to get your business on top of the online search engine result while people search for relevant products. This can help people easily find your website.
Optimizing your website properly can get your website to rank high in search engines. Doing search engine optimization SEO is an easy process. You just need to follow a few easy steps to boost the SEO of your website.
- First, include content related to your business. You may also look for and tap into trending content that consumers or viewers demand.
- Next is to concentrate on keywords. Include keywords relating to your business in all of your material so that it can be easily found in search engines.
- You should also optimize your title tags, descriptions, and categories, and add alt text to photos to optimize your website.
- You have to update content regularly as well to get ranked.
- Adding link-worthy sites, and adding a hyperlink to your content will also help in SEO.
SEO is essential for small businesses since it allows your website or business to be quickly ranked. Choose terms or sentences that customers might type into a search engine to find the items on your website. Also, be sure you write engaging descriptions so that purchasers understand exactly what they are buying.
Customer Care
In the business community, there is a phrase that says, "The customer is always right." Good customer service is critical for many organizations. When you run an online business, it can be much more difficult because there is no direct interaction with the customer.
As business is online, the lack of personal service can be a drawback to your business. And the way you provide customer service to the customer will have an impact on the business.
With online shopping, people can give a review of your shop or business. They give a review based on the service they receive and every review is important for small and new business openings.
Yet, providing excellent customer service during the holiday season can be tricky. The hectic schedule can keep you from giving good customer service. Here are a few things you can do to provide excellent customer service to the customers.
- Start by responding within a day to any queries from customers. This will have a direct impact on sales as people tend to go to other sites if they don’t get a prompt reply.
- If you are a small business and have limited resources, you can even hire seasonal staff during busy times to manage business queries. Just make sure they are professional enough.
- Another red flag to the customer can be saying no to their queries. Try not to say no to the clients. For this, you can pre-plan what they might want and manage inventory as stated above.
- Understand the customer requirement and address any complaint promptly.
- If you are an old business try to get back to old loyal customers rather than focusing on a new one. They can bring more sales than a new customer to your business. You can provide them with exclusive sales, discounts, and promotions, to retain them.
Providing good customer service can get your business good reviews. And good reviews will increase the reputation of your online handicraft business that can generate high sales for your company.
It might be time-consuming to prepare your online business for the holiday and festive season. However, it will be a worthwhile investment for your company and will be fruitful in the long run.
Want to start your own felt handicraft business? Check out our secrets to select felt supplier blog to get started. Also, check out our Easy 8 Steps For Small Handmade Business To Prepare For Holiday.
Check out our online store to find various products at an affordable rate.