Making sales from your ecommerce shop can feel like an absolute doddle in the 4th quarter. Halloween and Black Friday roll by in quick succession and, with Christmas just around the corner, your customers are ready, willing and able to splash the cash. What about January, though?
Everyone’s riding high until that New Years’ countdown strikes midnight and, suddenly, everyone realises they’re broke.
January to May can be barren months for independent stores like yours, so it’s vital to get your sales strategy in order ahead of time. As multi-billionaire business magnate Warren Buffet so famously said; “Someone's sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.” Put in the time now and benefit further down the road.
There are a fair few big holidays and celebratory days scattered throughout the year. Make sure you’re ready for:
- Valentine’s Day
- Father’s Day
- Mother’s Day
- Easter
- Christmas
- Halloween
- Various Bank Holidays
- Seasonal Changes (Spring/Summer/Autumn/Winter Sales)
Each of these is a fantastic reason to run a sale and keep profits flowing year-round but, to organise them effectively, you’ll need to plan ahead. Here’s how to go about doing so:
Identify Niche Opportunities
When running an ecommerce shop, the aim of the game is to keep the sales flowing throughout the year. You’ve got the big holidays in the diary, so the next step is to identify the sales opportunities unique to your business. These smaller holidays and days of observance can be even more valuable than the bigger celebrations, if you market yourself right. What do you sell?
Some low-hanging fruit if you sell Football Shirts would be that the World Cup is happening this year. Usually held in the Summer (thanks FIFA), the World Cup and the European Championships are fantastic reasons for a mid-year sale. Maybe you sell crystals and Witchy items? Make sure your customers are ready for the Summer Solstice with fantastic discounts!
If inspiration fails you, there’s a national or international day, week or month for literally everything these days – from peanut butter to Blink 182 to “corned beef and cabbage” (24th of January, 30th of June and 17th of March, respectively, if you were wondering). Find your niche and get ready to capitalise on the occasion. https://nationaltoday.com/ has a full list!
Stock Up
Is this a “national day” or an international occasion? Do you order your products from 3rd party suppliers or do you make them yourself? Cashflow an issue? Whatever your circumstance, make sure you have enough stock in place to handle (if all goes to plan) the major influx of orders that should be coming in. One rule to stick to, if there’s any question of you running out of stock: order more. You don’t need massive overstock all year round, just make sure you have enough by the time the sale kicks into gear.
With a DotGO Ecommerce website, our Stock Management feature gives you complete control of the stock levels in your online shop. This allows you to easily keep track of stock and make sure items don’t run out at the worst times. Manage the situation from a single, easy-to-use section in your DotGO control panel.
Reach Out
Once the appropriate stock levels are in place, reach out to your customers and let them know about your upcoming sale!
- Email your mailing list (Don’t have one? You can set one up through your control panel today!)
- Post on social media
- Contact relevant influencers
This is the time to put your social channels to good use and get those marketing cogs turning. Make sure you do so well in advance, to get the hype building early and plant the purchasing seed in your customers minds!
It’s never too early to start planning so, if you feel weird thinking about Christmas in September, don’t!
All the major companies have their sales strategies in place well in advance so, if you’re looking to see your store grow and get more orders in, you need to do the same!
There is always more you can do to get your sales moving in the right direction, so take a look here for some more ideas.
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