The festive season has always been a crucial point in the retail calendar. The interruption to normal trading seen in 2020 because of the pandemic means many traders are also looking at Christmas as a time to recoup lost sales and cultivate valuable customer relationships.
A strong eCommerce offering will help you take full advantage of this all-important season. Cyber Monday, an extension of the Black Friday period, falls on 30th November 2020 and traditionally marks the start of the festive spending frenzy online.
However, it’s underway for some organised consumers. As a fulfilment service based near London, we’re already helping many of our clients prepare to make the most of Christmas with seasonal packaging and messages, as part of our swift, high-quality fulfilment service.
Nearly half of consumers say they will do Christmas shopping online
Retail Times is calling 2020 ‘the year of eCommerce’ and quotes Ryan Whittaker, consumer analyst at GlobalData, who says:
“As consumers have been furloughed or working from home, there has naturally been a huge drop in brick-and-mortar store sales – certainly outside of supermarkets – and many companies have opened up online sales. Many categories have expanded in the e-commerce channel during the pandemic, including personal care and beauty, as consumers avoid infection and seek convenience.
“In fact, GlobalData’s latest research suggests that 46% of global consumers now intend to buy more online rather than visiting a store following the pandemic.”
So, what steps can you take to get your eCommerce business ready for the Christmas period?
Make sure your eCommerce website is user-friendly
You’ve probably been developing your seasonal range since the spring, carefully researching the trends you need to follow (or set) to rise above the competition. Product innovation, creation, and testing has likely taken up a large chunk of your summer, not to mention an autumn oiling your social media engines; ready to shout about all your hot festive promotions.
After all that effort, don’t overlook the basics. Check that your site isn’t slow to load, confusing to navigate, or missing the key information needed for a purchasing decision. Significant revenue can be generated by impulse buys, so offer a guest checkout option with minimal data entry requirements.
Adding a ‘Seasonal products’ or ‘Gifts’ drop-down to your product menu is also a no-brainer. All these features are pretty easy to implement but you’ll want to act sooner rather than later.
Oh, and make sure every page of your online store is mobile optimised! According to data from the 2019 Ecommerce Year in Review, 63% of traffic to retailers and 53% of sales happen via mobile.
Manage your inventory
If your product gets featured on the Instagram feed of a prominent influencer or picked up in the media, you want to be ready to meet an increase in demand head-on.
Combine your forecast figures with your promotional strategy, including any social media and PR activity. Keep monitoring trends in your sector regularly and carefully, too. Use that blend of facts and figures to make sure you’re intelligently stocked – not understocked or overstocked.
When your work with us at Fullers, we’ll sync our warehouse management system with your eCommerce site and you’ll get alerts when stock reaches a low level. You’ll also be able to see what’s NOT selling so that you can ramp up the promotions and get those items flying. For example, we can create gift sets and product bundles to attract more sales.
Our friendly team will communicate regularly with you and advise about stock management, where necessary.
Line-up a reliable fulfilment provider
A robust eCommerce site? Tick! Meticulously planned stock levels? Tick! Marketing activity on point? Tick!
Wait…what’s missing? When you forget to finesse the fulfilment aspect of your customer journey, it’s even worse than forgetting the cranberry sauce at the Christmas dinner table.
Outsource your fulfilment to Fullers, and we’ll make sure every single one of those precious festive eCommerce orders gets picked, packed, and dispatched quickly and to the highest standard. With 58 years in the fulfilment business under our belt, we’re not quite as experienced as Santa’s elves, but we certainly know a thing or two about how to get a gift from A to B!
We pick same day for next day delivery and our trusted network of major couriers means you’ll make cost savings on shipping. And, in unpredictable times, it’s reassuring to know that our fulfilment services can be scaled up or down depending on demand for your products.
Christmas is a time for a little extra luxury, so why not talk to us about sprinkling some magic into your orders in the form of seasonal packaging, complimentary gifts, and handwritten messages? A surprise creates a memorable moment for your customer – and hopefully that means they’ll be back to shop with you in 2021.
Make this Christmas successful, not stressful. Talk to us today about dependable, flexible, and creative warehousing and fulfilment for the festive season and beyond.
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