How to cash in on Christmas, by Francesca Nicasio, retail expert at leading retail software company Vend
“Preparing for the holiday season can be a lot of fun: decorations, promotions, sampling the Christmas sweets you’ve ordered in for customer giveaways. But Christmas is more than window dressing. It takes a lot of hard work behind the scenes to get fully prepared.
“One of the most important factors is having a great handle on your inventory, what’s likely to be most popular and where those products are. That includes having a fulfilment plan. The smallest difference in shipping costs or delivery dates can be make or break for a customer. Map out fulfilment routes and costs from each of your stores ahead of time and publicise these, making sure you have real-time visibility of your products across all your sales channels so you and your staff can provide accurate information to your customers.
“The Christmas period also bring more foot traffic, which can mean more theft. Think carefully about how to manage loss prevention, for example by increasing signage, mirrors, cameras, and RFID as well as conducting frequent partial inventory counts rather than full counts less often.
“For more tips like these visit the Vend Blog. And remember, if you give yourself the gift of being prepared, you’ll be all set to cash in on those holiday shoppers and have the best Christmas yet.”
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