The Christmas rush can be a hectic and often stressful period for many retailers and wholesale distribution businesses. But how much less stressful would it be if you knew your business was fully prepared to maximise your sales potential? See JCurve Solutions’ tips on planning with the right reporting, inventory, eCommerce and omni-channel offerings.
Setting Up Your Reporting
Getting reliable and accurate in place is imperative leading up to Christmas. You’ll be able to get a better understanding of your customers’ buying habits and your expected stock fluctuations. Knowing which products are in high demand and any decreases in demand once the rush is over can provide the visibility you need for managing optimum stock levels. It can also help with understanding which products you already have in excess that can be given an extra push with post-Christmas sales and promotions to get them out the door.
Automating your reporting can also save you a lot of time. With the right software in place, you can simply set your reporting to run at regular intervals, be delivered directly to you and gain the real-time information you need to make the right decisions about your inventory.
The Inventory Balancing Act
Balancing your demand and cash flow with your stock on hand can be a tough act to get just right, especially during the Christmas rush period. But if you’ve set up your reporting, the intelligence gained will help you plan your optimal stock levels to cover your needs over this time. Having the right inventory management software to set up automated alerts based on minimum and maximum stock levels can make this much quicker and simpler.
Also consider the physical efficiencies you can employ to further streamline your retail outlet or warehouse management. Where are you positioning your most popular items and
are they situated near the front of your store to attract more customers? For those with warehouses, is your high-demand inventory close to where the pick, pack, ship process is taking place? This is a simple change which can result in decreasing the time for warehouse staff to pick each product and speed up the overall process.
Provide a Great eCommerce Experience
Do you currently have an eCommerce website that allows your customers to save their product favourites and easily re-order? Also giving them real-time stock availability and order progress can provide a great online experience which keeps them coming back.
Setting up product information with high-quality images, detailed descriptions and even reviews from others who have purchased those items previously can give customers confidence that they’re getting the best products for their needs.
Wrapping It Up with Omni-Channel
Create a well-rounded customer experience by integrating your online and in-store channels. Providing cross-platform functionality such as online ordering with in-store returns or discounts, offers that can be redeemed over the web or in person, or even in-store collection of orders placed over the web can give customers the flexibility they’re looking for at what’s bound to be a busy time for them as well. Having the right POS solution in place which is integrated with your back-end system can bring all of this together.
With right preparation in place across reporting, inventory, eCommerce and omni-channel offerings, you can position yourself to maximise your sales potential this Christmas.
Gain a better understanding of which products you need to stock up on and those that will need some after-Christmas promotions to get them out the door. Organise your warehouse to optimise efficiency, provide a great experience across your online and in-store channels and make it easy for customers to do business across your various sales channels.
With all of this working together, you can make the most of this year’s busy period and have yourself a very Merry Christmas. JCurve ERP is an all-in-one cloud ERP solution, which works seamlessly with TCS POS to provide a true omni-channel experience for retailers and wholesale distributors. See JCurve’s original article on Maximising Sales this Christmas for even more ideas.
