The Christmas BOOM - Are you ready for it?
It’s the most wonderful time of the year.
Yes, it may seem a little early to be mentioning Christmas, however most high street retailers will already be preparing for the holiday period.
According to new research, the global pandemic has caused online shopping to surge, meaning this Christmas retailers need to push their online efforts ahead of the festive e-commerce hype.
This news wasn’t what many retailers were initially expecting at the start of 2020, seen as the Retail Sales Monitor showed overall retail sales declined 0.9 per cent in November and December 2019, compared with the same two-month period in 2018. But Covid has changed the landscape and with booming online sales, Christmas 2020 is now expected to follow that trend
With 85% of UK retailers predicting online sales will increase this holiday season compared to last, it’s important that your business is fully equipped to manage the busy period ahead.
Here's a few tips from trukl to help you prepare:
- Make sure the delivery time and shipping costs are clear for all the products on your website and make sure you can achieve the promised dates.
- Free shipping is a great way to encourage more customer spending habits around Christmas time. Hint: Set free shipping at a certain price to increase average order value - just make sure the offer is profitable for you.
- Have a reliable and cost effective delivery company set up. We would also suggest having a delivery contingency plan enabled, such as trukl. We are able to provide a multi-carrier shipping solution, ready in case your current delivery company can not deal with the volume, or lets you down.
- It’s really important to start preparing your online store in time for the Holiday season.
- Thanks to Amazon, Christmas shopping may start even earlier this year! This is because Prime Day (which takes place in October 2020) remains a key opportunity for retailers and brands to entice their customers to spend as consumers look for deals on other sites too.
- Festive marketing is extremely important - From November onwards, it would be a good idea to regularly inform your customers about Christmas offers via email, on social media and on your website.
What's the most important tip of them all?
Have a back up plan for your delivery service just in case your courier service provider is overloaded.
Feel free to get in touch with the trukl team at www.trukl.com if you’re interested in discussing different courier options for your business in order to improve your customer experience!