This year has been tough for everyone, individually and specially for small businesses, so it is important that we’re looking for strategies to be ready for the upcoming year and the difficulties it may bring.
Following is some advice to keep in mind to help drive sales during post-holiday season.
Evaluate your holiday offers
The promotions, discounts or coupons you used for holiday season are not always perfect for January sales and could also affect negatively your business. So before you start planning on new promotions, it is important that you re-evaluate the offers you made, insights you can learn from and make sure they stop running when it’s time so you can have a fresh start.
Clear your old inventory
After the holidays it’s always a good time to look at what you have in your warehouse and find a way to convert it into cash. Depending on what you are selling, there may be things that need to go fast before it is too late (food, for example) or maybe other type of products that you have been storing and won’t need soon, such as summer clothes when winter is just starting. So right now is the perfect time to let them go. You can review what you have, and get rid of what doesn’t make sense to keep storing.
Special and creative offers
For many businesses, January is the slowest month of their year, if that’s your case, you need to be creative on how you can drive sales!
Promotions like “buy one get one free” or “save 20% when you spend X amount” are good ways to start, of course you will need to sacrifice some of your margins but it’s better to have sales to not have them at all. As we mentioned above, even selling them at a lower cost is better than a whole warehouse full of products that you won’t be able to sell later.
Marketing never sleeps
Once you have your offers planned and inventory start marketing right away! With businesses focused on Christmas and the new year, they may not be planning for post-holiday advertising, so it is a good opportunity for you to get the jump on starting campaigns to prepare buyers for future offers you will have so they can start their countdown and share it with their friends. Reducing your spend on marketing or cutting it off completely is not always the smartest move.
2020 has been difficult in many ways and we start 2021 with uncertainty. Starting the year on the right foot becomes critical. Evaluating current inventory, clearing out old inventory, and having a good promotional plan will go a long way in doing this.
For more ideas reach out to us at Madtov@madtovconsulting.com