Think of it as optimising your business processes and sales channels
- Increase ready stock - Research previous sales trends for your products. If you have 2 years to look back on sales history then you have a huge advantage. With this data you can calculate the percentage increase from the average month against the Christmas months, being November/December. If you leave yourself short then it's lost income and lost future customers; If you have left over stock, put them on sale in January and get more customers.
- Send out a newsletter promoting a range of big Christmas selling items. At this time of year it's important to prompt your existing customer base to remember you and come to your store first.
- Offer FREE SHIPPING. Provide a threshold for order values such as 'over $150 gets free shipping" This will motivate customers to add more to their carts. Here's a helpful article on setting this up http://support.ashop.com.au/KB/a290/use-free-shipping-to-increase-your-sales-and-loyal-customers.aspx?KBSearchID=0
- Offer a range of gift certificates and place them on your home page or a widget to appear on every page.
- Offer discount coupons. On your header or home page, display a discount coupon for the Christmas period. Make the discount value count though, offering 5% will not entice potential customers.
- Turn on Livechat. If your customers have a question, they want an answer right now. If they have access to chat instantly, it will go a long way to closing the sale.
- Follow up on all sales. Roughly a week after an item is shipped. Drop your customers an email to follow up with a survey or a simple thank you for doing business with you. You'll be surprised at the number of loyal customers this will generate.
