The eCommerce Retail Guide to Problem-Free Christmas Sales

The August bank holiday is in the history books, and as families finish up their back to school shopping, B2C retailers prepare for the next big sales surge. For most companies, that’s Christmas – but while shoppers may think in terms of the Christmas rush, retailers can’t.

Getting ready for Christmas sales – and for the January bargain hunters that will follow – isn’t something you can do in one month. For one thing, the budget probably isn’t there.

How can you make sure you’re ready before the rush begins? How can you ensure problem-free Christmas sales for your company?

Building Up Stock

The biggest obstacle to problem-free Christmas sales? Running out of products to sell. The second biggest? Spending too much on stock to cover your operational budget.

Big sales events need extra stock – and fitting all of that into a Christmas budget that probably has to handle temporary staff too isn’t easy. So it’s time to start using comparatively quiet months to build up anticipation inventory.

It’s time to start filling your warehouse. Essentially, you’ll want to be adding additional inventory beyond the typical safety stock levels.

Cloud Commerce Pro customers have access to an easy way to implement this; adjusting your re-purchasing rules will allow you to order a little extra every time it’s time to re-stock. You can gradually bring in the extra you’ll need as part of your standard operating procedure.

And since we mentioned temporary staff…

Warehouse Management & Temp Staff

When you bring in temps for warehouse work, there are three problems you need to be able to solve:

• What support do they need to work efficiently?
• If there are problems, how can you track responsibility?
• We hate to even mention this one, but how can you prevent theft in busy warehouses?

Cloud Commerce Pro users have answers to all three questions.

Supporting Temp Workers

Our streamlined dispatch process makes picking and packing efficient even for new team members. Pick lists are automatically generated, optimised for single orders, priority orders, or bulk orders.

Once the items for each order are picked they come to one of our Express Packing Stations, which are designed to help your team pack an order ready for shipping in under thirty seconds.

Shipping selection and booking are automated. So is updating the CRM and sending the customer their tracking details. Because there’s no need for human input, there’s no risk that new staff will make mistakes with those steps.

Tracking Worker Responsibility

Unlike many competing systems, Cloud Commerce Pro doesn’t limit the number of unique user accounts.

We understand how important user management is to accountability. With that in mind, we don’t want our customers to be tempted to share the same user account between multiple people. So no limits and no charges.

And advanced permission settings mean your temporary workers can be limited to only the parts of the system they need to access. You can increase permissions for any of the team you hire on in the new year, when they’ll have time to learn the other systems.

With each user linked to the orders they fill, the stock they book in, and the products they pick, you can quickly and easily determine accountability if there’s a problem. You know who to train further or who to carry out checks on.

Theft Prevention in Warehouses

Cloud Commerce Pro customers using our optional barcoding/scanning support have a clear, accurate record of every product sold and every product booked in. Stock takes also use the system, providing an automatic, instant cross-check.

This makes employee theft much harder and also acts as an effective deterrent.

Economise During the Rush

An effective order management system massively increases the amount of orders a given worker can fulfil every day. That on its own will help you economise over the busy season – you won’t need to take on as many additional staff.

However, one area we tend to overlook can get out of hand in the busy season – shipping.

More and more companies now use free shipping as an incentive to customers to order with them. Obviously, shipping is factored in to the price – but if you don’t book the optimal shipping for each order, the cost of those errors will add up. And it especially adds up when you’re processing more orders than usual.

Cloud Commerce Pro allows you to create custom shipping rules tailored to your needs. You can set these rules up now, when you have plenty of time to consider your options and make the right decision, and then your software will automatically make the best choice while you’re rushed – making a big saving in an area where it’s easy to forget there’s even a cost.

This is one of the most powerful ways to increase your profit margin in a busy month.

Get Your Share of Festive Sales with Online Product Marketing

Our child brand Cloud Seller Pro offers the UK’s only Pay on Results digital marketing service in the Cloud Seller Pro Partner Program. That’s right – you only pay for new sales they help you make.

No set-up fee, no monthly charge, no minimum spend. The team will clean your data, create and optimise your campaigns, even work with you on spend.

You can set up your Cloud Seller Pro system now and have plenty of data to optimise for the Christmas rush. When the festive season hits, you can increase your spend to capture a bigger market share.

Make the most of the Christmas season – think ahead and start the process today. Be ready for this Christmas and every Christmas to come, and say hello to problem-free Christmas sales.

Cloud Commerce Pro – Multichannel Order Management Software 

Scale your eCommerce business with dedicated order management software and expert support.

Cloud Commerce Pro is a leading multi-channel order management software powering hundreds of UK brands, SMEs and retailers. Since 2003, we have supported entrepreneurs and business leaders to increase their profitability by simplifying the entire commerce journey. Today, we are led by some of eCommerce’s most renowned thought leaders and are proud to be a WPP company.

We embed our expertise and best practices in eCommerce throughout the onboarding process and through every interaction with our customers. Start scaling with Multi-Channel Order Management Software that includes access to dedicated shipping and data specialists and ongoing UK-based support. Seamlessly connect customer acquisition and multi-channel commerce, with warehousing, inventory, and third-party logistics providers (3PLs). Sell Direct to Consumers (DTC) by integrating Shopify, Magento and other eCommerce platforms with global marketplaces, such as Amazon and eBay, and multiple international couriers. Grow faster with Cloud Seller Pro leading Marketing Agency and Web Development services.

Book a discovery call to learn more.

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