For many of us the upcoming Christmas period can represent as much as 30% of our yearly sales. Getting it right is often the difference between a good trading period and a great sales period, so to help you we will produce some Xmas “fitness tips” over the next few days that can help build those additional sales.
Let’s start with stock, merchandising & Systems planning:
• Do you have a record of last years Xmas & New Year sales from Dec 1 to January 30 by product and time?
This record should be broken up in days and ideally ½ days.
Ensure that the periods align, i.e. that you are comparing the same periods as closely as you can.
• Considered and planned your Xmas story, including hero lines and category stories?
• Have you recorded your stock quantities and sell through of these lines, over this period?
• Do you have a plan for your projected mix of business and planned average margin mix of product
• Do you know the previous Xmas best sellers and worst sellers? (and the respective stock holding of each line?)
• Are you Keeping an eye on the longer term weather forecasts over this period? ( In some cases, this can influence the mix of product sold)
• Have you calculated your open to buy quantities for this period?
• Have you arranged additional stock room space by organizing your own shop stockroom in preparation for this period?
• Coordinated suppliers to have back up on your key lines with arrangements made to call down on this product?
• Have you contacted your I.T support do a “health check’ on all hardware and software infrastructure back up such as I.T support, terminals, cables ?
• Are you doing competitive product and price checks daily on comparable lead lines – Seeing what your competitors are planning as their Xmas “story” is important
I will post some more of the Doctor’s Xmas tips as we get closer to the retail event of the year
For many of us the upcoming Christmas period can represent as much as 30% of our yearly sales. Getting it right is often the difference between a good trading period and a great sales period, so to help you we will produce some Xmas “fitness tips” over the next few days that can help build those additional sales.
Let’s start with stock, merchandising & Systems planning: