Why Summertime is a Good Time to Prep for Holiday Sales

Just like that, May is nearly over. I don’t know about you, but I’m still in pre-summer shock. Where in the world did the last five months go? As quickly as the first part of the year went by, so will the next few months. If you’re in retail or any online commerce business, summertime is actually the perfect time to get ready for Q4 activity. I used to think that September was the safe time to plan for the holidays, but I quickly learned I was wrong. Some of our clients are already chatting about shoring up processes for the November rush.

Here are three tried-and-true tips we know will help guide your eCommerce ship in Q4.

Line up your bench. When the holiday shopping extravaganza hits, you’ll want the best team possible at the front lines of your customer service experience. This is the time to test out new project leads, service providers, and other partners. Role-play with your customer service team. Are their responses pleasant? Did the consumer receive a prompt and thorough response? You don’t want to find out those answers during the crunch period.

Find new customer advocates. Use social listening tools to see what consumers are talking about now, from competitors and product features to day-to-day woes. How can your product can help those consumers? What can you glean from these trends to make your customers’ shopping experience better? Use all of this information to improve Q4.

Introduce new products, then test and learn. Have you thought about adding a new color to a SKU? Planning a limited-edition video game perk? Taking the time during the off season to dip your toe in the product innovations pool will enable you and your team to see what your community is saying. You’ll be able to fully understand if a new idea doesn’t work, well before you’re in the thick of the holiday shopping gauntlet.

Soon you’ll look at these steps as standard issue and part of growing a business. Ideally, you are practicing some sort of optimization throughout the year.

Blagica Bottigliero
VP of Digital Media