How to: Prepare for the Golden Quarter
The last quarter of every year has been dubbed the ‘Golden Quarter’ in retail because it is the busiest time of year in the run up to Christmas. It is a big opportunity for retailers to increase their sales and profits before the year is out. Preparing for the Golden Quarter is something retailers need to think about in advance if they want to take full advantage of their consumer’s spending habits at the end of the year.
Analyse Last Year
The first thing to do when you’re preparing for the Golden Quarter is to analyse your performance for the previous year. Looking at key metrics from the past is a good comparison for the upcoming quarter. Look at online and offline figures such as web traffic, email performance, sales figures, engagement, and conversion rates.
Were there any issues from the previous year? If so, you need to start looking into ways to ensure that they don’t repeat again this year. Accidents or errors can happen once, but they shouldn’t be continuously repeating themselves.
Do a Spring Clean
Before the Golden Quarter, retailers should look at giving their business a spring clean. Get rid of redundant data to pave the way to capture new information. Take a look at your website and see if anything is outdated or in need of improvement. Do user testing now on your website to make sure nothing will crash during the busy months ahead, your website traffic will most likely increase by a good bit. If you’ve a bricks and mortar store, is there anything you can do to heighten the customer experience when your customers come in-store?
Marketing Plan
When you are preparing for the Golden Quarter, start planning your marketing strategy in advance. Look up keywords and start implementing them onto your website and into your blog posts, because search will play an important role in your sales. Set up a social media and/or email plan and put it into place as soon as the quarter begins. If you are looking to set up promotions or discounts for Black Friday or any other dates, think about how much you can afford to offer.
Stock
It’s important to stock more merchandise in your store over the Golden Quarter to ensure you don’t run out of anything during this busy time. You should also make sure that you’re stocking fresh and exciting products for your customers. Customers are less likely to purchase items that they’ve continuously seen all year, than new trendy products that you’ve just got into the store. If you are looking to source more stock, Autumn Fair is the largest home and gift trade show of the season, so is the perfect place to start.
Staffing
Hopefully, your retail store and your online website will be a lot busier from October until the end of December. If so, you will need to hire more staff to accommodate your new customers. Make sure you don’t leave it until the last minute to hire temporary Christmas staff because they won’t be trained properly, and won’t be as efficient as they will need to be during the Christmas rush.
Looking to find new stock for your store for the Golden Quarter? Visit Autumn Fair this September and source gift, home, fashion, beauty, greetings and kid’s products.
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