Summer Sales Preparation For Online Stores
The seasonal pattern has a significant impact on eCommerce businesses. For example, retailers often experience increased demands during the beginning or end of the season. Specifically, summer sales have been shown to increase brand awareness and push consumers to a website, reducing the risk of a sales decline. We’ve put together a series of tactics to help your store boost sales during the summer slump. Decide on hot products to offer When planning your summer sales, it’s essential to diversify the product range by including seasonal favorites. You can check out the best sellers on the websites of major retailers, including Amazon and Walmart, to see what’s new this summer. Or you can simply type in the words “best seller” in the search bar to see what people are looking for right now. Then keep them in mind while determining the goods to apply a discount price. Another great way to increase sales is to use bundle goods. You may also use giveaways as part of your marketing plan. Create a coherent marketing strategy Prepare all of the materials needed for your summer sales in advance. You should pay particular attention to specials and consider any other deals you’d like to run during these months. To ensure that you don’t miss anything important, make a calendar with start and end dates. Then, for each promotion, devise publicity and promotional strategies accordingly. Update your store appearance The first thing to attract customers is to redecorate your store with a summer theme. For example, place hot summer items on your homepage to entice visitors from the first second they arrive on your site. If you have a blog, write articles that are relevant to the season and appealing to customers the most, such as: Top 10 summer dresses Beauty buyers’ top picks for summer Best summer accessories Using email newsletters and social media Have you ever wished you could master the art of email marketing? The best time to do this is during the summer. Pay attention to your content to avoid any mistakes regarding grammar or vocabulary. Then try different tips to incentivize subscribers to click on your call-to-action links. Besides, customers will come to your store in droves thanks to social media outlets. As many people go on holiday during the holiday, they use social media (e.g., Instagram) more frequently. As a result, you may hold a social media contest to gain more followers, boost your online reputation, and eventually increase sales. Ensure your shipping calendar Since summer is only three months long, customers expect their summer orders to be fulfilled as quickly as possible. Thus make every effort to reduce delivery times and never be late. Make sure your delivery information is clear and visible. To achieve a competitive advantage and entice the customers to make a purchase, consider providing free delivery for a limited time. Reduce product waste by collaborating with other businesses Collaboration is a good way to reach new customer segments and boost sales. For example, you could give a USD 10-discount to customers who spend USD 20 or more in your partner’s shop. Shopping cart abandonment is common, and e-stores do whatever they can to prevent it. Due to the seasonality of deals, this is particularly important in the summer. Customers who abandoned their shopping carts are doubtful to return. Increase performance with automation When the demand increases, it is likely that you’ll be overwhelmed by a bunch of work to be done at a time. In this case, it’d be helpful to install an automation platform. The app allows you to convert repetitive tasks into automated workflows that execute when needed. Some of the app features are: Auto-publish products Auto-categorize orders according to value, locations, etc Auto-segment customer based on demographics, spending, the total number of order, etc Auto-tag customers on CRM, email marketing, and delivery platforms Auto-generate reports & lists on Google Sheet Auto-notify of low-stock items, abandoned cart, or high-value orders Auto-detect and halt high-risk orders
Inventory Management Challenges for Online Stores
Managing inventory effectively can be challenging, especially for eCommerce retailers with an omnichannel strategy. eCommerce businesses come across various inventory management challenges every day. In order to maintain sustainable growth, they have to find an out-of-the-box solution to streamline the process. In this blog, we’ll outline the five toughest challenges faced by e-commerce entrepreneurs and how to deal with them effectively. Inventory management challenges faced by online stores 1. Unqualified staff The most common mistake businesses make when it comes to inventory management is to hire unqualified staff to carry out the tasks. Underskilled staff is incapable of evaluating suppliers, preparing the proper documentation, making correct forecasts, purchasing new inventory, or handling inventory. As a result, your inventory management system becomes reactive rather than proactive. This might lead to unreliable system information, high levels of expired inventory, build-up of obsolete inventory, and over or understated inventory valuation. Inventory management issues will arise because of incompetent staff, and it will be destructive for your business. 2. No KPIs or too many KPIs KPI stands for Key Performance Indicator. An inventory management KPI is a metric that a company uses to analyze its stock management efficiency. Using too many KPIs may confuse your staff about the most important aspects to focus on. Meanwhile, no KPIs will cause stockouts or result in excess stocks. Either case would adversely impact a business. There are many performance KPIs that a company can use to optimize inventory. Still, it is vital to choose the right metrics for your business for inventory management issues that can decrease the efficiencies and dig into your profits. 3. Manual management process Another challenge faced by e-commerce companies is a manual management. It is possible to track and manage stocks manually in the early stages of an e-commerce business. But as the business scales, managing inventory manually becomes more and more complex. As the company grows, paperwork and other manual processes turn out to be tedious and burdensome. Automating the inventory management process not only helps you save time but also limits errors caused by fatigue. 4. Deadstock When it comes to inventory management challenges, deadstock refers to a product that has not been sold and keeps lying on the shelves for a longer duration than anticipated, and the chances of it getting sold are very weak. In the absence of good inventory management, businesses often end up stocking excess inventory. Deadstock might be the result of poor forecasting, lack of demand, over-ordering, etc. If not tackled properly, it would lead to huge losses to a business. 5. Irregular stock tracking To maintain an accurate picture of the stock, it is important to count your stock regularly. It helps you to figure out any discrepancies between the book and actual inventory. There are times when un-trackable stock such as exchanges or pilferage are not entered into the system. This type of error would cost you tremendous time and effort to fix. Therefore, a frequent stock audit is highly necessary to ensure sufficient inventory. Back up your store with BackOrder BackOrder allows users to assign any product to a backorder status when the inventory level reaches a certain threshold. This means customers can still place an order for out-of-stock items and have them delivered later. In addition, you can set up the system to notify your staff whenever a new request is submitted, preventing you from missing out on any potential customers. What’s more, BackOrder can now be integrated into Atom8. This creates a centralized management system without you going back and forth between different platforms. Streamlined Backorder Management Atom8 enables seamless management of backorders by automatically tracking and updating inventory levels in real-time. This ensures that customers are promptly notified of product availability and allows for efficient handling of backordered items. Optimal Inventory Planning By leveraging Atom8’s advanced forecasting capabilities, you can anticipate demand for backordered items and adjust inventory levels accordingly. This proactive approach helps prevent stockouts and ensures timely fulfillment of customer orders. Enhanced Customer Communication With Atom8, you can automate communication with customers regarding backordered items, providing transparency and reducing customer inquiries. By keeping customers informed throughout the backorder process, you can maintain trust and satisfaction. Integrated Order Fulfillment Atom8 seamlessly integrates with your existing order management system, allowing for streamlined order fulfillment processes. Whether fulfilling in-stock or backordered items, Atom8 ensures accuracy and efficiency throughout the order fulfillment process. Conclusion In conclusion, overcoming inventory management challenges requires a combination of strategic planning, process optimization, and leveraging innovative solutions like Atom8 and Backorder app. By addressing these challenges head-on and implementing effective inventory management strategies, online retailers can optimize their operations, minimize costs, and deliver exceptional customer experiences.
