15 Tips Every Retailer needs to Survive the Holiday Season

Hey, hey, everybody. It's Sarah with the Boutique hub and we are entering into the holiday season. Guys, this is a little video I wanted to do about 15 questions that I want you to ask yourself that will prove to you if you are ready to tackle the holiday season before us. This video is great for just getting started. Boutique owners or veteran boutique owners as. Let us, let us be real. This year is different than any other year. So here are 15 questions that I want you to ask yourself in preparation for the holiday season. Here we go. Let's set the tone. The holidays are a hustle and bustle time. Everybody is going faster, they're busier, they're more stressed, and it's not supposed to be that way. Guys, if you can answer these 15 questions and get prepared properly, it will reduce the stress of the holidays. Therefore, once Christmas comes and we're busy and people are shopping and people are wanting things shipped and people are wanting things, curbside pickup, whatever it is, we will be prepared. Anything that we can do today to take the stress out and help us prepare further is going to equal more sales, less stress, happier customers, happier employees, and hopefully when it's all said and done, you can sit back, chill out, watch that money come in and feel satisfied. So let's get started. Number one, the question I want you to ask yourself is, will I be operating different holiday hours? Let's own it right now. Are we going to, what is the needs of our customers? How can we capitalize on that needs? This year might be different than last year, guys. We might have to offer some different services with that, different hours. Are we offering curbside pickup? If so, what are the hours for that curbside pickup? How will we manage all of these new hours with the staff that we have in our day to day activities? Here's the thing. You might think it through, but whatever you do, you have to put it on paper, you have to put it in print, guys. Google has to know about it. Don't forget to change these hours of operation. Not only on your store door, on your receipt with Google, and on all your social media accounts and your website, just to name a few. Often that Google listing is the one that gets missed. Don't forget about Yelp too. Okay, so store hours. Number two, are you adjusting your return policy? This is super important because this time of year people are buying gifts. They're giving gifts at different times of the year, guys. So they may be buying now but not giving something till January. So does your current return policy still satisfy them? Does it work Is it maybe time to be a bit more flexible in your offering? It might be. Guys going above and beyond doing that unexpected, that undeserved, that's a big part of customer service. That's what's going to set you apart from everybody else. All right, number three, who is going to be responsible for order fulfillment? What I mean by order fulfillment is all these new ways of getting traffic and gaining exposure and gaining sales. We're selling on Instagram, we're selling on Facebook, we're selling, we're selling through social media, message messaging services. Right. Also we're selling through our website, we're selling in store. Guys, how are you tracking all of these? Hopefully it's consistently coming out of one inventory. Hopefully you have that system put in place. But who's responsible for order fulfillment on each one of these channels? Having somebody accountable and having somebody feel confident in their job to know that they're taking care of their personal slice of the pie is going to help productivity all across the board. So who handles that productivity? Who handles that fulfillment? Not only is it actually packaging the item and making sure they're shipping the small to the customer that ordered the small, but making sure you have enough boxes, have enough tissue paper, have enough flyers that are going out in your mailings. Nothing worse than getting to the middle of December and realizing all that marketing material you had printed to go in each one of your orders is still sitting on the shelves and did not get put in those orders. So who's responsible for that and what is the process? All right, number four, how will you gather customers information? Please get over the fact that you're going to be busy and you might not, you're going to say, I don't have time to do that. You do have time. You have to make time. Because getting that customer's email, their date of birth, their phone number, hopefully opting into a texting campaign, right. Obviously their name, address, all those things are so important right now. Because if we don't get them now, how are we going to retarget these customers in January, February and March? Get the information you can right now. It's imperative, no matter how busy you are, practice have a system in place to get that, that information efficiently and quickly. Don't miss out on this opportunity. You'll kick yourself in the slower months if you don't have it now. Number five, who is responsible for stocking the shelves? Guys, this means everything from cleaning supplies and again, all the packaging and supplies and things like that that you're going to need Your special orders, your gift wrap, the boxes, the bags, the bows, who is responsible for that? Make sure you have that person trained up. You have a system in place. You have funds available to restock these items. Guys, that's a big one. Because nothing is more frustrating than waiting on a customer having a $500 order, which is awesome. She's happy, you're happy, and all of a sudden you go to gift wrap something because you told her you could gift wrap and there's no gift wrap. Like, you actually don't even have any in the store. Or now you have to go to the back room to try to find it, or there's no boxes and now you're going to have to put it in a bag. And now that customer is going to have to stop what they're doing and go to the other store down the street to find gift wrap. If you're going to offer full service, make sure you're ready and stocked. Who is responsible for that? Who's responsible for. For stocking these supplies? Okay, next thing. Number six, cleaning guys. This year, more than ever, cleaning is non negotiable. And that is everything from dusting down your countertops, sanitizing your countertops, your windows obviously are clean. All the little nooks and crannies in your business, whether that is your dressing room or your back room or your, your display windows or your racks, your shelving, it doesn't matter. But it's also not only important for all of you brick and mortars, it's extremely important in your warehouses. It's extremely important that not only do your customers feel safe because your store is clean. How about your employees? If they are comfortable, they will work harder. If they feel that they're in a bad environment, their morale is going to go down, their confidence is going to go down, they're not going to work as hard for you. And if they don't work as hard for you, your customers aren't served. So cleaning non negotiable. Going into fourth quarter, you're going to get busy going into the holidays. Who's responsible for that? That is a huge one. That's my number six, Number seven question. Who's responsible for hangbacks? What is the process for hangbacks in your store? On your warehouse as an order is returned back to you, Say somebody buys something and they send it back. Or say a customer brings something back into your store, or a customer takes items into a dressing room and now there's those items that they don't want. What is the process you have in place to make sure those items get put back where they belong so you can find them for the next customer. Guys, my tip here is you cannot sell what you can't find. So if you're running around the store looking for that size 8 pair of jeans that you know is there and the inventory in your point of sale says it's there, but you can't find it, you're going to miss out on a sale. That customer is going to lose confidence in you that you know your business and that you know the inventory you have. And I swear, as soon as she's down the street or pulled out of your driveway, you're going to find that pair of jeans. That's not allowed. You can't sell what you can't find. So what is your process? What's the system for getting that inventory back where it goes? This is all about merchandising. That's a whole nother thing. But your merchandise needs to tell a story. It needs to inspire your customers. Guys. So if you tell somebody you have that size 9 in those boots and they come in and look for it and all of a sudden you can't find it, they're going to be dissatisfied, right? A dissatisfied customer, confused customer doesn't buy. So that's the hangback process. Number eight, have you updated your sales receipt to talk about your new hours, the return policy and your holiday greeting? Guys, this is a time to give back. This is a time for you to give thanks. Please add that onto your sales receipt, add that onto your shipping labels, add that onto or your packing slips. Give back, right? Give back a smile, give back a hug, whatever you want to give back. But make sure your customers know that you appreciate their business and that's a perfect place for you to update them on that. Also, that sales receipt is what they need to know on how to return something, how to contact you, what their return policy is. That's number eight. Number nine. This is a big one. Number nine. Have you trained your staff on all of these systems? Returns. It's inevitable you're going to have returns. Have you trained your staff on how to process returns? Everything from start to finish. And this doesn't just mean how to data enter, it is how to address the customer. Because, guys, we know we're going to have some upset customers. How will your staff handle that? How will they compose themselves and how do they make sure, data entry wise, they get it entered into the system correctly with the right discounts and the right amount of inventory coming back into your System and the right credit going to your customer or cash back to your customer. Practice, practice, practice those returns. Gathering customer data. Have you trained your customers on that? Are they efficient in this process? Again, on order fulfillment, I know I talked about these things earlier, but just because you have a system in place doesn't mean you've trained your customers. So my question number nine to you is have you trained your customers on these things? Here's another thing. Bad weather policy. Have you trained your customers? Do they understand what happens in inclement weather? Because there will be bad weather come fourth quarter, come Christmas season, it just happens. The holiday season seems to always bring us a snowstorm we or bad ice weather or something like that. What is the process? If you have a policy of same day shipping and a storm blows through, how do you handle it? These are questions that you need. I'm asking you to answer in advance so you're not blindsided by these problems when they arise, because they will arise and being prepared is best policy. All right, number 10, have you posted your shipping policy on your social emails, your counter, all of these things. What I mean by shipping policy is not just are you doing same day shipping, are you doing free shipping, what are you doing to serve your customer, but what are the requirements and the restrictions and the deadlines with FedEx, UPS and the Postal Service? Be aware of what those are so you can build your business accordingly. Help your customer be satisfied and confident in their purchase by giving them these deadlines. That is it. They outline it and it's out of your hands after it leaves your store. That's why I'm a big, big component or big supporter route added onto your on your online sales. But being in communication with your customer at all times about what those restrictions might be and what those deadlines are. Have them posted for everybody to see and don't just post them once and assume everybody knows. Right. We have to be consistent with our posting and with our message. So that is a big one. That's number 10. All right, number 11. Guys, this is, this is going to happen. But are you prepared to be lied to? Yes. Your customers will lie to you and your staff will lie to you. Your staff will lie to you about something, some reason they can't work or some discount they gave somebody when they weren't supposed to or some return that they did when they should not have. Guys, under pressure, things happen. Be prepared. How will you handle this? How will you handle this? What are your negotiables? Not only will your staff lie to you, I'd love to say no one will, but they. It always seems to happen. Every year I get comments or questions about this. Your customers will lie to you. Your customers will come in and say, oh, so and so said this was actually 50% off. So and so said that I could have this on hold for two weeks and then come in and buy this. So and so said that. Whatever so and so said. Guys, sometimes the holidays bring out the absolute worst in people and people make up stories. It falls back on you. My advice to you on this, on number 11 here, being prepared to be lied to is have big shoulders. Have big shoulders. Guys, don't take it personal. Be prepared. That's the best advice I can give you. If you are prepared for these things, guys, you will handle them better, saying they're inevitable. Somewhere along the line, something like this is going to happen to you. And don't take it personal. Just have a preparation plan. Now on the flip side of that, let's talk about something Fun on number 12. This is a big question. Get prepared for this. I Talked about number 11, people lying to you, but guys, you're going to have to get pretty creative. I don't want to call it you lying to the customer or you lying to your staff, but you kind of have to become a storyteller. You have to be a little bit of that Santa's elf in Christmas, and you have to come up with some fun, clever stories, not lies around where your inventory went. The reason I'm saying is, say I come in and I want to buy your number one employee, who might be my daughter, a gift for Christmas. But I don't want you to tell her that I bought that for her. So how are you going to explain to your employee when she comes in and sees that item is gone? Is she going to go back into your point of sale system and look to see who bought it? Right. Then the surprise is ruined. Guys, we have to get crafty. You have to be clever. And this goes for all of your customers who their husbands might come in or, or your staff, who their friends might come in and buy from you for them. Guys, be creative. Get ready to add a little bit of Santa into your holiday season and have fun with it, but be ready because it will happen. And you don't want to be caught with your mouth open in your eyes like, oh, I don't know what to say because you'll be busted right then. And that takes away from the excitement of buying in your store for that customer. Right? That almost makes that Customer feel like, well, I can't buy my friend or my, my daughter a gift there because she'll know about it then it's not a fun gift giving experience for me. So you as the business owner, get creative and crafty there. Come up with a clever way to be Santa Claus. All right, number 13, this is a big question. Do you have a payback plan? What does that mean, guys? What that means is you will have a lot of money coming in right now in the holiday season. Lots of sales coming in with that. Don't get so excited that you go and spend all that money right away because come January, you will be paying extra in sales tax, extra in merchant fees, and extra payroll and extra utilities. It costs money to make money. So all of these sales you're bringing in, there's extra expenses going out. Keep that in mind. I see year after year after year, boutique owners get so excited about all the sales coming in that they go out and spend. And then comes January, February, and they are cash tight because they overspot or overspent at the end of the year, guys, that's a really big one. Have a payback plan and stick with it. Stick with it. All right, we're getting to the end. But number 14, are you prepared to miss a few meals? Guys, this is a big one because you're going to work long hours. You are going to miss out on going to lunch, you're going to miss out on going to supper sometimes if you work into the evenings and so is your staff. So here's a tip for me. Bring food to the store, have things catered in, have a plan with some of your local restaurants, do some swaps, do some co ops, tell the bar owner down the street or the restaurant down the street, hey, here's a hundred dollar gift card to my store. Can we swap it out on meals? Can you deliver some meals during key times to us? Guys, that's a win win. Everybody's excited and you don't have to think about it. However, you will be prepared. You need to be prepared to miss a few meals in your store and work through things with that. You may have some employees go overtime. How are you prepared for that? Keep an eye on their hours. If you ask people to work through lunch, guys, have a plan for that. It is actually not legal to not give your employees a break. Be mindful of those restrictions put on you as the employer to your employees. All right, Last 1. Number 15. This is a big one because you will not survive holidays if you cannot do number 15. So be prepared. Be prepared to have fun. Are you ready to have fun? Are you ready to celebrate? Guys, you've worked this whole year and man, has this year been a challenge more so than ever before, a huge challenge. So are you prepared to celebrate the journey, celebrate the wins that you have made and just have fun? I don't know if it's the day of Christmas Eve that you have people into the store and you have hors d' oeuvres and you have champagne or you have wine or you have cocktails or whatever it is, and you just celebrate your customers and say thank you and a give back. To celebrate your employees, make a big deal out of the sacrifice that they have given you, the time that they have given you, the dollars that they have spent with you. Make a huge deal about that. Because if you're fun, it's going to get people to come shop with you again. And for those of you that are just online, celebrate with your customers, that are shopping with you online as well. Make a huge deal about it. Maybe in your live sale that you do at the end of the holiday season, call out some of those customers, celebrate with them, make it known that you appreciate them. Guys, the holidays are supposed to be an amazing time, not a stressful time. So I urge you to go through these 15 questions. Really ask yourself, have I done these things? Am I prepared? Because a lot of these things are the things we kind of sweep under the rug and we get so worried about having the inventory on hand and doing a live sale or having a beautiful window display. Some of these other things we forget about and those are the things that blindside us and can really set us back. So a confused mind doesn't buy, right? A confident person will spend more time with you. They will shop with you longer. They will be employed with you longer. These are 15 things that you can do to prepare for that. So here we go, guys. There's my tips. Long ones, I know, but there's a lot there. But with that, I guarantee you, I don't care where you are in this boutique journey, you will rock this holiday season. And come the end of it, the end of the year, I want you to sit back and celebrate. Let us know how it goes, guys. We'll see you later inside the Hub. For more of your frequently asked questions, please drop them below. Message me, email me. I'm always here to help. Guys, have a great holiday season and we'll see you on the other side.