6 Ways to Prepare Your Operations for the Busy Holiday Season

The holidays mark one of the most important times of the year for retailers. With inflation creating concerns for businesses and consumers, preparing operations will be vital for success. According to Square and Afterpay’s Festive Forecast report, 36% of consumers plan to spend more this holiday season year compared to last, creating huge opportunities for retailers to attract new and existing customers. 

Below are six strategies to ensure you're offering an exceptional customer experience across every touchpoint of your business. 

Ramp up your customer service 

Since the holidays are a busy time, one of the most important aspects is offering exceptional customer service. Retailers should consider opening additional checkout counters to handle crowds, or equipping floor staff with handheld payment terminals to enable mobile checkout. This way, you can quickly address customer needs anywhere throughout your store, whether it’s a purchase, return, exchange, or inventory question. 

When consumers need to quickly get in touch with your business, lean on AI-enabled conversational commerce tools to open up two-way communication. You can text back and forth with customers about all their needs and questions like existing order updates, exchanging or canceling an item, purchasing an item, sending a coupon or gift card, or resolving an issue. 

Inventory management

Over the last two years, retailers have dealt with inventory and supply chain issues that have affected both the customer experience and sales. By analyzing sales reports from last year, you’ll get ahead of the curve for this year’s holidays and identify trends within the data. This will help better plan for items you know will sell quickly, items to remove from inventory, or when to offer sales so you can promote products at certain times. 

Inventory management software also gives you the power to easily download reports, update inventory quantities in bulk, and receive a daily stock alert email detailing items that are low or out, so you can restock fast-selling items and avoid missing those key holiday sales. 

Optimize your staff

Maximizing your staff’s availability and impact, especially during the holidays, is crucial to ensure customers are helped in a timely manner from the moment they enter. Square and Afterpay found that 23% of businesses plan to increase staff hours, while 16% plan to hire more staff to prepare. 

Team management software improves workflows and saves time so you can focus on maximizing sales. You can create and publish shift schedules, assign team commission rates for items, while tapping into real-time data reports to make smarter business decisions. To save yourself valuable administrative time, leverage team management software that integrates with payroll software to further automate operations.

Create seamless experiences online and in-person

Consumers continue to expect seamless shopping experiences across online and in-person. It's vital to sell across a variety of channels, while offering the same shopping experience everywhere. 

Modern consumers - especially younger generations - are using multiple channels and devices to discover and purchase, most notably their phones. You can add payment links to social channels to create ‘shoppable posts’ or promote certain products in marketing messages, enabling buyers to purchase anywhere and anytime. Square and Afterpay found that 59% of businesses plan to sell on social media and 38% plan to sell through marketing campaigns, all of which drive website traffic. 

An omnichannel strategy also means offering customers different ways to receive items. Retailers should offer local delivery, curbside pickup, and shipping, while offering discounts on shipping. 

Offer customers different ways to pay

Offering buyers convenience, choice, and flexibility in how they pay further elevates the customer experience. While a majority of gifters cite traditional payment methods as their go-to this holiday season, a stronger proportion of Gen Z and Millennials intend to use Buy-Now Pay-Later (BNPL) services like Afterpay, at 23% and 24% respectively. 

Buyers cite using BNPL because of having the ability to shop instantly and manage their budget by spreading out the cost, while having a fast checkout experience across online and in-person. 

Build a marketing strategy 

A well-planned marketing strategy creates lasting impressions on customers, that in return builds repeat buyers. With marketing messages, you can offer discounts, share holiday hours, send messages just to loyalty customers, or promote gift cards, all in the hopes of keeping your business top of mind. Square and Afterpay found that gift cards ranked as the top gift consumers are most likely to buy for others, presenting an opportunity to boost revenue.

A holiday party is also a fun, unexpected marketing tactic that brings together loyal customers, while inviting new customers into your store. You can use marketing messages or social media to promote your event and reach consumers across channels. 

For tips on how to better run and grow your business, check out Square’s Business Resource Center here.