The holidays are fast approaching for retailers. And while the country still crawls out of a recession, the holiday retail season remains an unknown. As you either start your 2013-14 holiday strategy or add the finishing touches, retailers should keep these three things in mind:
1) Alternative Retail – Do something different. Send out brand ambassadors to the stores that carry your items, or set up assisted selling with advocates badged as you, armed to the teeth with every last bit of knowledge on your product. Create a kiosk in a mall. Mall traffic is at its prime during the holiday season too. Consider a different kind of kiosk – a tech expo – to help draw in customers and bring awareness to your brand.
2) Outsourced holiday workforce – If you hire temp workers during the holiday season, go through an outsourced agent. They have fast onboarding times for their employees, and companies like ours take care of the sometimes burdensome process of setting up a new employee. Companies like Amazon and Toys ‘R Us plan to temporarily expand their work force in upwards of 40% and 45,ooo reps, respectively.
3) Increased Holiday sales predictions – There are a slew of predictions for increased sales during the 2013 holiday season. There are some here, here, and here too. A lot of reports are predicting an increase between 3.5 and 4 percent. In addition, a few are predicting higher online sales during the holiday season as well – somewhere near 14 percent. Last year saw similar predictions – around 3.5 percent. With this knowledge as a retailer, you can make more informed decisions regarding your holiday plan.