THE DTG COLUMN A little Christmas advice
With less than 60 days before the Christmas rush is upon the industry, Resolute DTG’s managing director, COLIN MARSH, gives hints and tips on how to prepare and market yourself for the busiest online time of year.
W
e all know the old saying, Christmas is coming the goose is getting fat. In the online retail business there isnʼt a truer word. Sales will treble or even better during the run up to Christmas. But beware, this will only happen if you have prepared and fine-tuned your business to cope with the increased sales. I have put together a few tips on how to make sure you benefit and prepare correctly for this bumper business opportunity that happens but once a year.
What’s your product line? Selling online gives an opportunity to maximise on the products you supply. DTG printing is a great business to run online, if you do not offer other promotional items decorated by a different method you are not utilising your online presence. The expenditure to run an e-commerce site offering online design functionality is very often the same for ten products or ten thousand. Increasing your sales pipeline with more products that may only sell seasonally should have a positive effect on your sales, increasing the benefit of the lucrative Christmas rush. Buying a gift online should no longer be hard work, make sure your website is quick and easy to use and has more than one payment method. Very often in the busiest times payment gateways will stall under the extra load. If you have a second method of payment your chances are much higher of the customer completing the sale.
Look around for your seasonal extras
If you can place
adverts at the shopping basket showing discounts do so. This is a proven way of upselling at the last minute and
increasing the final value of the sale.
Perishable goods like printed cookies, cakes, sweets and
marshmallows are inherently ordered much
Order your consumables in time for the Christmas rush
nearer to the last posting date. If you are food printing as part of your online service the last couple of weeks will probably mean you will need to work extended hours or shifts.
What to stock up on
If this is your first Christmas online you will be in the dark as to how many consumables you will need to stock up on. Donʼt leave this to the last minute, while companies who supply DTG inks, UV inks, garments and promotional blanks will stock up, you have no way of knowing what unforeseen circumstances could give rise to a shortage of supplies at the most critical and busiest time of year. Recently we have witnessed the UK fall short on many items due to blockades at the Channel Tunnel and the referendum in Greece, which both have a knock on effect. Being prepared is the only way to ride out any shortages, this means increasing your inventory just in case.
Maintenance and service In July I received the first request to book an annual service on four DTG printers for
early October. This is quite a common thing with most companies supplying service for digital printers. If you are going to expect your equipment to perform at its best it is fair to say you should treat it with a service or at least a deep clean and replace the consumable parts that were due earlier this year, or last year.
Not servicing or looking after your car will see it break down and your printer is no different. Trying to book a service during the busiest time of year will be harder and possibly have a longer lead time. Get in now and prebook to avoid any possible delays.
Advertising
One of those costs we all hate, but with Google netting £55billion last year this can only be proof advertising works or we would indeed stop doing it. Making sure you are fully visible to your prospective customers is essential at the busiest time of year. If you donʼt prepare correctly you are preparing to fail, if you find yourself in a situation where you have to turn off a website due to lack of preparation you are in effect giving money to your competitors. Of course bad luck cannot be accounted for and if this happens being well prepared will help minimise the disruption.
For more information call 01246 202686 or email
sales@resoluteink.co.uk. Website:
www.resolutedtg.com | 24 | August 2015
www.printwearandpromotion.co.uk
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