Holiday Sales Without the Stress

It’s the time of year when things seem to get more stressful and chaotic. The good news is that this can potentially be the most peaceful time of year for you and your business. Our hope is that the following tips will help your business have stress-free holiday sales and a successful end of year.

Validate Coupon Codes and Sale Prices

Going the extra mile in testing coupon codes to make sure they work as expected and apply the proper discount will prevent any “surprises” during your big sale. For post sale peace, make sure your coupon codes expire at the right time or that they are properly deactivated. FoxyCart merchants can easily manage coupons from the FoxyCart admin. Set discount type, expiration dates, applicable products, and more. Make sure your sale prices reflect the right price so customers aren’t under or overcharged.

Stress Test Your Website, Cart, and Hosting

We’ve all read about websites crashing because of large amounts of traffic. Avoid epic failure by ensuring your online store can handle the holiday rush. Merchants using FoxyCart are in good hands when it comes to a solid shopping cart that can handle large spikes in traffic and thousands of sales at any given time. The same goes for your website and hosting. Check with your hosting provider to make sure they can handle an increase in traffic.

Check Inventory

There’s nothing worse than having to tell a customer you’re “out of a product”. Stay ahead of the game and make sure you have proper inventory, especially for your more popular products. Have a process in place for when products do run out. Instead of just saying you’re out of stock, allow customers to still purchase, but set clear expectations of delayed delivery. This will create a successful sale for your business while creating a great experience for your customers.

Create a Game Plan

It goes without saying that most things tend to work better when you have a game plan. The same goes for hosting a big end of year sale. A little bit of planning will go a long way and will create an opportunity for a successful and joyful sale. Creating a game plan will ensure you and your team know how to respond to different situations no matter what is thrown at you.

Get Help

The toughest tasks are accomplished much quicker and easier when you have help carrying the load. If you’re running a solo business and plan to do any type of special sale, it may make the most sense to hire some help or get friends and family to volunteer. If your answer to the following questions is “me”, that may be a good indication you need some help:

• Who will fulfill orders?
• Who will keep track of inventory?
• Who will answer support emails and phone calls?
• Who will handle quality control?

We hope these tips have been helpful in planning your next big sale. We’d love to hear about your past experiences, what you learned and what you would or wouldn’t do again.