8 Tricks to Get Your Again Workplace in Form After the Holidays

You’ve in all probability spent plenty of time making ready your eCommerce retailer for vacation gross sales. It’s possible you’ll actually have a robust plan in place to lengthen vacation gross sales momentum into the brand new yr. Planning for the following gross sales cycle isn’t nearly methods and new advertising and marketing efforts, although. There’s additionally plenty of sensible back-office work that must be carried out first.

We’ve compiled eight ideas that can assist you shortly get your store in ship-shape after the vacation rush.

1. Clear and set up your work areas

The vacations may be fairly frantic, and even the best-organized outlets might discover themselves in disarray. It’s widespread for normal cleansing and tidying to get a bit lax, and provides and stock may not be put again precisely the place they belong.

Take the time to totally clear and set up your workstations. Examine all of your provides and storage areas and be sure that something that has been misplaced goes again the place it belongs. Look in, below, and round work stations, supply automobiles, and storage rooms to make sure every thing is as an alternative. This may prevent time and enable you keep away from frustration as you proceed to meet orders, take stock, and replenish inventory.

2. Replace your product stock

As soon as every thing is cleaned and arranged, take inventory. Guarantee that your product depend matches what you see in your WooCommerce retailer. If there’s a discrepancy, you may regulate particular person merchandise’ inventory ranges on the Edit product web page to mirror what’s truly out there.

When you’re utilizing an stock monitoring system, it’s best to see little to no discrepancy. However there’s all the time room for human error — particularly throughout peak gross sales cycles. Possibly an order re-shipment didn’t get scanned out or new inventory wasn’t scanned in in the course of the vacation hustle. It’s all the time a good suggestion to manually have a look at stock, significantly earlier than and after massive gross sales occasions, to make sure your inventory tally is correct.

When you aren’t automating your stock administration, think about using Scanventory to maintain observe of inventory ranges in your WooCommerce retailer. Scanventory helps you to generate product labels immediately out of your WordPress dashboard with distinctive QR codes. Use the Scanventory cell app to scan and edit product particulars like inventory ranges, so that every merchandise is routinely up to date in your web site.

When you’re utilizing a third-party logistics (3PL) firm like Shipwire to warehouse and ship your merchandise, or a label service like ShipStation or Shippo, utilizing their WooCommerce extensions can assist automate your stock administration in addition to scale back time and price related to transport. 

3. Take inventory of your supplies and provides

Along with product stock, you’ll wish to take inventory of your transport and workplace provides, plus manufacturing supplies. In spite of everything, it’s no enjoyable to be in the course of transport orders and discover out you’ve run out of the proper packing containers.

Relying on how giant your online business is, you might wish to contemplate a extra detailed stock and provide administration system like Megaventory. Not solely can you handle your product stock, however you may also handle your transport and manufacturing provide inventory. 

Megaventory has a complete suite of superior options you should utilize to get a extra granular deal with on the logistics of your online business. It permits you to observe items throughout a number of warehouses, provider lead occasions, manufacturing prices, buy orders, and extra.

4. Order stock and provides

As quickly as you get a deal with on stock and provide inventory, you’ll wish to begin putting orders for brand new merchandise and supplies. When you’re ordering objects from China or Southeast Asia, remember that most producers can be closed throughout Chinese language New 12 months (aka Spring Pageant). You’ll additionally wish to bear different holidays in thoughts if you buy globally.

5. Make room for brand new stock with post-holiday clearance gross sales

So, you’ve up to date your stock and ordered new merchandise and provides – now you’ll must make room for brand new inventory coming in over the following few weeks. You might have merchandise that didn’t promote that effectively, leftover season-specific objects, or giant objects that you just’d like to maneuver off the warehouse ground. 

Because you’ll have a transparent image of your stock ranges, you may determine the easiest way to proceed together with your post-holiday clearance gross sales. Some concepts to assist filter out stock embody:

• Supply a share low cost on clearance objects. Typically a easy 50% low cost will transfer straggling stock. When you promote meals or different merchandise with an expiration date, you may routinely put them on clearance earlier than they expire utilizing Product Batch & Expiration Monitoring for WooCommerce.
• Supply a buy-one-get-one (BOGO) deal on particular merchandise. This technique is especially efficient for clothes, collectibles, house decor, make-up, or any objects a buyer might want multiples of.
• Create discounted product bundles. As an illustration, if sure objects are sometimes used collectively or make a fantastic present set, contemplate providing product bundles with a reduced worth and/or free transport.
• Add cheap objects as free items so as shipments. Contemplate sending a small free merchandise when a buyer locations a high-value order, it is advisable re-ship a misplaced bundle, otherwise you wish to give a particular thanks to a loyal shopper. A bit of additional can go a great distance in direction of inspiring good opinions and inspiring buyer retention whereas unloading slower-moving or end-of-run stock that’s taking over valuable shelf house.

6. Comply with up on excellent customer support points

Bear in mind all that cleansing and organizing you probably did earlier? Hopefully, that solved any mysteries relating to packages that you just thought shipped out however one way or the other didn’t make it to the provider. You’ve ideally additionally discovered any lacking elements from orders that arrived incomplete. Be certain that to observe up on these and another excellent customer support points as quickly as potential with the intention to ring within the new yr with a clear help ticket queue.

When you’re having hassle discovering, managing, and monitoring your whole help tickets, it might be time to look into implementing buyer relationship administration (CRM) software program. WooCommerce CRM by Jetpack is a modular CRM software that allows you to add solely the options you want — akin to Superior Help — to your dashboard. Monitor help tickets and their standing extra successfully and handle dialog historical past between consumers and employees for extra environment friendly ticket decision.

7. Determine strengths and weaknesses

Get collectively together with your group and spend time speaking about what went effectively in the course of the vacation gross sales rush. Make notes about merchandise, provides, methods, and processes that labored for you and your staff. Then, focus on areas for enchancment. 

Have been there objects that didn’t get included in prospects’ packages attributable to lack of inner communication? Scale back error and customer support points with WooCommerce After the Order. This extension helps you to add particular order notes to merchandise detailing how an merchandise must be packed, whether or not any extra supplies must be included within the bundle, and another distinctive directions. When the warehouse receives the order notification e mail, they’ll have all the main points they should pack and ship it appropriately.

Did you might have hassle monitoring orders that shipped individually? Typically, prospects will attain out and ask for a part of an order to be shipped to a distinct tackle. You may additionally have merchandise that ship from completely different places or have distinctive achievement timelines. In these circumstances, the Break up Orders extension is useful. 

With Break up Orders, you’re in a position to connect a monitoring quantity for every particular person cargo and mark that a part of the order full after supply. For purchasers who’ve requested their order be break up between two addresses, you may course of every one individually. 

Did your customer support group discover themselves answering most of the similar questions? Typically, even in case you have a ceaselessly requested questions (FAQ) web page in your web site, it will not be complete – or consumers might not go to it to seek out solutions to their questions. As soon as your FAQs are updated, you might wish to contemplate including related FAQs on to product pages. 

A great way to enhance buyer expertise and scale back buyer help tickets is with the Product FAQs extension. It offers you the choice of including accordion-style FAQs to your product pages. 

8. Thank your group and take a break!

Final however definitely not least, thank the those that helped make your vacation gross sales cycle successful. If in case you have staff or contractors, be sure to point out your appreciation for a job effectively carried out. The vacation rush may be hectic and some phrases of recognition, a bonus, or additional break day can assist your group really feel just like the laborious work they put in is valued and revered.

Whether or not you handle a group or are a one-person store, don’t overlook to pat your self on the again and take a possibility for a while off. Enterprise house owners typically spend plenty of time worrying about tomorrow, shifting instantly to the duty with out taking a break. However everybody must take time to relaxation, calm down, and get re-energized, particularly after a busy gross sales season — and meaning you, too!