Black Friday & Christmas - The Devil's in the Details

The peak season is a pivotal time for retailers, offering a golden opportunity to maximise sales and create lasting customer impressions. However, success during this period requires meticulous planning, strategic foresight, and flawless execution. Being unprepared can lead to missed opportunities and dissatisfied customers. To ensure a successful peak season, retailers need to lay the groundwork well in advance.

With the rising cost of living, high inflation, closing stores and staffing difficulties creating a challenging time for all in the sector, retailers should adopt a strategic approach to ensure a successful golden quarter. By focusing on adaptability, customer engagement and operational efficiency, they will be able to generate cut-through and compete at a time when consumers are cutting back.

Retailers should start planning and preparing well in advance. This includes pricing, promotions, staffing, marketing campaigns, and any necessary operational adjustments, which could include digital transformations or building supply chain resilience.

First and foremost, embracing an omni-channel approach that seamlessly integrates online and offline shopping experiences is an important foundation. By providing customers with the flexibility to research, purchase, and receive products through various channels, helps ensure a cohesive and convenient shopping journey. This needs to be a long-term strategy rather than a quick fix but in doing so provides a platform for attracting, converting and retaining customers.

Investing in technology will, of course, play its part in enhancing the online shopping experience and could be a massive boon for retailers, especially if the improved website functionality or optimised mobile responsiveness can be used to create that seamless omni-channel experience that we’re seeking - and new tech can expand this even further by providing AI-powered assistance, virtual try-on functionality or even AR options to help consumers visualise products in their own home.

To read the published article by Rupert Cook, Business Development Director please visit ERT

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