Preparing for Peak Seasons
Peak seasons are an exciting time for most businesses. More business means more revenue, and that’s something everyone can be happy about. It’s a time when you as a company are most successful in your goal of converting sales and gaining new customers. However, peak seasons can also be a very stressful time, and if you’re not careful, things can become unorganized. It’s important to prepare for this season in any way you can to ensure that only positive things come from being so extremely busy.
What Does a Peak Season Mean for Your Business?
Depending on your business and your products, peak seasons can be at a different time for everyone. For many, it’s the holidays. ‘Tis the spirit of gift giving for many through the months of November- January. For other businesses, it can be other holidays such as Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, or Halloween. There are some businesses that experience peaks at an array of times throughout the year- greeting card companies, for example. A business that sells outdoor pool toys or bathing suits is going to be looking at the summer time as their peak season.
Peak Season Preparations
No matter what time of year it is for you, every business knows when it’s time to start preparing for that increased wave of business that comes around like clockwork. You begin preparing months ahead of time in many ways including:
- Boosted marketing tactics
- Preparing employees
- Stock up on inventory
Increased Marketing
With that special time of year coming around, a business wants to make sure (at that time more than ever) that their products are waiting for them to come make a purchase! Businesses increase marketing tactics prior to their peak season to get a leg up on the competition. They want to make sure that their brand is the one remembered when it comes time to buy that new backpack come September, for example. It’s important for businesses to show off their products and to make any special deals, discounts, or coupons known to any potential customers. Companies will invest in TV ads, online marketing, and many other forms of getting the word out there. At a time when people are looking for the types of products you sell- your business needs to be ahead of the game.
Preparing Employees
It’s important to make sure you are well staffed during your peak season to make sure that there is enough man power behind all of the promises you’ve made to your customers. Whether it’s in a retail store or behind the scenes, there needs to be enough employees to accommodate the increase in customers at that time. Some companies choose to hire many more people for their retail stores when the holiday season rolls around so that they know they will be well-staffed for events such as Black Friday.
In addition to making sure you have a good number of employees available, you also need to make sure that everyone is prepared to work a little harder and possibly a little longer. As long as everyone shares that same goal of company success, this should be something to celebrate!
Inventory Prep
When products are being purchased at an increased rate, your business is going to need more products. It’s simple math- the more goes out of the warehouse, the more needs to come in to supply it. A company must take this into account when ordering products from manufacturers around the peak season. It’s also important to decide how your new inventory is going to be placed within your warehouse. It’s easy to become unorganized when there is a sudden influx of products at one time. Businesses should have a plan in place as to how these items will be stored so that they can easily be found when it comes time for shipment.
Aside from the aspect for physical inventory, one must be careful to keep all aspects of inventory management organized- including orders, warehouse workflow processes, and shipping processes. Everything is going to be increased at this time, and a plan to keep things running smoothly is very important.
How Do You Keep That Organization?
In order to keep everything running as smoothly as possible during this crucial time for your business, you should have an adequate inventory management software in place to keep things organized. The days of pen and paper inventory management are long gone, and having automated processes which run through an all encompassing inventory management software is crucial. You also need to find the right software for your business.
This is no easy task, as many companies have their own unique problems and processes which will not fit into an “out of the box” system. However, there is one software which allows a business to customize features to fit their processes instead of the other way around. The system is called SkuNexus, and it’s the most customizable order/inventory/warehouse management software out there. Click here to get in touch today and schedule a call to your over the unique requirements of your company! Don’t waste any time before your peak season!
