Here in Northern Massachusetts, we just had our first snow storm of the season. We only got three or four inches and it was late in coming this year, but I found myself unprepared nonetheless. When I finally found my snow boots and trudged out to my car and opened the trunk, I was shocked to find not my trusty snow brush, but that my beach chair was still in there. Quite a disconnect. I’m not sure how I let that happen. I knew winter was coming - it always does.
This experience quickly brought back memories of the disconnect – and panic - I feel after the holidays are over and my eBay and ProStore sales range from completely flat to average. And it made me determined to prepare myself for the aftermath of the Holiday Season this year.
Many of us small business owners prepare for and become so consumed with the Holiday rush, with our Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, and – with any luck – the high volume sales that the Holidays generate, that it is difficult to remember that soon the rush will be over. But as we all know, managing a successful small business doesn’t mean just having a killer holiday season, but leveraging knowledge of your niche and your market and making that work twelve months out of the year. Don’t get me wrong, there is still time to make a killing in eBay sales over the Holidays. And to make it even sweeter, eBay has had a weekly insertion fee promotion that makes auction style listings lasting one, three or five days, a little less expensive. Just don’t forget that January is coming and right behind it, hard on its heels is - yikes – tax time.
Here are a few tips on how to make the post Holiday transition a little easier:
Be prepared for Valentine’s Day sales. When it comes to Holiday sales, many of us eBay sellers plan our purchases in July, make our purchases in August and create our listings in September, and we tend to think of Valentine’s Day as an afterthought. But according to the National Retail Federation's 2009 Valentine's Day Consumer Intentions and Actions survey, total Valentine's Day spending was expected to reach $14.7billion in 2009. Although Valentine’s Day is thought of primarily as a romantic holiday and my sales focus is on party favors and toys, I try to think outside of the (jewelry) box. Many teachers and parents have Valentine’s parties in their classrooms and homes, and I source and market my stock accordingly. Valentine’s Day comes up so quickly after New Year’s, that the sooner you post and market your Valentine’s auctions the better.
Create markdowns to spur sales and eliminate unwanted Holiday inventory
- If you have eBay inventory that you really want to move quickly, or that you need to move in 2009, set up a clearance sale to begin on or before the 23rd of December.
- If feasible, given your profit-margin, mark down seasonal merchandise very soon. For example, we sell plush reindeer antlers in our eBay store, and as of December 5th, we have reduced the price by 25%. Needless to say, with a twenty-five percent reduction in our sales price, our profit margin for this item is affected, but our sales volume goes way up when we create markdowns like this. And the other benefit is that we are neither left with outdated holiday inventory in our limited space nor unsellable merchandise for the next eleven months.
HOW TO: If you have an eBay store, eBay makes it easy to create sales in their Markdown Manager. Conversely, creating sales from within eBay’s ProStores feels clunky and counter-intuitive. The good news is that any price changes made from within eBay will automatically be synced to your ProStore inventory. The bad news is that the listings in your ProStore won’t get the razzle-dazzle shiny gold star that eBay pins to listings once they are marked down.
To create a sale: Selling Manager > Manage My Store > Markdown Manager > Create Sale
From here you can name your sale, choose the category or the specific items you want to markdown and the percentage or amount discounted including offering free shipping. Your sale must have a minimum duration of one day, and a maximum duration of forty-five days. The minimum discount is 5% and the maximum discount is 75%. Don’t forget to let your customers know about your sale by using eBay’s email templates, and to create a promotion box highlighting your sale on your store’s home page
If your sales do tend to screech to a halt after the New Year, be proactive and plan your time well, so your downtime can be used productively.
- Consider creating an alternative e-commerce site. If you sell exclusively on eBay or Amazon, consider using downtime to finally create an alternative e-commerce venue to your eBay sales. There are many benefits to creating an e-commerce site, not the least of which are gaining independence from eBay (or FeeBay as I sometimes affectionately call it), and being able to take charge of creating your own brand. Despite its unfortunate typos, I thought this article very nicely summed up many of the benefits of opening an alternative e-commerce site. And I found that this article, from Sell Beyond eBay Idea Exchange, gave a good summary of specific ways to help convert visitors to your new e-commerce site into customers.
- This could be a great time to work on organizing or streamlining inventory, using your sales data from 2009.
- How about exploring the free auction templates that are out there? They can make it simple to create a custom look for your auctions and help you stand out from the crowd.
- Get your business organized and prepared for tax time.
- Take a look at your business plan and make necessary updates for 2010.
Today, I am taking a short breather from filling orders and answering customers’ questions to do some of the things that will get me ready for the New Year. Oh yeah, and I’m also tracking down that snow brush.
What do you think?
How do you manage post-Holiday sales lulls?
Is your small business aligned for even greater profits in 2010?