Member Article

Wholesalers: 5 Tips for Capitalising on Seasonal Sales

Seasonal sales offer great opportunities to increase revenue. Find out how wholesale software can help you.

The multiple retailers are always at the forefront when it comes to seasonal sales. Savvy wholesalers are also ahead of the game – planning months in advance to fully capitalise on the sales opportunities.

Take Halloween. It’s now the UK’s third highest consumer spending occasion, after Christmas and Easter, with sales expected to grow to around £240 million this year. While some are capitalising on the sales opportunity, many wholesalers don’t believe that there’s money to be made. Could your business be doing more?

Forecasting will keep you ahead of the game

The good news is that there are plenty of extra sales to be had. An important place to start is with a forecasting system which will help you to look at the seasonal products that you have pre-ordered from suppliers against what has been pre-ordered by customers. This gives you the opportunity to fill any gaps.

Availability is critical during TV advertising

One of the biggest complaints from independent retailers is that TV adverts will go out for a new product and they don’t have the item in stock. While good forecasting can help to avoid this, another useful way is to pre-register retail customers onto a system where they automatically receive new lines as and when they become available. This means fewer out of stock issues and more happy retailers.

• Orders are automatically processed without any manual intervention as soon as a new product becomes available, which means less work for you.
• You get the option of either delivering the products separately or adding them on to a customer’s existing order.
• Your customers also have the freedom to change, amend or cancel the order.
• It’s not just you and your retail customers that benefit from better sales and availability; suppliers will also enjoy better sales and distribution too.

Your retail customers are perfectly positioned

There will always be people who plan well ahead for events like Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day, but you can guarantee plenty of shoppers will leave it until the last minute. You can capitalise on those who end up purchasing goods impulsively. Pro-active wholesalers are encouraging their retail customers to highlight seasonal ranges in-store, with the use of point of sale such as posters and seasonal displays.

Excess stock can be managed

One of the biggest challenges for a wholesaler and a retailer when it comes to stocking seasonal products is potential wastage – after all, who wants to be stuck with boxes of Halloween-themed biscuits or Mother’s Day chocolates?

One solution savvy wholesalers are adopting is to create kits or hampers for customers, managed by software that can direct pickers to various pick up points in the warehouse. The result is that wholesalers don’t have to move stock around the warehouse. To make sure you keep stock moving, run deals on hampers and encourage your retail customers to do the same.

If your customers win, so do you

If you want to fully benefit from seasonal events, your customers need to be as prepared as you are.

• As soon as you start your plans, begin communicating them with your customers too and find out how suppliers can further support any in-store or in-depot activity.
• Highlight seasonal events in-depot on notice boards, promotional materials and even on customers’ invoices. After all, more sales for your customers mean more sales for you.

Five top tips to capitalise on seasonal sales

• Know the opportunity – Halloween alone is now worth £325m and is the UK’s third highest consumer spending occasion after Christmas and Easter.
• Invest in forecasting – looking at what you have pre-ordered from suppliers against what has been pre-ordered by customers gives you the opportunity to anticipate sales gaps and fill them.
• Be prepared for TV advertising – you can pre-register customers onto a system where they automatically receive new product lines as and when they become available and in time for TV advertising.
• Plan ahead for wastage - create hampers for customers managed by a kit processor so that you don’t have to move stock around the warehouse. You can do a deal on the hamper to keep excess stock selling.
• Communicate - Make sure you keep your customers thinking about seasonal opportunities a good couple of months ahead by highlighting events on invoices.

Discover how you can improve seasonal sales even further by offering Click and Collect. Download this eGuide: Calling all wholesalers: why you can’t afford to ignore Click and Collect. Copy and paste this link into your browser: http://bit.ly/1FDYbkz

This post first appeared on the Sanderson Multi-Channel blog

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ian Newcombe .