Preparing Your Online Shop for Q4 Sales

For online stores, Q4 is the key period of the year and a chance to give your yearly figures a significant boost. After a challenging year disrupted heavily by COVID-19, online stores will want to do all that they can to end the year on a high and set themselves up for a better year in 2021. So, how can you make sure that you are fully prepared for this busy period?

Increase Inventory

You certainly do not want to run out of inventory in this quarter which could see you lose potential profits, frustrate your customers and even impact your organic Amazon ranking which could inflict further damage. Of course, you do not want to overstock inventory either so you need to use forecasting projections based on last year’s Q4 sales and adjust according to the type of year that you have just had.

Use Offers & Deals

Q4 is a great chance for success with a number of popular online shopping days and the holiday season ahead, but it is also incredibly competitive. Everyone likes to take advantage of offers and deals, so you should try to think of a few good promotions that will help to lure customers away from the competition while still helping you to turn profit at the end of the quarter.

Update Product Listings

It is also important to consider your product listings before the busy period ahead. You will want to make sure that these stand out, which could include having professional photographs taken, creating product videos and unique descriptions with correct keywords. It is also smart to include any customer reviews that you have of your products.

Have a Reliable Courier in Place

When it starts to get busy, it is important that you have a reliable courier that will ensure that your packages arrive safely and on time. Parcel tracking is an important service that should also be available so that you can see progress and make sure that nothing gets lost (this can be common in the busy festive period).

Utilize FBA

In a busy period, it is smart to utilize a fulfilment service like Amazon FBA which can take the stress out of logistics and ensure that packages will arrive within two days – this will also encourage more people to purchase from you. This can also free up time for you to focus on other areas of the business during Q4 so that you can really maximize this period.

Q4 can be a fantastic period for an online store and a chance to really boost your figures for the year. It can also be a difficult and stressful period, so hopefully these tips will help you to manage and make this the best Q4 on record for your business.