144 Days to Christmas

For those of us that make and ship items for sale, we have less time to prepare. I would give us about 134 days to Christmas.

Considering the time it takes to ship and the time it takes to make we need to get busy and start thinking ahead for this year and next. Some of the big box stores in other countries have already started their holiday season, toys, gifts and decorations are already at hand.

I realize that some of us are dealing with triple digit heat, but the holidays are right around the corner. Years ago, my mom and I use to start shopping in January, that’s right, January. Of course that was when lay-a-ways were in abundance and stores knew how to turn a buck.

I appreciate a good lay-a-way. Sure it ties up inventory but that inventory will and can sell with a reasonable lay-a-way policy.
What is a reasonable lay-a-way policy, don’t expect a $300 item to be purchased within a 30 day period, if that was the case it wouldn’t have been laid away in the first place.

So far in the first three blogs of ‘Ready for the Holidays’, we covered:

1. Update your product catalog and inventory.

I’ve gone through my products and I see a need for additions and improvements,so
I'm working on it.

2. Make it easy for your customers to shop for gifts.

I’ve made a list of items I feel would be great for gifts and also added categories to the list.

3. Give your site that ‘Holiday’ flair.

I’ve had the same banner for the past three years and I feel a real need for a change, so I’ve been working on a new.

So, what have you been up to? Have you started readying your shop for the holiday? How’s it going?

Next week we’ll talk about some more issues we can pursue in order to ready ourselves for the upcoming holiday season.