Delaying your Christmas profit taking can lead to bigger rewards.

Delaying your Christmas profit taking can lead to bigger rewards.

One thing I’ve found when running an online store is to give a little and not be greedy. Customers love a free gift, an unexpected product, sampler, or a simple ‘thank you’.

Another thing I notice is that many stores look at the Christmas sales period as the goal, neglecting New Year and the post Christmas holiday period.

Most suppliers are closed until around mid January. They arrive back to work to a storm of orders and demanding customers. Suppliers will also be low staffed, low stocked and awaiting arrival of new season and restock orders, so don’t expect your stock orders to arrive until February.

We sometimes even clean a supplier out of key products (depending on timing of future deliveries, exchange rate movements and availability) so they simply can’t resupply competitors. They’ll have to wait for the next boat to arrive.

There is a real opportunity for your store to clean up in the post-Christmas and New Year period while competitors are counting their cash, fly by nighters have disappeared and supply chains are still winding up.

Our strategy to moderate dividends in December and increase our stock holding has always produced fantastic results year after year.

Depending on what you sell, don’t be tempted to rip the guts out of your product and rush it out the doors for Christmas. Maintain your pricing and you might just find you’re the only one with stock until supply lag catches up.

It’s incredible some times seeing the market at work. Proactive competitors monitor stock levels at rival stores and often adjust their prices accordingly, there’s no need to be cheap when you’re the only one with stock. Consumers quickly establish that everyone has been cleaned out and will purchase even at prices which are not heavily discounted.

We often see ‘fly by night’ sellers in for the quick buck at Christmas, obtain product and undercut the market. They’re mad. Don’t fall into their trap, you need to make profit to invest and grow. They will always be small-time making bugger all, ignore them, stick to your strategy.

So my tip for gaining a larger slice of the slightly smaller post Christmas pie…resist the large pay day after Christmas, invest in stock for the New Year and cash in while your competitors are low stocked.