This year’s holiday season will be one for the record books! Experts are predicting an alarming amount of pent-up consumer spending that will push sales to a predicted whopping $1.147 trillion dollars!
It would sound like great news for most retailers. However, it may spell doom and gloom for some. Lack of inventory and supply chain challenges, combined with a large amount of consumer spending being dedicated to non retail sectors such as dining, entertainment and travel, may affect retail sales.
Be Prepared
Be ready to handle an influx of customer support questions related to inventory and out-of-stock items. Brick and mortar stores will have empty shelves, while online retailers are predicting low or no stock situations for popular items as well as shipping delays. For some product lines panic buying and hoarding of certain items is expected to increase again.
The best recommendation for retailers is to get ahead of the situation as much as possible and communicate with your customers. Customers are usually more forgiving when you explain to them what’s happening, especially when dealing with shipping delays.
Here are some ways to handle inventory and supply issues for the holiday season:
- Don’t allow customers to find themselves in a dead end. Find clever ways to recommend other similar products.
- Online stores should NOT remove out-of-stock items! This will only frustrate customers but drive them to shop on a competitor’s store. You can also damage your store’s SEO reputation if not removed properly. If you do remove a product because you don’t have inventory, make sure to turn off advertising and pay per click campaigns (PPC) so you aren’t paying to send people to a 404 error page.
- Recommend something else. Studies show that customers may settle for a similar item if you give them the option. Even if they don’t make the purchase, they will be less frustrated because you presented them with an option and tried to help. Some inventory marketing systems will turn out-of-stock notifications into leads that are automatically added to your email list.
While there probably isn’t much you can do to fix the global supply chain issues before the holiday… It isn’t too late to hook up an inventory marketing system to lessen the blow.
For those with WooCommerce stores, sign up for Emptive Hub and let our team help you with free install, setup and configuration!
