News of the holiday season brings in a lot of joy– unless you’re a business owner planning an online sale. As much as you can anticipate good business, you will also need to prepare beforehand in order to make it hassle-free and credible. Here are few important pointers on how you could make a holiday sale work wonders –

1. Pre-sales planning

Plan out your exact profit margin and the levels of discount you can give out. This clarity is essential to market the sale diligently. If your goals are not set straight, it will lead to confused marketing with inefficient execution.

2. Market and Market more

Often, the best sales are under-marketed and fail to get big enough, so the first thing you do once you have clarity about the discount and profit margins, is to begin marketing your sale. Social media platforms are a great place to seed information, and excitement about your sale. Digital  channels can be used to grab the attention of your customers, but be careful to stick to the truth of your sale and market with a ‘What-you-see-is-what-you-get’ attitude.

3. Creativity is the Key 

In a season where everyone is running a sale, you need to point at what makes yours different. A sense of urgency, a call-to-action link or number, and doses of information when used right are sure to make your offer stand out. Some interesting contest ideas include selfie-contests on social media platforms, exchange offers, bizarre gifting options and involving a group instead of an individual are all great tools.

4. The timing and execution

Timing your sale right is almost as important as the sale itself. Whilst goods tend to sell like hot cakes in the holiday season, you can multiply it with day-wise effort. Weekend shopping tendencies are often more and as a festival is approaching, the stress to shop enhances as well. Free shipping till a particular date of Christmas shopping, generous offs etc, work wonders. Also be ready to answer incessant questions of confused shoppers, offer support and clarity. Have patience with confused window shoppers and greedy last minute buyers.

5. Keep up promises

If there is one thing you should learn from the sales debacle ecommerce sites have made, it’s the fact that no sale is better than false promises. People will always remember when credibility is lost and promises aren’t met. If stocks get over and for some reason you cannot keep up your word, be transparent in your apology and try and make it up on some other occasion.

The crux to this is being able to do double the work at half the speed in terms of both operations and marketing. Every brand with a sale on wants to make the line. Keep realistic expectations for yourself and your customers. Don’t fret. Enjoy the holiday season as you see happy customers too. All the best with the upcoming sale!