The temperature is falling and the leaves are changing (and all of my favorite fall beers are starting to hit the shelves) and it can only mean one thing.
Q4 is almost upon us.
This is the busiest season for online shopping and in turn is the busiest season for online shoppers. This is the time of the year where anything and everything (within reason) starts selling and demand start to skyrocket.
Are you prepared for the Q4 rush?
Here are some questions you need to ask yourself right now to make sure you are prepared as sales start to increase over the next 4 months (yes I realize a quarter is 3 months, but online selling doesn’t follow a typical calendar):
1. Do you have enough supplies and space to handle an increase in inventory?
Imagine selling 3 times the amount of inventory and then imagine prepping and shipping that much inventory. Do you have enough space in your office or is it time to clean out that garage for a little extra room? Do you have enough boxes, tape, labels, polybags, beer, etc on hand to handle the uptick in prepping and shipping. If not, start picking up double the amount of supplies and stockpiling them at your house. Boxes and tape don’t expire, but having the extra on hand will save a lot of grief when the snow starts to fly and you are trying to meet shipping deadlines.
2. Are your seller performance metrics looking good?
The last thing you want during the busiest season of the year is for people to not be able to buy your inventory. Make sure you are responding to questions, handling returns, shipping in the right items, and also monitor any ASIN changes over the next few months. Keeping on top of all of these metrics will keep you ahead of the game and allow you to profit when there is an increase in demand.
Another thing to consider is the amount of feedback your seller account has. Do you have a few negative feedbacks that are dragging your feedback score down? If so, check out this post by Mike that explains how to get them removed. If you are struggling to get feedback, take a look at one of my favorite services – Feedback Genius.
3. Have you invested in items or services that will save you time and/or money?
Time is a limited resource and Q4 is only so long. In order to make the biggest impact on your bottom line, I highly recommend investing into some tools that save you time and allow you to focus on sourcing as much product as humanly possible. A few tools that I recommend (and personally use) are listed below:
Scotty Peeler
PolyBags
Shipping Scale
Barcode Scanner
I know this is a really simple list of things to do to prep for Q4, but the basics are sometimes the items that everyone overlooks.
For a deeper look into the actual strategies I will be using during Q4, check out this video: https://www.facebook.com/cawilkey/videos/10153742999931062/
CW
I am unable to get that last video to play. I’m on a PC. Any suggestions?