Holidays Are Approaching! Talk here about how you are getting ready!

[cactus_donnat]

I've been getting catalogs in the mail left and right-- people are truly getting ready for the holidays!

Thought I'd start a thread to start some talk about what people are doing this year... our Ebiz Insider will hit soon with lots of holiday tips, as well as we are hosting our holiday webinar tomorrow! So- if you don't have ideas now or aren't thinking about it now-- you will be very soon!!

So-- what are YOU doing to prepare??

If you are reading this message before 8.6, there is still time to register for the webinar:
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/213085318

[candypam]

Ho Ho Ho... Happy Halloween lol
Actually Donna I ordered our Christmas candy way back in April, and I'm sitting here looking about a few hundred Halloween candy items that I ordered back in January, saying to myself "why did I order all that" ... all joking aside.....

I starting thinking Christmas and my website in about June, I look back at last year's sales and see what I could of sold more of, and where I missed the boat. I also for 3 years now always keep notes about my competitors websites ( did they do something extra special to attract the customers, what did their website look like, when did they start showing their holiday products, what did they give away etc etc). I do this with every big Holiday approuching.
I just wish I knew how many people were going to order what.. talk about a guessing game sheesh. Last year we sold out of popcorn balls before Thansgiving, you just watch this year we ed 4x as many and end up eating them all ha ha
I do remember one thing that Scott wrote about last year, he stated not to do too much of the sale thing in December because they are going to buy anyway, well of coarse I didn't listen and sure enough they would and were buying anything up until 3 days before.
Some items I could have gotten top dollar for a week before! I put the stuff on sale way to early ( Mainly because our warehouse was stacked to the ceiling with Valentine's Day candy, and Easter... this year maybe I'll listen, actually we already rented trailors to hold extra product ho ho ho Merry Christmas << am I aloud to say that ha ha...

I feel the website should look like the Holiday. #1 if it's Christmas and I still have fall leaves on my website people are going to wonder how "fresh" my products are, or better yet, wonder what their dealing with!
Right now I'm anxious to get the summer pictures off, toss on some football pictures and then SCARE everyone into buying with my Halloween decor... it actually pumps me up when I change the website at times!
Remember how we go to a retail store and hear the music playing, the pretty decorations and before you know it we're drivng home in early November spazzing out that there is only 2 months left to buy gifts, heck 1/2 the time Thanskgiving isn't even close and I'm worried about the condition of my wreaths I threw in the attic last year. So to me, if you don't dress up your website for the occassion don't "BOO" hoo around if you don't get many sales for it! I have a few competitors that do nothing, website will look then how it does now... I love those kind of competitors!
Don't forget to take notes this year on yours ;o)
Pam

[cactus_donnat]

Hey All! After today's webinar I am definitely even more stoked to be a part of the team who can make these holiday prep features & services happen! If anyone has any questions about anything, call your Solutions Advisor or EC- or go to http://holiday.solidcactus.com. Also, if you missed today's webinar I know that probably by tomorrow the link to a recorded version of the webinar will be posted somewhere.

There were so many cool things that were discussed today from sales, marketing, customer service and operations. I am probably most excited about email marketing... I am a huge online shopper and love deals in my inbox!! I like when the emails seem like they are just for me.

Donna