The holidays are quickly approaching! After we hit the start of a new school year I start losing track of the time. I love to use the month of September to start thinking about how I can prep my business for the holiday season ahead and wanted to share some of that with you.

The video below gives tons of insight into what you should focus on first and what things to consider.

Here is a quick list of some of what’s covered in the video and what you need to be focusing on right now.

1. Mark all dates + plan out sale dates and timelines – launch timelines

This includes social media holidays that are relevant to your audience, national holidays, 12 days of sales, etc.

2. Plan your main offer/prep your main product and/or collection

This is the time to come up with what your main offering(s) will be during the holidays. If you need to order inventory, design something, make calls, and start creating the products, this is the time to plan out the logistics. You can use this time to figure out all that you need to do and set dates for when you want these things then be completed. This will ensure that you have a more manageable holiday season and still have time to enjoy time with your family and friends. 

3. Plan the details of your sale (codes, duration, items, freebies, BOGO, etc.)

There are many opportunities to run sales in Q4, plan them all out now. Think about how long you want the sales to run for. How will people be able to get the discounts? Will it be via a coupon code or will the entire shop or collection be on sale? 

If there will be any freebies or gifts with purchase, buy one get one deal, take the time out now to plan what you’d like it all to look like. This will set you up for success in the coming months as you already know what to expect and what you will be offering. 

4. Research apps/programs needed for holiday time

Do you need any new apps on Shopify to prep your shop for this? Is there anything you can learn about right now to avoid the last-minute scramble?

If you have a Shopify store, this might always be a great time to add some new apps to your store to make the shopping experience great for your customers. 

Here are some of my favorite apps that I’ve used over the years:

Printify + Printful
Perfect for a huge rush of orders as you don’t have to lift a finger to fulfill them. If you want to try out dropshipping the holidays might be a great time to make it happen!

Shogun Page Builder
This is my favorite page customization app! It allows you to take what is normally a pretty bland page on Shopify and turn it into a very visual experience for customers. It is simple to use, drag and drop, and you can create as many pages as you like. I love using it for lengthy product pages where I need to provide more information and really sell the product the right way.

Smile Rewards + Loyalty
If you haven’t considered a loyalty program this might be a time to start. People will be shipping a lot more over the next few months so reward them for being part of your business growth. This is a great way to get people to come back and say thank you as they continue to shop with you and refer you to others.

Tidio Live Chat
You can be that 24-hour chat support (or how ever many hours you prefer). I LOVE this because if someone is browsing on your website and have a question they can type it in the chat and you can respond in real-time right from your phone! If you miss it, it goes to email, and then they can still receive your response to the email that they provide.

Afterpay/Klarna
This is a MUST for all the time, not just the holidays. Having options for people to buy now and pay later is truly the best way to increase sales and help people afford things you’re selling as well as the amount they can purchase. You can have multiple services available as not everyone has just one of them in addition to Shoppay which is through Shopify checkout.

Yotpo Product + Photo Reviews
This app is the bomb for getting customer testimonials/reviews! This is the perfect time to get this set up so when the sales are coming in it will trigger an automation to reach out to customers in a preset time frame to get their feedback. Take advantage of the extra holiday traffic so that during the rest of the year when people are considering purchasing from you they can read reviews.

Bold Discounts – The Sale App
This is the bulk discount app that I mentioned in the video. You can do a wide varity of different sales types to make this happen really shine during the holidays.

5. Provide value now for maximum visibility

If you haven’t already, it’s time to start your email list. Check out the series taking place over on YouTube giving you all the tips and tricks to growing yours. This is the perfect time to start priming your audience and providing as much value to them. That way, when the holidays roll around they are familiar with you and they know what you have to offer. This is the most important step of your holiday plan because you want to be visible and know a bit when it’s time to start selling your items. 

6. Bonus Tip: Set Goals

It can be scary to put a number to how many of something you’d like to sell. However, I think this is a great opportunity to push yourself and try to get close to it and/or surpass it! Giving yourself a number whether it be sales, total sold, people reached, etc. is important for growing our business. You will be able to track your progress over time and then have the data to refer to in the coming years. So be sure to track everything (a lot of this can be done right within your e-commerce platform) and set some expectations for yourself!

To end, I just want to wish you an amazing holiday season! You can reach the goals that you have for yourself and putting in the little steps now will make huge strides toward you achieving them!