After the holidays, which is the time the shopping ramps up, the months of January and February are typically slow months for retail sales. If you have been running a clothing store online for a while now, you are likely looking to relax after a period of aggressively shipping goods. But this is the time of year where you shouldn’t relent. Instead you should plan ahead for the upcoming year.
When the New Year arrives, here is what you should be doing with your wholesale clothing business.
Analyze Last Year’s Earnings
You might have kept track of consumer habits in your store, including what goods consumers bought and which ones they didn’t buy as much. What seasons were the best? What goods made the most money? What sales made the most money? And so on. For all the things that did not work as well, think of ideas for how these bad outcomes do not appear again this year. By analyzing your results from the past year, you can hope to increase what works and reduce what doesn’t.
Schedule Promotional Events for This Year
Were there sales or other events that you planned last year that were successful? Be sure you have them in store for the year ahead, too. For other promotions and sales that did not generate much money, think about changing or replacing them with other kinds of sales that might fare better. It’s important to have many sales schedules throughout the year. Do not just wait for the holidays when most people tend to spend the most on goods. Host seasonal sales and promotions so that you can advertise good deals to consumers at a steady pace towards the holidays. Think about seasonal sales, graduation, back-to-school, non-winter holidays, and other occasions in which you could make more money than normal. Don’t have too many sales, however. If your goods are always on sale, you could be keeping yourself from making more money in the long run.
Keep Your Supplies Stocked
Many store owners forget to buy more supplies after the year is over. Then, when they are ready for their next big effort to sell clothes, they are short on boxes, packaging, business cards, etc. It’s important that you order more of the necessary supplies so that you never run out. If you are short on boxes and packaging, or even if you have run out of paper for invoices, you’ll have to delay shipping your goods, which will undoubtedly disappoint your customers. You always want to have more than enough supplies so that you can continue to do business without any setbacks.
Try New Things
Perhaps you were very successful in the past year selling most of the clothes you ordered. While that’s great, that isn’t to say that there’s nothing that you need to change for this year. If you’ve bought from the same suppliers for years and have experienced mixed results with them, it doesn’t hurt to try additional suppliers where you can order clothes from. There is a risk to trying out a new supplier, but the rewards can be significant for your company if they happen to be what many consumers buy from you. As you are looking to grow your business, it is expected that you get out of your comfort zone as you have more room in your budget.
Conclusion
The start of the year is the best time for clothing merchants to reset, make changes to their schedule, order new supplies, and more, so that they are ready for another year in business.
