Christmas trading starts in September: The retailer’s EPOS checklist
Nobody wants to think about Christmas in September.
The summer is barely over, the evenings are only just starting to get shorter and December still feels a long way off. There is plenty of time to think about Christmas trading later.
Except that, for retailers, the decisions that make December easier are often made much earlier.
When something goes wrong in December, September could be where it went wrong. A promotion has an issue. Stock wasn’t planned correctly. Staff cover wasn’t arranged. Paperwork wasn’t prepared when needed.
None of these things are particularly difficult to deal with when the business is relatively quiet.
They become much more difficult when the shops are busy, staff are stretched and customers are stressed and expecting everything to run smoothly.
Whether you run several stores, operate a franchise or manage an independent shop, the next few months will be shaped by some of the preparation you do now.
So, before Christmas takes over the calendar, here are a few things worth getting in order.
Start with your prices and promotions
Christmas brings plenty of temporary prices and promotions, which makes September a good time to look at what is already sitting in your EPOS system.
Start by looking back at last year’s promotions. Were there any that were intended to run for a limited period but never properly switched off? Are there old prices, discontinued products, damaged stock, or duplicate items that could cause problems further down the line?
These things are easy to overlook during normal trading. There is always another job that seems more urgent, but the quieter months are a good time to tidy things up.
For a retailer with several stores, being able to manage pricing and promotions centrally can save considerable time. For an independent retailer, ensuring the information on the till is accurate before the busiest trading period begins can significantly impact Christmas profit margins.
Either way, the principle is the same: don’t wait until December to discover that something is wrong.
Let last December help with this December
Christmas planning can involve a lot of guesswork. How much stock will we need? Which products will sell? Which days will be busiest? Will this year’s promotions perform as well as last year’s?
Your EPOS system may already have some of the answers.
Looking at last December’s sales by day and by category gives you a useful starting point. You can see which products and categories performed strongly, when your busiest periods were and whether there were any noticeable differences between locations.
For a multi-site retailer, that comparison can be particularly useful. One store might have a very different customer pattern from another, and sales data can help highlight those differences.
But the same principle applies to a single store. Your sales history can help you plan this year’s ordering, staffing and promotions based on something more useful than instinct alone.
Of course, it won’t predict exactly what will happen. Markets change, prices change and customers change, but there is a big difference between making an informed estimate and starting from scratch.
Know what information you need before you get busy
One of the challenges of Christmas trading isn’t necessarily a lack of information. It can be having too much of it, or not having the right information in a useful format.
Once the busy period starts, you might have a constant stream of questions. Are sales where we expected them to be? Which products are moving? How are individual stores performing? Are promotions having the desired effect? Do we need to move stock between locations?
If you are trying to answer those questions by pulling information from different systems, spreadsheets or individual stores, it can take time to build a clear picture. That’s why it is worth deciding now what you actually need to keep an eye on.
For a smaller retailer, that might be a straightforward daily sales figure and a look at your bestselling categories. For a larger business, management might need a view of sales, margin and performance across several stores.
There isn’t one reporting routine that will suit every retailer. The important thing is that the information is available in a way that helps you make decisions.
A centralised EPOS system can make this easier for businesses with multiple locations, while dashboards and straightforward reporting can give smaller retailers a quick view of how the business is performing without having to spend hours putting the information together.
The aim isn’t to create more reports, it’s making sure that when you need to know what is happening, you can find out.
Don’t leave new staff until Christmas week
Seasonal staff are another familiar part of Christmas trading.
For some retailers, that means bringing in several temporary employees. For others, it might mean arranging a few existing people to cover longer opening hours or busy weekends.
If you take on new hires, it is worth recruiting early and getting them comfortable with your processes and your point of sale system long before the busiest days arrive.
Setting up new users, making sure they have the correct permissions, providing training, and becoming familiar with your systems is easier to do in October than the week before Christmas.
It is also a useful opportunity to refresh existing staff on processes they may not use regularly.
The goal isn’t to turn Christmas preparation into a major training project. It is simply to avoid adding unnecessary pressure when the shop is already busy.
When staff are confident using the till, transactions can move more smoothly and managers don’t have to spend their busiest days answering questions that could have been dealt with weeks earlier.
Make sure your EPOS is ready for the busy season
It is easy to focus on stock and staffing when preparing for Christmas and forget about the equipment that keeps the shop running.
September is a good time to check that your tills, scanners, receipt printers, cash drawers and other peripherals are working properly, and that your software is up to date.
If you are bringing a rarely used till out of storage to provide an extra checkout over the busy period, don’t wait until December to find out if it still works. Set it up, test the till and peripherals, and make sure everything is ready to go.
If anything needs attention, you have plenty of time to get it sorted.
Also, make sure you know who to contact and how to reach them if you do have a problem. Finding out that your extra till isn’t working at 7am on the Saturday before Christmas isn’t the ideal time to start figuring out how to get the issue resolved.
A little preparation now can mean one less problem to deal with when the shops are busiest.
The earlier you prepare, the easier December becomes
The point of doing this in September isn’t to make you think about Christmas any earlier than necessary. It’s using the quieter period to remove some of the uncertainty before the pressure arrives.
For a multi-site retailer, that might mean getting pricing, promotions and reporting consistent across several locations. For an independent or franchise retailer, it might simply mean making sure the till is up to date, the sales information is useful and staff are ready for the extra pressure. The scale is different, but the principle is the same.
Your EPOS system won’t make Christmas trading stress-free, but it should be giving you better information, making routine tasks easier and helping you manage the business when things get busy. The earlier you get those basics right, the less time you will spend trying to fix them when you really don’t have the time.
So yes, September might feel far too early to be thinking about Christmas, but it is a good time to make sure your retail operation is ready for it.
Is your point of sale ready for the festive season?
A little preparation now can make the busy season run much more smoothly. If you would like to check that your EPOS system, hardware and software are ready for Christmas trading, our team at Retail Solutions would be happy to help.
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Who are we?
We are a market-leading EPOS provider with over 25 years of business experience. Our leading sectors are coffee shops, off licences, forecourts, convenience stores, supermarkets and pharmacies.
We’re dedicated to providing your store with the most up to date and reliable point of sale hardware, along with software management tools to help you manage your business effectively.
Our self-checkout partners are NCR, who are global leaders in self-checkout technology.
About the author:
Susan McGuire is originally from London, United Kingdom, and has now lived in Galway, Ireland, for 19 years. She has been with Retail Solutions for 10 of those, and during that time has enjoyed various roles within the areas of Maintenance, Finance, & Marketing. You can follow her on LinkedIn!
