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~ Welcome ~

FOREWORD

Three main fields that directly feel the impact of the holiday
season are your customer service, fulfilment, and site manage-
ment departments.
• Customer service: if sales increase, so do sales questions and
customer service inquiries. The number of phone calls, emails
and chats concerning your shop might increase. Your customer
service department needs to have the resources to deal with this
increased volume. Are you temporarily hiring new customer
service agents or have you considered working with a service
provider so you can outsource some of the work? Both solutions
have benefits and downfalls. Their common goal, though, is to
help you successfully be available to all of your customers.
• Fulfilment: if you normally advertise that all of your products are
delivered next-day, what strategy do you use during the holiday
IT’S BEGINNING TO season? In previous years, lots of shops – last-minute – had to
communicate that during the Black-Friday peak, the delivery
of an order could take a little longer. Managing your reputation
LOOK A LOT LIKE… is important, especially during these festive periods. A message
such as the one described above is far from what you desire as
A SEASONAL an online shop. It is important to minimise the risks to your
business. Therefore, I suggest always discussing with your (last-
PEAK! mile) logistics service provider what your collaborative plan of
action will be to successfully tackle the holiday peaks.
• Site management: during the holiday peaks, it is a necessity
s I am writing, the news about Alibaba reaching to have your site management team equipped. Disappointing
the one-billion-dollar sales mark in 68 seconds customers, as they have placed an order when it is no longer
Aduring Singles Day 2019 has just arrived. This available, can damage your shop’s reputation big time. While
is another record for the Chinese e-commerce giant most shops will have the availability of products on their site
that successfully launched its own e-commerce holiday automated, it is very important to be extra aware of errors in
only ten years (!) ago. This might be the sum example of this period.
commercialism. At the same time, it is a chance for many
retailers to gain enormous profits in just one day. Being prepared for the holiday season takes time. It is all about
managing the right expectations. What are your goals, and how do
Singles Day has been the kick-off of the 2019 holiday season. you realise them? Will you be able to provide yourself with the gift
The time for consumers to buy presents for themselves and their of a successful holiday season? Or are you and your team working
loved ones has come once more. That does not mean that we, as on damage control after outperforming expectations? Naturally,
consumers, do not want to be seduced by the best bargain we can the holiday season offers online retailers many opportunities; it is
find. Festivities like Black Friday and Cyber Monday are living up up to you to seize them. If you manage to do just that, it really will
to that wish, as online retailers try to convince us that they are the be beginning to look a lot like Christmas.
one offering you the best possible deal you can find. I’m eager to hear the story of your holiday season preparations,
challenges and successes. Feel free to get in touch if you would
Adding the holiday season, most notably Thanksgiving and like to discuss the chances and threats of this festive period.
Christmas, to the party and the final quarter of 2019 is packed I wish you very happy holidays.
with sales opportunities for any brand, retailer and (online) shop.
To be successful during this peak season requires thorough prepa- Yours,
ration. When you participate in (some of) these events, you need Nico Hoeijmans
to consider how you will run your business, taking care of peaks Nico Hoeijmans is Editor-in-Chief of Cross-Border Magazine.
within multiple departments of your business. Contact: [email protected]

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