Seasonal Planning: Three Tips to Survive and Profit From the Holiday Season

2. Review the handling of backorders. Higher demand creates more backorders, but taking the time before the holiday rush to review standard operating procedures can prevent lost sales. Does your order entry software and e-commerce site cross-list enough merchandise to offer the customer alternatives to their original choice? If your CSR has only one alternative to offer a customer, you run the risk losing a sale because the alternative is back-ordered as well. Be prepared with incentives for customers to wait on a back-ordered item. A supply of goodwill items or a discount for future orders could ease the pain of waiting for that special holiday gift.