Online retailers warned to start preparing for Christmas rush

Online retailers need to start preparing for Christmas or risk losing business to competitors, an executive from leading US website Zazzle warns.

The comments come as industry players gather in Sydney for the annual Online Retailer expo, which has attracted several international speakers from industry giants along with hundreds of Australian ecommerce businesses. 

Jason Kang, vice president of marketing and international for US-base retailer Zazzle, says businesses need to start preparing for Christmas now or risk being unable to cope with the demand.

“Christmas planning starts in June,” he says. “You want to be at your best. If you don’t have a plan for Christmas right now, work over the next couple of weeks and get one done. Dig up your notes from last year.”

“The businesses that fail to produce a Christmas plan are just going to repeat their mistakes, and they’re not going to be able to earn as much as they could have.”

Kang, who is speaking at the expo in Sydney, says online businesses need to produce a marketing plan, and then determine if they have the infrastructure to handle an onslaught of customers in December.

“What’s your Christmas marketing going to look like? What are you going to use? Do you have the bandwidth to operate the business, shipping capabilities, and will you have enough time to deliver everything? Is all your creative work done?”

“If you don’t have these things, you are going to be struggling. I can’t speak for other businesses, but we’re constantly improving and we’re always starting our Christmas planning earlier and earlier.”

Zazzle was founded in 1999 by brothers Jeff and Bobby Beaver, and operates as a custom merchandise manufacturer. Users design their own t-shirts or other merchandising material, then have it shipped. It won the TechCrunch “Best Business Model” aware in 2007, and last year had estimated turnover of $US80 million.

But Kang says the business would lose revenue if it didn’t plan well for the Christmas period, as customers may move on to other websites if they aren’t happy.

“If you want to advertise, you need to start locking in your campaigns now. These types of advertisements sell out quickly, and soon you won’t be able to find anywhere that’ll run an ad if you’re doing anything other than simple advertising. It goes quickly.”

“Also think about your marketing and so on, what you’re going to do to the site. You might want to introduce new features…like on Zazzle, this wasn’t specifically for Christmas, but we introduced a way for users to share their creations on Facebook or Twitter.”

Retail Doctor chief executive Brian Walker says while it’s good for businesses to start broadly planning, he warns not to get too wrapped up in a strategy too far ahead of the actual target date.

“It’s certainly good to start planning on a broad basis, but not on a detailed level. What matters is that you have the right things in mind, and work on your products. If something has a six-month lead time, then sure, work back from that.”

“Typically the process starts in August and September, so it’s a little early to start planning. In the physical environment you look at September to start thinking about rostering and planning for people to work.”