PROCUREMENT
Christmas is a time that everyone enjoys and retailers have a great opportunity to achieve success . However , to ensure smooth delivery of their operations retailers need to make sure their supply chain is spot on
Assessing your assets Even if you put plans in place in good time , you need to make sure you can execute your strategy . This means you need to assess your critical assets ensuring you have the infrastructure to be able to cope with a stretched service . This involves taking account of fleet vehicles , manual handling equipment , pallets and cages to ensure increased volumes can get to store .
RETAILERS SHOULD BE sufficiently planning for the festive season , as this is one of the busiest times . Additionally Christmas is arriving earlier and earlier each year – with stores opening their Christmas departments in August !
This means that everyone along the supply chain from suppliers to manufacturers and delivery drivers to retailers , need to be aligned early on . Time for forecasting needs to be built into plans , so predictions about most popular products or purchasing times can be factored in . Peak shopping days such as ‘ Black Friday ’ and ‘ Cyber Monday ’ are now established and should be considered by all parties .
The omni-channel effect Consumers are more demanding than ever before . Where possible , retailers are delivering an omnichannel offering , to enable on-the-go shopping with mobile and online platforms 24 hours a day , seven days a week . It ’ s also important that the execution of your strategy and delivery of your service is consistent across all the different channels .
If your business isn ’ t ready at this stage it ’ s certainly worth considering for the future to help boost Christmas sales .
Conquering convenience It ’ s important to keep front of mind that convenience is key for shoppers at this
24 December 2014