Whether we want to admit it or not, Christmas (and winter - ugh) are on their way. It may still be warm out in most parts of the country, but the Christmas shoppers are planning ahead. Christmas buying season will be in full swing before we know it! What can we do to be prepared? Here are my top 5 tips for making sure you're ready:
- Stock up on shipping supplies. There is nothing worse than having 10 packages to ship the next morning, and realizing you're out of poly mailers. Make sure you have a wide variety of poly mailers, free priority boxes, and plain boxes. You'll also want lots of packing tape, bubble wrap, packing peanuts, and shipping labels (or paper and ink if you don't use labels).
- Get your unlisted inventory listed. This one seems like a no-brainer, but you can't sell what people don't know that you have available. Work as hard as you can to get all your inventory out there! Make the seasonal items your top priority (Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas). Once those items are listed, then work on getting your gift items listed (mugs, clothes, oddities, collectibles, plush, toys). But don't stop there. People still buy necessities on eBay through the Christmas season, not just gift items.
- Stock up on inventory prep supplies. If you sell shoes, make sure you have a good supply of shoe creams, glues, edge dressings, etc (contact me if you need some). If you sell toys, make sure you have Lysol, Magic Erasers, and batteries for testing. Check your camera. Make sure it's in good working order and that you have plenty of extra batteries.
- Remember your mail carrier. Your mail carrier works very hard for you all year long. Don't forget him or her at Christmas time. Many of them are not allowed to accept cash or food gifts, but why not a gift card in a Christmas card? I gave mine a gift card to Chili's last year. She was thrilled! They had been wanting to go there but hadn't had a chance, so it ended up being the perfect gift.
- Organize your inventory now. Go through your inventory shelves. Try to tidy them, sort by similar item. At the very least, lay eyes on each item so that when it sells, you can remember right where it is. Once things get busy, you don't want to have to spend 20 minutes looking for an item that sold. You want to be able to just grab it and go.
Enjoy the Christmas selling season, and happy sales to you!
