How to Address Manufacturing Challenges: A Modern Approach

Modern manufacturing companies have a lot on their plates. While you’ll often hear for example how manufacturing is on the decline in the United States, that’s actually not the case in many different industries. Despite the recent upturn in some areas, there are more challenges than ever faced by modern manufacturing companies. These struggles are empowering engineers and forward-thinkers to establish new solutions that will carry manufacturing into the 21st century.

While what follows is in no way a complete list here are the most common challenges facing modern manufacturing companies today.

Image via Unsplash

Manufacturing Labor Management

Labor jobs have long been dominated by the Baby Boomer generation that grew up thinking manufacturing jobs were the best option right out of high school. As this generation continues to age, many developed countries have seen a decline in skilled labor for these manufacturing positions. Over the next decade, there is expected to be an increased number of openings in these positions, but there are no longer enough laborers to meet this demand.

In the next few years, there will need to be both improvements in automation and an increase in skilled training opportunities for new members of the job market. This means manufacturers need to get smart about hiring. Many jobs can be replaced with automation, software, and outsourcing. This not only means lowered expenses for companies but also more efficient production.

Handling Production Global Pressures

One of the most well-known problems facing modern manufacturing companies are the global pressures to compete with big powerhouses like China that are taking over the manufacturing industry. However, manufacturing in developed countries is making a comeback as more Western manufacturing companies are targeting new audiences. Manufacturing companies will need to adapt to meet the global pressures of this new marketplace. Ultimately, there is a need to stay ahead of this competitive game. Manufacturers can gain an edge by staying informed about and acting upon the latest developments both at home and abroad.

Assembly Technology Advances

Technology is changing every day. We see people being replaced by machines on the production line, and this leads to greater speeds, precision, and advancements in product development. The common practices such as injection molding and CNC machining (learn more about this) are still present in the manufacturing industry but 3D printing, for instance, is taking this industry by storm.

Because the technology is changing so quickly, it’s difficult for manufacturers to keep up with changes. The companies that are able to adapt quickly are the ones that will see the most success in the digital age. Changes that we are seeing most companies make today include moving to cloud technology and modular software. These are small steps, but ones that have a big pay off.

Manufacturing-related Data Protection

With the rise of technology comes new challenges in data security. Cyber attacks are on the rise recently and nobody is immune, especially manufacturing companies. Because manufacturing companies of today rely so much on technology, they’re highly susceptible to attacks from cybercriminals. The only way to protect themselves is to invest in top security provisions that prevent software from accessing important data and processes necessary to run a business.

Another data change is the introduction of GDPR compliance. This is no longer optional, and companies need to consider compliance with new laws with every new move. Security and privacy issues are a problem for all businesses today, but manufacturing companies have to be especially careful!

New Marketing Strategies

All businesses are facing a new world of marketing. Things of the past like mail ads, publication ads, and cold calling are no longer effective. Manufacturers need to target businesses in new ways. B2B marketing is all about digital strategy nowadays. By positioning themselves as experts in their fields and the best choice to solve a customer's problem is the only way to succeed in the digital marketplace. SEO, social media, and content marketing are all ways for businesses today to reach new audiences with their marketing.

Image via Unsplash

Environmental Concerns from Production

Finally, there are changing regulations that affect the way manufacturing companies conduct their production. Because manufacturing and environmental concerns often go hand-in-hand, companies need to address these new environmental regulations to ensure they’re following the law. This usually has to do with how employees are exposed to materials, how manufacturing waste is handled, and the byproducts of their production. These regulations can vary by region, so the proper understanding of specific laws is necessary.

Companies looking to reduce their environmental impact should make an effort to go paperless as a good first step. This is an easy change, and it’s also more efficient to minimize paper communication across company departments. These small changes have a big impact, and they show real progress.

Manufacturing changes are affecting all sectors of business. As the world of manufacturing continues to change, companies will need to adapt to new movements, trends, and technology. Luckily, these challenges aren’t impossible to overcome! As long as modern manufacturing companies are proactive, their future looks bright.

---

Ready to take your manufacturing management to the next level?
Keep track of your production with Megaventory
Sign up for a free trial

---

About The Author

Ashley Lipman is an award-winning writer who discovered her passion in providing creative solutions for building brands online. Since her first high school award in Creative Writing, she continues to deliver awesome content through various niches.

"Out of Stock": 3 Inventory Management Horror Stories You Need To Learn From

About The Author

Bruce Harpham offers content marketing for B2B SaaS companies. His work has been published in CIO, Infoworld, ProjectManagement.com and IT World Canada. He is the author of “Project Managers At Work.”

---

Inventory management failure is no theoretical problem. In fact, it’s still with us in 2018. Let me share an example:

Earlier this year, I was shopping for spinach at one of the larger supermarkets in my neighborhood in Toronto. The only options were salad greens… But like Popeye, I prefer spinach!

I ended up tracking down a store employee who explained the day’s produce shipment had been delayed 9 hours. He went to the storeroom and handed me a fresh box. The store managed to recover from their inventory problem.

Here’s the problem:

Ecommerce customers have other options one click away (Amazon Prime!). That means you have less room to maneuver and recover if run out of inventory.

Run out of stock once and your loyal customers may forgive you and come back later. Do it too many times and you’ll have to rebuild that customer base. If your reputation for inventory problems spreads, your business may be doomed.

Inventory management failures, like all tragedies, has many causes. Learn the early warning signs from these horror stories and you’ll be able to keep your customers coming back for more.

My Wedding Décor: how inventory problems shifted their strategy

Remember Chris Anderson’s best selling book “The Long Tail”? I remember picking it up at an airport and reading it with excitement. Endless choices! This will be great!

The reality of endless inventory has two problems. First, there’s a real cost for businesses that have to manage that quantity of physical inventory. Second, psychological research has found that most people are overwhelmed by too many choices and do not buy.

My Wedding Décor, an Australian company that provides wedding clothes and products, experienced rapid inventory growth. Elizabeth Hollingsworth, the company’s founder, put it this way in Practical Ecommerce: “When the website launched in April 2015, it began with 80 products, which had grown to almost 500 products at the end of 2016.”

If coping with a rapidly growing inventory of products wasn’t enough, here’s what happened next:

“One supplier whose original rental threshold was $200 increased it overnight to $500. This forced me to delete many of their lower-priced products that would have required a ridiculous number of units hired to reach their threshold.”

Whether or not you’re in the wedding industry, you can draw inventory management lessons from My Wedding Décor. You never know when a supplier will change the rules on you. You can reduce the impact of such a change on your business though. How?

Use a robust inventory management software solution like Megaventory and do your own analysis regularly. That proactive approach will make it easier to keep your business growing when supplier problems hit you.

Inventory management is the only way to win in India’s grocery ecommerce market

In the dotcom era, several companies attempted to make grocery ecommerce work. Yes, Webvan failed to achieve success as a grocery e-tailer despite railing $800 million.

Despite those early struggles, there is demand for the service. The category has found a following - as of 2017, 7% of Americans order their groceries according to AdAge. How are the winners in grocery ecommerce making it work?

It all comes down to customer expectations and fine tuned inventory management.
Amazon has the bar high for ecommerce. Customers expect their orders to be delivered fast and in great condition. With grocery ecommerce, your inventory cannot sit on shelves for weeks or months even with great refrigeration. A recent surge of investment in grocery ecommerce produced few winners.

Is there a path to win in grocery ecommerce? Yes! That solution lies in mastering inventory management:

“The startups that shut shop followed the on-demand hyperlocal mode, which is a ridiculous business model. That’s why they failed. BigBasket survived because it had its own inventory, distribution centre and directly distributed orders to the customer. That is the business model that can be sustained,” says Arvind Singhal of Technopak.

Hundreds of online grocery startups shut shop since 2015, why are unicorns now betting big?

Investing in inventory management is one reason why BigBasket is winning in the market. Companies in this category are known to spend heavily on customer acquisition. That leaves no margin for error in keeping inventory moving.

For our last example, let’s go outside of the ecommerce field.

What if you had a successful national brand and you wanted to expand? Opening stores in another country shouldn’t be that hard, right? Let’s dive into the Target Canada story next.

Target Canada’s Epic Inventory Failure

In the ecommerce field, it’s easy to dream about expansion. You just add capacity with your outsourced providers and call it a day, right?

In reality, it’s not always that easy. In fact, even companies with a strong brand struggle avoid inventory management failures. Target, a retailer with nearly 2,000 locations in the USA, recently failed in its expansion to Canada. The failure cost millions of dollars and badly hurt the company’s reputation. The failure is all the more notable because many other large American retailers - Whole Foods, Wal-Mart, Home Depot to name just a few – have been successful in Canada for years.

Fundamentally, inventory and supply chain failures lie at the heart of Target Canada’s failure. Let’s dig in and find out what these inventory management problems looked like at the ground level.

According to Canadian Business:

[Target's] concern was that with severe supply chain problems and stores facing the prospect of patchy or empty shelves, Target would blow its first date with Canadian consumers

It didn’t take long for Target to figure out the underlying cause of the breakdown: The data contained within the company’s supply chain software, which governs the movement of inventory, was riddled with flaws. At the very start, an untold number of mistakes were made, and the company spent months trying to recover from them. In order to stock products, the company had to enter information about each item into SAP. There could be dozens of fields for a single product. For a single product, such as a blender, there might be fields for the manufacturer, the model, the UPC, the dimensions, the weight, how many can fit into a case for shipping and so on. Typically, this information is retrieved from vendors before Target employees put it into SAP. The system requires correct data to function properly and ensure products move as anticipated.

A team assigned to investigate the problem discovered an astounding number of errors. Product dimensions would be in inches, not centimetres or entered in the wrong order: width by height by length, instead of, say, length by width by height. Sometimes the wrong currency was used. Item descriptions were vague. Important information was missing. There were myriad typos. “You name it, it was wrong,” says a former employee. “It was a disaster.”

What’s the lesson from Target Canada’s inventory management horror story? Even if you have all the inventory you need in stock, bad inventory data can kill your business. Bad inventory data means your staff (or outsourced providers) have to work much harder to ship products. The likelihood of disappointing customers is high.

What’s next for your inventory management process?

If you’re growing and want to keep your customers coming back, it is a critical function to get right.

---

Ready to take your inventory management to the next level?
Keep track of stock changes with Megaventory
Sign up for a free trial

---

We love conversation so if you'd like to share your own inventory horror stories, write a comment below or tweet us!

And if you liked this post, don't forget to share it with your colleagues and friends!

Megaventory integrates with 1,000 apps!

Getting your work done as a modern business requires the combined use of many apps.

You may have a CRM app to manage communications with your clients, an e-mail marketing tool to automate your mailing lists, an inventory management system to streamline your supply chain operations and order fulfillment, and an accounting platform to track your payments and keep your books updated.

While all these apps can reduce workload greatly, wouldn’t be awesome if in some way they could also talk to each other, automatically?

Now this is absolutely possible!

Streamline your Operations with Megaventory Zaps

Megaventory now connects to 1,000 other web tools, thanks to our Zapier integration.

With workflow automation tool Zapier, you can set up your own integrations called “Zaps”. Zaps will automatically send information from one tool to another, so you’ll spend less time manually transferring data between business tools and can dedicate more focus to creative, big picture tasks.

The following are only some of the available zaps:

3 More Integrations to Try Out

Since 1,000 apps is a quite overwhelming number, we’d love to mention three apps that work complementary with Megaventory and you can try out today.

Process Street

Process Street is a business process management tool that makes it easy for businesses to create and collaborate over recurring checklists like client onboarding, sales qualification, and supplier evaluation. It helps teams improve consistency because every member knows exactly what they’re supposed to be doing next, and task progress is visible to managers.

But how to use the integration with Process Street?

Integrations save you time from mundane tasks like data entry, one of the biggest time wasters. One tedious data entry task is updating your inventory management software with the data of a new supplier. If you have already filled this data while evaluating suppliers you can save time from doing this again in Megaventory, by having Zapier do the filling in for you.

In the same logic, with Zapier you can trigger a reversed zap. For example, if you have in place an onboarding process for every new customer, you can set it up to create a new checklist each time a new client is created in Megaventory.

SurveyMonkey

Even though a customer bought from you once, this doesn’t necessarily mean that they will do so again! Often, customers are dissatisfied with the purchase or delivery process, and their previous experience with your business prevents them from going forward with a second purchase. Many times angry customers become vocal about their feeling, but it is quite often that a customer will decide to remain silent on this and just don’t ever do business with you again. As a business owner, you may see your churn numbers growing up and have absolutely no clue why.

The answer? Just ask them with a survey!

SurveyMonkey is one of the most popular survey platforms, allowing you to easily build, send and monitor your surveys. Although it is commonly used for research, did you know that you can also use it to gain valuable information on your customers?

For example, you can set up a zap to send a survey about their recent purchase, each time a new client is created in Megaventory.

Intercom

Intercom is a popular CRM solution and one we use ourselves and love. You can use it to set up a live chat on your website (customers with unanswered questions often means abandoned carts!) or/and streamline your e-mail marketing efforts.

How to use Intercom integration?

Data entry is a tedious task so the more you can eliminate, the better! With this integration, you can set a zap to automatically update a company or user in Intercom, when a client in Megaventory is updated and vice versa. That way you are always sure that your customers’ data are always up to date, and your messages reach the maximum number of people.

A last note

With so many available integrations the possibilities for automation are endless. To help you out on this, Process Street has created a thorough guide on business process automation through Zapier. This guide will walk you through several examples of business process automation being used right now by startups and enterprises, and help you start saving time and money today.

So, why don’t visit Zapier’s page and experiment with the available triggers and actions?

If it is too overwhelming (the options are THAT many now!) just send us a message at support@megaventory.com and we will respond with the best combination of triggers/actions to achieve your desired result.

Why Customers Leave: Megaventory’s Study on Churn

The main ambition for most – if not all companies – is to reach more people and grow their client base. In the mind of many, it’s simple mathematics.

More customers means more revenue. Seems reasonable, right?

Well, not exactly.

According to various studies, it is actually more profitable and cost-effective to retain and satisfy existing customers, rather than constantly trying to attract new ones. Nevertheless, many companies tend to relax when they see their rate of new acquisitions growing up and neglect to pamper their older customers.

If you are guilty of this mistake and your company is in the SaaS industry, this mini e-book is for you!

Why Customers Leave?

In recent literature, there is a variety of reasons why paying customers might cut their ties with your business. The most common ones can be summarized in the following list:

1. Bad customer service
2. Poor on-boarding experience
3. Missing feature
4. Usability issues
5. Bugs or other technical issues
6. Unexpected Inconveniencies
7. No Loyalty Programs
8. Customer-related issues

When a customer stops using a subscription service that they are subscribed to, it is generally referred to as “churning” or “churn”.

A similar term is churn rate, which refers to the proportion of subscribers who leave a supplier during a given time period. In other words, churn rate is the number of the customers you lost over the number of customers you initially started with.

But why calculating churn is important?

Churn is a possible indicator of overall customer dissatisfaction, cheaper and/or better alternatives, more successful marketing by competitions, or reasons having to do with the customer lifecycle.
As resources and time are limited, knowing the reasons of churn, i.e. where you fall behind, you can allocate your team members and funds where it will matter the most.

Megaventory’s Case Study

But what new does this case study add?

Most studies about churn tend to focus on how to predict and identify the customers who are about to churn and what (mainly marketing) actions can prevent the churn.

Our approach is slightly different: we asked ourselves first “why do people stop using a product?” Starting from there we created a series of metrics to investigate the possible reasons that lead our former customers to stop using Megaventory and to understand which of them are actually statistically important.

In other words, we wanted to find out what seems to have the biggest impact on churn.

It can be summarized in the following metrics:

1. Time to cancellation
2. Pricing plan and number of users
3. Use of features: cards and reports
4. Last subscription package
5. Missing feature
6. Reported bug or technical issue
7. Demographic factors

Addressing these 7 key metrics we hope to be able to:

• predict possible churners better and be able to take proactive measures to retain valuable customers, and 
• understand what needs improvement on the product (features, usability, on-boarding, payments options, etc)

As many SaaS companies have a similar business model, checking our Megaventory’s case study might be beneficial for the SaaS entrepreneur, founder, or developer that wants to reduce the number of canceled subscriptions. Note that only one of the possible reasons is Megaventory-specific (Cards and Reports – no 3) – the rest are easily applicable to other SaaS companies too.

Even if the metrics don’t directly correspond to your business model and other industry details, it may still be educational to see how we did our statistical analysis and be inspired for your own analyses.

Click the button below to start reading Megaventory's Case Study:

We love conversation so if you have any feedback or business stories you'd like to share with us, write a comment below or tweet us!

And if you liked this e-book, don't forget to share it with your colleagues and friends!

9 Marketing Ideas To Make Your Store Stand Out This Holiday Season

This is a guest post by guest contributor Krista Fabregas from Fit Small Business

The holidays is a season of giving, and it’s also a season of spending! If there was any time of the year where consumers are in a frenzy to spend, it’s now. According to forecasts, holiday retail sales in 2017 are expected to reach $680 billion, so it’s not surprising that the season is a blur with marketing campaigns designed to get customers’ attention.

Getting your business to stand out from all the holiday promos isn’t easy. The biggest question among marketers is how to outdo last year’s campaign and stand out from all the other stores.

In this article, we have 9 holiday marketing ideas to give your store that much-needed advantage this holiday season.

1. Create Holiday Themed Videos

Holiday-themed videos are always a hit with customers when the season starts. You can post them on your website, social media pages, and in customer emails. The important thing to remember is to create a fun and lighthearted tone. This is not the time for hard selling; rather, your goal is to become memorable to your audience. 

Here are some video marketing ideas you can use for the holidays:

• Gift ideas videos. People are always looking for that perfect gift for a loved one, so if you’re a retailer, a video showing great gift ideas from your store is bound to get a lot of views. Choose the right holiday background music, and make sure to have a strong CTA at the end to encourage a purchase. 
• Videos referencing holiday events. If you can, tie your products or services to office holiday parties, family gatherings, or other holiday events. That will keep your business top of mind throughout the season.
• “Year in review” videos. People love to reminisce about the past year during the holidays. If you can reference popular events from the year and tie in your products and services, that’s a great way to get people thinking about your business heading into the New Year.
• Informative holiday videos. For instance, if your business is a school and office supplies store, your videos can be about creative gift wrapping ideas. Here is a holiday-themed video from Pottery Barn on how to decorate your front door for the holidays:

2. Leverage Your Yelp Presence

The holiday season is a special time for family, friends, and co-workers, which is why everyone tries to find the best places to hold events, purchase gifts, and create memories with loved ones. Yelp’s factsheet as of September 2017, indicated retail shops as the most reviewed business category at 22% of its total reviews. Many people go to Yelp to find stores that offer what they are looking for and check customer reviews. As a business owner, you should take advantage of your Yelp profile to help stand out during the holidays.

Make sure that you have “claimed” and authenticated your business, and have responded to reviews that you have received. You should also make sure your holiday hours are accurate. People who search Yelp spend more time on listings with photos. So, update your profile for the holidays with holiday-themed photos that feature your store such as your store displays, a Christmas event you’ve held, and even photos that your customers have shared on your social media feeds.

There are also Yelp Deals, where you can offer your visitors incentives for visiting your profile. These are consumer discounts in the form of prepaid vouchers that visitors can purchase on your Yelp listing and use at your store.

Announce holiday-themed events on your Yelp profile to stand out to customers.
Source: Yelp

3. Spread the Holiday Cheer on Social Media

When not shopping around for gifts this holiday season, customers are on their social media accounts going through updates and looking for entertaining posts to read. As a business owner, your job is to create entertaining posts that will stand out to your target customers. 

You can start with creating festive images on your social media, sharing photos of your seasonal products, or even run a holiday giveaway. Whatever it is that you choose, the objective is not to hard sell, but to be memorable, informative, and engaging so customers will remember your brand when they go out and begin their holiday shopping. You also want people to share your postings with their connections so you can reach a wider market base and have a better chance of getting more people into your store.  

Here’s an example of how a few years ago Krispy Kreme Doughnuts got customers into the holiday spirit:

Krispy Kreme promoted their Christmas themed products on social media
Source: www.newspapergrl.com

4. Launch a Seasonal Adwords Campaign

Digital campaigns affect both online and offline sales, so it’s a good idea to concentrate on getting an effective and timely Google Adwords campaign for the holidays. Google Adwords lets you bid on keywords (pay per click) you would like to use to advertise your business and whoever wins the bidding gets a space at the top of the search engine results page. 

You can target holiday keywords such as “holiday gift ideas for teens” or “Christmas gifts for new moms.” The broader the phrase, the more expensive it is usually is to bind on, so try to narrow down the keywords as much as possible. 

The average cost per click for 2016 was $2.14, but prices can increase by 140 % each year during the holidays. It’s important that you maximize your opportunity considering the costs involved so make sure that your landing page is as festive and generous as the season. Go all out on Christmas specials and countdown incentives to increase conversion rates because your competitors will be doing the same.

5. Create Exclusive Gift Items

One of Starbucks’ best marketing ideas (in some locations) is their limited edition annual planner. Even with smartphones that can do almost anything to manage your day, the Starbucks planner is still considered a special gift. It’s well made and can only be redeemed by collecting promotional stickers from each coffee purchase, creating a sense of exclusivity. 

The Starbucks planners can be redeemed exclusively after completing a sticker card that requires a purchase of their handcrafted coffee products.
Source: www.thepeachkitchen.com

You can do something similar for your own store. Have your marketing team come up with a special item, a plan, and a budget. For example, you can find a supplier that will allow you to order a customized pen that doubles as a stylus, or an elegant looking wallet engraved with your logo. 

This kind of holiday season marketing idea will have to be planned ahead of time, and you may have to spend a considerable amount of money for the initial design, launch, and advertising. But if done right, this is a marketing idea you can repeat every year that your customers will look forward to. It will not only increase your sales, but it will also improve brand awareness and reputation.

6. Start a Charitable Campaign

There’s no better time to campaign for a worthy cause than the Christmas holidays. Being the season of giving, consumers are in the mood to give to charitable causes. Partner with a charitable organization, and pledge a donation in kind for every donation a customer makes. Ideally, this should be relevant to your product or brand to make it memorable to your customers. 

For example, if you have an office supply store, offer your customers a chance to donate a set of notebooks and pens to schools in need. If your store sells clothing and linens, ask customers if they would be interested in donating winter clothes or a blanket to the homeless.

Every holiday season, Macy’s and the Make-A-Wish Foundation help kids send letters to Santa and contribute to children in need.

Have the items already prepared and wrapped in eco-friendly gift wrapping and let your customers write their name on the cards. Before the charitable campaign comes to a close, take photos when you turn over your gifts to the charitable foundation and make sure to put them on your website.

7. Host a Store Event

Physical store events are always fun, but they’re so much better when done during the Christmas holidays when everyone is in a festive mood. There is always the meet and greet with Santa event, but why limit your event to that? If you run a bookstore, you can hold a Christmas story telling event for children. If your business is involved in electrical supplies, invite your target customers to a demo on Christmas lighting hacks. Grocery stores can hold a gingerbread house-making contest where families can join.

Here’s a plant store’s Christmas event announcement:

This plant nursery announced a family Christmas event with activities and discounts available for their customers.
Source: www.hartwellnurseries.co.uk

Make sure that you advertise these events online through your website and social media platforms. You can offer special discount vouchers valid for the day of the event. If possible, have a blogger or a local journalist cover your event to get maximum visibility for your store.

8. Send Holiday Email Promotions

Last year, 20% of holiday sales were a result of email marketing, and that is expected to rise this year. In order for your emails to stand out, make sure your subject lines eye-catching. Add Christmas themed emojis and imply a sense of urgency on them (e.g. Christmas discount valid for 24 hours only!). As for the content, make your holiday marketing emails worth your target market’s time by adding value to your offers.

Some examples of holiday-themed marketing emails are:

• Announcing extended holiday shopping hours with special discounts beyond the normal operating hours
• Invite your customers to participate in a “naughty or nice” reward after minimum purchase.
• Send an “end-of-year” update email to your customers with special discounts for your most loyal patrons.
• Holiday gift catalog or list of gift ideas
• For online shops, send discount coupons or free shipping vouchers for their next purchase.

9. Make Your Marketing & Promotions Mobile Friendly

The latest statistics on retail e-commerce shows 2016 holiday sales from online stores amounted to nearly $400 billion, and that is expected to increase in 2017. Aside from making sure that your website is responsive, there are other mobile-friendly marketing campaigns you can adapt for the holidays. For example, you can offer your customers “mobile-app-only” offers and discounts. Ask customers to provide both email and mobile phone number for special discounts when they are shopping in-store and check out with a purchase.

Here are additional tips for making your promotions work well on mobile:

• Make sure that your marketing messages are short and sweet. Too much text on a mobile message can end up losing your target customer’s interest. 
• Don’t require mobile users to provide out too much information in order to sign up for a promotion or create an account on your website. 
• When marketing on your social media account, make sure to use large call-to-actions and font to make them easier to see on a mobile device. Use memes and other eye-catching images to stand out and attract attention.

Remember that you have only a tiny window of opportunity before a mobile user scrolls down to other posts.

Over To You

The holiday season is an excellent opportunity for marketers and small businesses to aggressively campaign and increase their sales. The only limit to your options is your creativity and how prepared you are to make your store stand out in a sea of holiday marketing strategies.

Author's Profile:

Krista Fabregas is a staff writer and ecommerce analyst for Fit Small Business, specializing in ecommerce. Krista spent 16 years building two specialty ecommerce sites up to more than $1.5 M in gross annual sales.