Have you connected your Retail Pro with Shopify to face the first post-pandemic holiday season?

The holiday season translates to an opportunity to rake in extra sales and revenue for the retail industry. This year, the stakes are going to be higher as people are planning to spend 12% more on holiday gifts than last year.

That means you have to go the extra mile to distinguish yourself from your competition to earn a large share of the holiday revenue.

But this is easier said than done as brands have to deal with challenges like product shortage while dealing with increasing customer expectations.

In this article, we outline the most common challenges retailers will face during the holiday season and list steps to mitigate them.

3 Most common challenges retailers face during the holiday season

Since global economic conditions around the world are still unstable, consumers are going to be strategic about their holiday shopping. But the retail industry should still be prepared for the following challenges:

● Shifting consumer preferences: Consumer preferences have been rapidly changing and this pattern is going to continue during the holidays as shoppers look for the perfect gift for their loved ones. This means you can no longer stick with a fixed product catalog and you must ensure that your offerings are diverse.

● Personalization: If you haven’t already created an eCommerce personalization strategy for your business, get started right away as not having one in place means you’ll lose out on customer experience, customer loyalty, and increased engagement on your website.

● Providing different fulfillment options: As the holiday season picks up heat, you’ll have to offer different delivery methods like curbside pickup, pickup in store, store transfer, etc. That means there’s going to be immense pressure on you to provide flawless service and maintain your brand reputation.

Now that we’ve looked at the challenges, let’s look at how a simple Shopify and Retail Pro integration will help you get ready for the holiday season.

How to use Retail Pro POS and Shopify integration to navigate the holiday challenges

If you’ve got multiple retail stores that operate as standalone systems along with a Shopify store, you must consider integrating your Retail Pro POS with your online store using the Octopus Bridge plugin for the following reasons:

● Omnichannel marketing: This is one of the best ways to offer personalization to your customers as it helps you create uniform experiences regardless of which device or store your customer is shopping from.

● Automated inventory management: As you offer varied products for the holiday season, you’ll need an inventory management system to forecast your inventory and notify you when you’re running low on stock. Integrating your Retail Pro POS with your Shopify store helps you update inventory in near real-time so you can avoid out of stock issues.

● Automated order management: If you want to offer curbside pickup and other fulfillment options, the Retail Pro POS and Shopify integration is the best way to get started as it collects orders from your online store and updates it. So, you can deliver orders on time and offer different delivery options because it streamlines your order management.

Wrapping up

The holiday season is the time to make some extra revenue if you’re in retail. However, you’re going to face challenges like changing customer preferences, the need to create personalized experiences, and providing different fulfillment options.

The best way to tackle these challenges is to integrate your Retail Pro POS with your online Shopify store. It takes care of everything from managing your inventory and orders to creating an omnichannel experience which builds customer loyalty and brings you more sales.

Sign up for a free demo here to check out how it can boost your holiday revenue.