If you source your products mainly from China, you should understand the effects of the Chinese New Year to e-commerce and retail businesses and be prepared for it.
The Chinese New Year, also known as Spring Festival, marks new beginnings in the Chinese lunar calendar. As a holiday across in most of China, Chinese New Year halts business operations during these days as Chinese celebrate new beginnings in their lives.
As an e-commerce or retail entrepreneur who sources most of his or her products from China, it is important to prepare ahead of the Chinese New Year to ensure that your business will still run smoothly despite the temporary halt during the holiday.
In this article, we are going to discuss some of the things you can do to prepare for the upcoming Chinese New Year. Let’s get started.
Tips on How to Prepare Your E-Commerce Store During Chinese New Year
1) Order early
It is very important that you order as early as possible before CNY 2021 comes. For 2021, the Chinese New Year date is on February 12.
Right now, you have the full month of January to order and stock up on your products. But don’t get complacent – if you ordered late or near the Chinese New Year, you can encounter partial or even total delays of your product deliveries!
Keep in mind that aside from regular businesses, big industry businesses like shipping industries will close too during the Chinese New Year. So, order early – and by “early”, we mean very early!
2) Stock up your inventory before CNY
You will need a lot of stocks before Chinese New Year approaches. For one, you need to consider the days prior to the CNY. Then, there’s of course the Chinese New Year, where businesses celebrating it or are following the lunar calendar are closed.
Be sure that you’ll have enough stocks on your inventory before the Chinese New Year comes. Once you’re running low on supplies during the Chinese New Year, you may reduce your advertising efforts to a minimum to keep you staying afloat until new stocks arrive after CNY.
3) Find supplier alternatives
You may not be able to find alternative suppliers a month before the Chinese New Year comes (and that’s understandable), but after the holiday, finding and diversifying your suppliers should be one of your main goal.
Your ideal alternative supplier should have factories in countries where businesses and operations remain open during the Chinese New Year. If that is the case and those factories can produce the same quality as you are originally receiving, then that’s a great supplier to work with!
4) Prepare your fulfillment system in advance
Finally, you should lay a plan on how you will deliver your products during the Chinese New Year. Aside from stocking up inventories, you should also consider how you will deliver your products to your customers.
If you need any help, Fulfillmen can advise you on what you can do during this holiday season. Simply reach out to us and our dedicated team will help you with your matter!
But again, you need to plan this in advance, not right before the Chinese New Year comes!
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