It’s almost that time of year again! As fast as you can put away that Halloween candy, out come the holiday decorations.

But getting your shop or restaurant ready for the holidays takes more than just throwing up a wreath, hanging garlands, or decorating a tree. It takes smart, careful planning to make sure you maximize your revenues at this busy time of year.

Here’s what you can do in your establishment to make sure you’re getting ready properly this holiday season.

Serve Up Christmas by Sorting It Now

Now’s the time to make sure your restaurant or pub is in tip top shape to handle the holiday onslaught.

And it starts with setting up pre-orders and taking deposits. Encourage your customers to pre-book a table and choose their Christmas dinner. This will help you ensure you have enough stock on hand so that everyone gets what they want. And don’t forget to take a deposit! No need to waste your hard-earned money on food for people who don’t show up.

Speaking of stock, make sure you have your beverage orders in early to your distributors, given that suppliers may not be delivering during the week of Christmas.

Next, it’s time to make sure your EPOS is in order and ready to process holiday orders. Make sure you either enter your promos and special holiday menu items (or send it to your EPOS company to help). And if you have online ordering, be sure to turn it of on the days you’re expecting to close. Don’t want any customers walking away dissatisfied!

Stock Up, Sort Out, and Sell Out

For retailers, it’s essential to make sure you have sufficient product in stock. Make sure you look at least year’s holiday sales to see what worked—and what didn’t.

For the weeks leading up to Christmas, check in with your neighboring shops to see what hours they’re operating and match your hours to theirs so you can maximize footfall traffic.

Lastly, be sure to have a strategy for Boxing Day, the UK’s biggest retail day of the year. We suggest doing one of three things:

1. Open on Boxing Day, but only announce your sales two days before (don’t want anyone skipping their holiday shopping to wait for Boxing Day deals).
2. Close on Boxing Day, but run select sales right before and right after.
3. Run online only Boxing Day sales, and close on Boxing Day.

Choose your approach wisely, though, as this could be your make or break for the year!

Get Your Team and Tills Festive-Ready

No matter whether you’re a restaurant, pub, or retailer, staffing is one of the most important parts of being ready for the holiday season. You need to make sure you have enough staff available to cover the busiest times. Ask who’s free? Which uni students are heading home, and can they cover all of December or vanish before Boxing Day?

If you’re not going to have enough regular staff, you need to get cracking on finding seasonal help early, before the good candidates are snapped up.

You’ll also need to plan and launch your promos now. Heavy discounting in the last few days before Christmas rarely pays, so keep a few ads running to stay visible, and save the big reductions for Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.

Need help prepping for the holidays? Everything EPOS has you covered! Our EPOS specialists can help you understand your sales data, plan for this year’s shopping, and ensure your EPOS has everything it needs to be able to handle the holiday season. Contact us to discuss your options.