Bracing Up for a profitable holiday season

My friend and e-tail expert, Lauren Freedman wrote a nice article today for Practical eCommerce - Marketers should be preparing for the holidays now, http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/507/Merchants-Should-Be-Preparing-For-The-Holidays-Now/

As is the case with any article she writes the article is extremely practical and drives the point home - 2007 holiday season would be the biggest ever and a prudent marketer needs to start thinking about it right away to gain maximum mileage.

After having managed more than 50 e-tailer SEM accounts and having interacted extensively with merchants of all size, I have been able to distill some "to do's" for an e-tailer.The points are self explanatory and might seem almost obvious. Nevertheless, merchants tend to ignore these repeatedly.

1. Begin with a "measurable business goal"

2. Break it down to sub-objectives - "be very clear about what you want to achieve"

3. Write down a plan for achieving these objectives - (suppose budget was not a constraint,what would the plans look like)

4. Establish measurable action points for each of the  plan items

5. Allocate a budget to each point - allocate resources for management

6. Draw up a time-chart for the entire plan

7. Draw up a contingency plan for each action point (worst case scenario planning is advised)

8. Find the right partners to work with by August and get them involved in your plans - share your goals - get their ideas

9. Drive hard for SUCCESS.

- Udayan Bose