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Even a few years on from when the cost-of-living crisis first hogged the headlines, small businesses up and down the UK continue to be under pressure. 

In any case, as the summer gradually makes way for the autumn, you will probably be looking at how your firm can position itself best for the busy Christmas season. That, in turn, brings fresh pressures as far as small-business spending is concerned. 

So, we decided that for today’s blog post, we would look at a few ways your business can be more cost-efficient in the lead-up to Christmas. 

Make decisions on your inventory as far ahead as possible 

The exact needs that a small firm has with regard to what it stocks for Christmas, will depend partly on what the business offers. And of course, you can’t always foresee whether any particular product will suddenly become “trendy” and in-demand between now and the peak of the Christmas period, thereby necessitating you ordering stock of it at short notice. 

Putting that factor aside, there will be ample chance for your small business to plan ahead. You may have sales data from past festive seasons, giving you insights into the products that you might have sold out of quickly, and the items that you may have ended up overstocking. 

If being left with a surfeit of Christmas stock post-December is a worry for you, it can be a good idea to aim for a balance between explicitly “Christmassy” and “non-Christmassy” products on your shelves. 

After all, not everything that a business sells during the festive season actually needs to be overly Christmassy. Many relatively “generic” items will remain highly usable and popular both during the Yuletide period and throughout the year. 

Don’t feel a need to reduce your prices, unless it’s the right policy for your store 

What with Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions having seemingly become “a thing” out  of nowhere among UK retailers in recent years, your small firm might feel a lot of pressure to join in. But participation in such Christmas-season sales events isn’t always the right call for a lot of small firms, especially given their often-minimal financial wiggle room to begin with. 

In fact, in your Christmas marketing, you might even make a virtue of the fact that you don’t jump on the Black Friday bandwagon. 

You may emphasise that your store genuinely believes in offering great deals at all times of year. In doing so, you might point towards alternative schemes of yours that bring the customer longer-term value, such as a loyalty or VIP programme or a “refer a friend” scheme. 

The latter might work on the basis of the customer getting a discount on a product or service from your business if they recommend your firm to a friend who goes on to buy from you themselves. 

Bulk-order the supplies that are well-suited to bulk ordering 

As we recently wrote about here at Shredded-Paper.co.uk, not everything that an individual or small business may conceivably buy in bulk, actually lends itself well to this popular money-saving approach. Various food and drink items, for instance, might have “use-by” dates that arrive sooner than you can manage to use or sell all the stock. 

But as we explained in that article, shredded paper very much can be an excellent choice of product to bulk purchase, not least as it is so versatile. You therefore shouldn’t feel the same kind of pressure to use or sell your stocks of shredded paper before the festive season is over. 

There might also be further opportunities to save when you buy shredded paper filler in bulk. Did you know, for example, that we offer shred-only pricing for customers of ours who have brand-specific paper and simply wish to have it shredded? 

Some small firms, meanwhile, may wish to combine branded with more generic shredded paper for use in their packages delivered to customers. Naturally, we can cater to that requirement as well. 

Send us an email today, or call 01603 927300, to learn more about our renowned wholesale service. You really don’t need to look anywhere else for cost-efficient shredded paper filler!