This week on the retail bliss blog, I'm going to talk to you about holiday retail planning. It's the last week of October, and you may be wondering why are you talking about holidays? It's still the fall!

Well, have you started your holiday planning yet for your retail store?

I don't want to induce panic, however for many retailers, especially large ones, holiday season planning actually started around July. So, if you haven't started your holiday season strategy, do not freak out. Now is the time, and I'm going to show you how.

This post will include a quick overview on several critical areas you need to look at for your E-commerce business in order to prep for holidays throughout the next few weeks.

November and December can encompass 30-50% of an online retailer's sales, so it is critical that you are prepared for this so you can maximize your revenue, and provide your customers with an experience that's worth sharing.

Wondering if you need another website to sell on in addition to your etsy or other marketplace shop? Check out this week's audio blog on what you're missing out on if you don't have your own standalone eCommerce site.

Want to grow your Pinterest following to thousands? Listen to the top 5 most impactful things I did to take my Pinterest followers from 0 to over 20,000!

As you know, if you read my post pre-Black Friday, that Black Friday is the BIGGEST retail holiday of the year.

This year, I put significant time into planning out the strategy for Black Friday/Cyber Monday for my fashion line. The past couple of years have been ok, and growth year over year, however I knew I could do more.

It's my pleasure to share with you today, the 6 key learnings from my Black Friday/Cyber Monday promo (herein referred to as Black Friday weekend).

Customers are the engine that drives all of our ecommerce stores. Without customers, we have no sales!

However, in the pursuit of building your online store, it is inevitable that you will run into both your dream, and nightmare customers.

In general, as a goal, you want more of your dream customers, and less of those nightmare ones.

And it's also true that birds of a feather flock together.Your dream customers are likely to be friends, or know OTHER customers just like them.

So, if you have some majorly amazing customers that already support your business, it is in your best interest to reward those customers for their ongoing loyalty.

But how?

This week, I'll share with you 3 strategies for rewarding loyal, and repeat customers of your online store.

I find many smaller online retailers eschew Black Friday + Cyber Monday, and as a result end up doing very little, if any sales.

There is NO reason that any small retailer should do this, unless it is part of a completely deliberate strategy (and don't let anyone tell you that REI's anti-black friday store closing is NOT part of a marketing strategy).

Remember. You started your business not only to do what you love, and follow your passion but to make money. If that sounds gross, or greedy. It's not. We're all entitled to make a profit, and have the wealth that we dream of. There is nothing wrong with that feeling. Embrace it.

How you go about maximizing Black Friday + Cyber Monday can be uniquely you.

How to Create Growth Rituals for your eCommerce store by Kristi Soomer

Struggling with when and how to hire your first team member? In this audio blog cast I go through the steps and things to think about before hiring your first team member.

Want to grow your email list? Creating a dynamic, inspiring and engaging email opt in bonus that's made with the idea of serving value to your ideal customer is a great strategy. Find out how I created my opt in and how you can too.

Want to write better emails that convert to sales for your eCommerce store? In this week's audio blog, I share my 5 tips for writing better emails.