Your guide to preparing for Christmas
Summer and the festive season are a defining moment for retailers and shoppers alike. This time of year is about more than just festivities; it’s when families and friends gather to create memories that last a lifetime. It’s also our busiest trading period, with soaring consumer demand leading to packed stores, increased volumes, and a bustling supply chain.
For every category at Woolworths, meticulous planning is the secret to a successful festive season. While the principles are universal, to illustrate the massive uplift of sales, we chatted to Mondelez International, who start their Christmas planning two years in advance!
As Matthew Pawsey, Category Head for Gifting and Seasonal at Mondelez International, explains, “Christmas Seasonal forecasts are locked by the end of April, and Gifting volumes by the end of July. We plan Christmas between 9 to 12 months in advance – significantly further planned out compared to everyday confectionery.”
The reason for this extensive lead time is simple: the sheer scale of the event. Matthew shared with us, “For the chocolate category alone, November and December is our biggest selling period.” While the numbers may vary, this dramatic upscale in volume is mirrored across every category that plays a part in the festive season, from entertaining to gifting. To bring the magic of Christmas to life in-stores, our teams need to align on strategy long before the product even hits the shelf.
On the importance of landing the event, Matthew says, “With two in three Australian households buying into the event, our joint planning allows us to partner on best in class strategy implementation through a tailored approach: right product, right forecast, right time and right store. This is vital, especially since 50% of purchases during the event are unplanned. This underscores the importance of being visible and available when shoppers are looking to satisfy their festive cravings – a lesson that applies to every product on the Christmas list.”
“50% of purchases during the event are unplanned”
Leading into summer and the festive season, our mission at Woolworths is simple: to offer great value and deliver exceptional customer experiences. This requires a coordinated, focused effort that begins well before the first signs of summer appear. So, to help you start preparing, we’ve collated essential tips from members of our Distribution, Replenishment, and Commercial teams.
Creating Commercial Success
As we approach the most magical time of the year, our Commercial team has diligently completed their planning for Christmas and Summer. So you can work alongside us to make this festive season truly special, consider the following tips:
Understand customer needs: Customers consistently express the need for value, especially during festive times. Throughout the year, many have faced economic challenges, making it important for us to provide affordable yet delightful options that allow them to fully enjoy the holiday season.
Communication is key: Keep your Commercial contacts informed and updated on any last minute changes to minimise disruptions.
Promotional planning: Early planning is crucial. Please ensure all deals and promotions are loaded into PMR for Christmas and the summer selling period as a two-week block from 17/12 to 30/12. Use resources like planograms, selling plans, and look-books to inform and guide your approach. These will be available to our store teams after the October Trade Show.
Field team support: Whether outsourced or in-house, our ask is that you ensure your field teams are well-prepared and adequately resourced to meet the demands of the season. This is because their role is pivotal in executing plans smoothly and maintaining the rhythm of Christmas across all touchpoints. We suggest you keep them well-informed about planned promotions and activations. Also, we suggest you make sure your teams are familiar with the Site360 sign-in process, all team members have uploaded their Our Place Cards, and your business is registered. Visit the Woolworths Group Contractor Safety Information Site for guidelines on checking in and preparing for a Merchandising & Demo visit.
Merchandising support: To help you maintain seamless execution in-store, including assistance with compliance audits, Point of Sale (POS) activations, stock replenishment, and covering field team gaps, reach out to our Field Services team at [email protected] for a tailored quote based on your requirements.
Forecasting and Planning: Work hand-in-hand with your Commercial and Demand Planning contacts to plan and forecast for the extended period. Prioritise stock availability, especially leading up to the peak week of Christmas. While last-minute stock adjustments may be challenging, a strong and proactive plan can help meet various seasonal milestones, including New Year’s Eve and the summer school holidays.
Key Dates:
All deals and promotions need to be loaded into PMR for Christmas and the summer selling period as a two-week block from 17/12 to 30/12.
Remember:
Christmas comes to life in our stores from November 5th!
Top tips from Primary Connect
The Summer and Christmas trading period is a time of heightened activity across our Distribution Centres (DCs). To ensure a hassle-free festive season, it’s essential to maintain smooth deliveries and ensure compliance with our Woolworths Group Supply Standards. Here’s how you can support seamless operations and avoid any costly delays or rejections:
Product Compliance: Compliance with product specifications is key to preventing disruptions in the supply chain. There should be a focus on maintaining the quality of pallets, plastic wrapping, labels/barcodes, and carton integrity. A small oversight can lead to significant delays, so ensuring you continue to meet Woolworths Group Supply Standards is crucial.
Keep your master data up-to-date: Accurate data is a crucial component for automated DCs, especially in maintaining efficient infeed operations and avoiding disruptions. A common cause of issues in deliveries to a DC is incorrect master data. It’s critical to verify GTIN details, and that your SSCC pallet label matches the correct carton GTIN. This should represent the GTIN printed on your shipper/outer carton. You can check and update your product master data by logging into Partner Hub. It’s important that you communicate any intended changes to your product packaging or pallet configuration to your Category Manager, so that any impacts can be resolved prior to delivery into the DC.
Top tips from DC Receiving
- Use a pre-despatch checklist: Implement a checklist to monitor your performance daily. Regularly log in to SCoRe/Partner Hub to stay updated.
- Label printer maintenance: Establish a cleaning and maintenance program for your label printers to avoid issues with barcode readability.
- Team education: Keep your teams informed and engaged with our supply standards, ensuring they understand and adhere to them.
- Seek assistance: Don’t hesitate to ask for help or clarification when needed; it’s better to resolve issues early than face complications later.
- Supply chain performance: Use our new Supply Chain SCoRecard to identify and address delivery non-conformance issues. The Scorecard Reference Guide is available to help refine your results.
Top tips from Primary Connect+
- Communication is key: For urgent queries, calling us at 1800 PRIMARY will lead to quicker resolutions than email, due to higher traffic in this period
- Holiday operating hours: If your operating hours will change during the peak period, coordinate with your Woolworths Replenishment Supply Planner to avoid disruptions.
- Pallet management: Efficient pallet management is vital – re-entering pallets into the pool as soon as possible will keep operations running smoothly.
- Monitor Global Freight: With international freight facing challenges, bring forward any possible freight to ensure availability. Primary Connect+ may offer additional storage if needed.
- Adhere to Delivery Windows: Ensure your team and transport carriers follow the inbound delivery booking times strictly. This adherence is crucial for maintaining a smooth flow of goods into our DCs.
- Accurate and complete delivery documentation: To avoid any delivery issues at the DC please ensure all required documentation is made available to your driver at the time of collection.
If you need support with storage or transport during the busy peak period, please reach out to us at primaryconnect.com.au/enquiries to see how we can help.
Top tips from Replenishment
As we gear up for the Summer and Christmas trading period, the role of replenishment becomes increasingly vital. To maintain and exceed these achievements, we ask for you to consider the following tips:
Key considerations and tips
Communication is key: Early and detailed communication with the Demand Planning team is essential to align on volume requirements. This is crucial for ensuring sufficient production capacity and safety stock levels, which are vital for maintaining supply during the peak trading period.
Volume planning: Our primary goal is to ensure the continuous flow of goods to meet customer demand during the peak period. We appreciate your support to focus and prioritise on delivering core value lines, and identified seasonal SKUs to support the store demand, especially when we see an increase in demand for these products during the holiday period.
Make use of Replenishment Dashboards: With tools like the SCoRe dashboards, Replenishment reports, and KPI dashboards, you can monitor performance and make informed decisions throughout the season. These resources are widely used, and they offer valuable insights that can help you fine-tune your strategies. Click here to learn how to plan smarter with the DC Planned Orders Report.
Transport planning: Anticipate increased volumes and ensure your transport plans can accommodate the surge. Align with carriers on weekend delivery plans where necessary to optimise delivery schedules. Additionally, plan for potential logistics challenges by implementing contingency and resilience plans. As in recent years, unforeseen events such as weather events and rail outages can disrupt the supply chain, so having plans in place is crucial.
DC Network Transition: Due to the multiple transition moves impacting the Moorebank campus including MoNDC, MoRDC & MoSC in the lead up to Christmas this year, it is strongly encouraged to work with your transport providers around volume and delivery windows as particularly in NSW the golden hour delivery windows will be of a premium and evening and weekend timeslots will be required to be utilised.
Focus on availability: The biggest ask from our team is to prioritise stock availability, especially as we head into the critical week of Christmas. While it may be difficult to arrange additional stock at the last minute, executing a strong, well-planned strategy can help us meet key seasonal milestones such as New Year’s Eve and the summer school holidays. Remember, January is just as important as the Christmas period, with back-to-school and holiday demands needing careful planning. Ensure continuity in stock availability to meet these needs, especially for NPD launches straight after the Christmas rush.
Leave coverage and operation hours: Keep our team informed about any changes to your operating hours, to help us coordinate logistics effectively. We’ll be sending out requests for information from Trade Partners in September, including information on shut-down periods, resourcing, key contacts, and communication lines, all of which need to be locked in by the second week of October.
Stay in touch: Keep in constant communication with your Replenishment contact regarding any changes in transport requirements, delivery windows, or operating hours. This is especially important for managing potential disruptions or adjustments during the peak season.
Your key contacts
Commercial team:
Your Category Manager
Own Brand team:
Your Own Brand Buyer
Primary Connect team:
Email: [email protected]
Replenishment team:
Your Supply Planner or Supply Planning Manager
Please see our Woolworths Group Supply Standards Knowledge Article on Partner Hub, containing access to the Standards and supporting training videos and documents.
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