By now your facility is probably all set for the holidays - your last-minute orders have gone out, your excess inventory has been depleted, and your staff has (maybe) finally had a chance to breathe. Once the dust has settled and your last holiday products have left the facility, you’re probably going to need a moment to take stock of everything and see what kind of shape your warehouse is in. Here are a few things to keep an eye out for when you start recovering from the holiday shopping rush:

Take Stock of Inventory

Probably the most important (and obvious) step to take, checking your inventory is a great place to start when you’re trying to come back from the holiday rush. Get a detailed printout and report of what exactly your warehouse is supposed to have and devote some time to counting what you actually have. Even if you don’t need to replenish exactly to holiday-period inventory levels, deciding what you need to re-order - and how many - will come in very handy.

Take Stock of Your Workers

In a similar way, you might want to review your staff to see where you’re at when it comes to staffing levels for the rest of the year. If you’ve got a good crew that’s worth keeping, then do it - they’re already trained and equipped, and you’re certainly going to need the help. Otherwise, if your holiday help were all brought in on temporary contracts, you’ll want to review your staff and get it back down to manageable levels based upon the terms of everyone’s employment.

Bring In New Installations

Your holiday rush has probably taken its toll on a lot of the equipment and installations in your warehouse, whatever you have you’ll want to inspect it for wear and replace it as needed. Bring in some new record storage to store all the new receipts and documents you had to print up during the holidays, buy some new wire shelving to replace any shelving you have that got damaged during the big rush - whatever industrial storage you need to replace after wear and tear, replacing it now will save you a lot of time and money in the long run come next year.

Analyze Sales from the Holiday Shopping Rush

And, finally, everyone’s favorite step: paperwork. Sit down and go through your sales figures versus your projections to see exactly how much you made, when you made it, and what you made it from - best selling items, worst selling items, etc. Getting an idea of your sales now will let you create better projections going forward and help you prepare for next year. Once you see your sales spiking next year, you’ll be glad you did. We’re glad to see you survived another holiday season, and hopefully these tips will keep you prepared for the next year!