We all know who the Easter bunny is and although we don’t quite understand his connection with the Christian Easter story, we all play along.

I’m a big fan of the Easter bunny, but I would never have thought of the bunny as something to buy at Easter time. But there are people who do, apparently. Myself and my wife run a number of online businesses. One of these specializes in soft toys and we’ve been completely taken by surprise. All our rabbits are literally hopping out the door!

So, cuddly bunnies are something to buy at Easter time. Who knew? Next year we’ll be more prepared. So what’s the lesson here? We think there are three main ones:

1. Be aware and prepared for seasonal opportunities relating to your business. They aren’t always obvious. Take our example – you might have thought of the chocolate, but did you think of the rabbits? Take a look at a calendar and note the major gift buying dates throughout the year and think carefully where the opportunities may lie for your business. Then factor this into your stock plan for the year.
2. Think outside the box. Seasonal factors also present an opportunity to sell products that wouldn’t normally fit in with your business. For example, you might be specialize in baby gifts but on Mother’s day, it would be appropriate to have a range of gifts for mummies too!
3. Always be prepared to take advantage of an unexpected opportunity. Luckily for us, we noticed an unusual increase in rabbit sales just in time. Keeping a close eye on sales patterns will allow you to pick up on unusual patterns which may give you some advance warning of a seasonal opportunity.

In conclusion, by not planning ahead, we may be missing out on valuable seasonal opportunities. When looking for these opportunities, we need to be open minded and be creative in what we judge to fit in with our business. Finally, we don’t always get it right and might not spot all the opportunities in advance. Keeping a close eye on sales will allow us to seize unexpected opportunities and make some profit from them.