Windward Insider Blog

Boost Holiday Sales with Kitting

Boost Holiday Sales with Kitting
With a kit, you suddenly have a way to offer everything your customers potentially want, in one package.

When we tell our clients how easy it is to boost Holiday Season profits with Windward System Five built-in features, we hear this a lot:

“You must be kitting!”

All puns aside, Windward System Five has several key features that work together to help you run your business better during the holiday season.

So that you can sit back and sip egg nog.

"Kitting" is a System Five feature that automatically creates a sales SKU and pricing for a group of items.

Traditionally, kitting is used in hardware or furniture sales to ensure four table legs are paired and sold with a table top, or the right bulbs are easy to locate and sell with a particular light fixture.


However, there are also huge opportunities to use the kitting features built into in Windward System Five to create Holiday or Seasonal promotions that can really give your bottom line a boost.


Here’s how Kitting for the Holiday Shopping Season works:

As a business owner, you can create one or more “package(s)” of items that go together under one pricing SKU.

Unlike the classic upsell – placing magazines and gum by the cash register, or asking if they want “fries with that” – the concept of Kitting is to add value with additional, complementary items that the customer may not even know they need, but that will benefit or enhance their original intended purchase.

For example, if your customer comes into your pet store and tells you they're buying a puppy for their child for Christmas, you can prepare a “Puppy’s First Family” package as a kit.

This would include a puppy care book, a safe travel carrier, stain remover, chew toy, food, water dish, food dish, ball, collar, leash – and of course, a first dog bed.

So, instead of having your sales staff suggest one or two items off the top of their head - or worse, leaving purchase choices entirely to the consumer - your team presents as the experts on the topic, and help the consumer in the process.


After all, the general public may not know how many items could be useful when you buy a puppy.

Or a snowblower (gloves, hat, boots, goggles, earplugs, hand warmers, Jerry can).

Or a Christmas tree (star, ornaments, lights, stand, stand cover, distilled water, tree care manual).

And so on.

With a kit, you suddenly have a way to offer everything the customer potentially needs as one package.

Here are the advantages of setting up Holiday Kits in advance:

♥ Staff doesn’t need to remember specifics on the floor while they are busy;

♥ Everything is included in one SKU, so no essential item is left behind;

♥ It’s easy to offer a discount price on the kit, then inform the customer of the cost savings and the convenience of buying it all, all at once;

♥ Kit together items from different suppliers and everything entered in your point-of-sale is automatically removed from inventory and updated across Windward System Five, including customer records, accounting, purchase ordering, delivery, etc.;

♥ Offer the “fries with that” package, i.e., one or two upsell items; as well as the “full meal deal” package, i.e., multiple items that go together.

This leverages price juxtaposition on the spot -  the customer can instantly compare and see the value of getting the bigger package;

♥ Have fun with your team creating great kitted packages and SKUS with your customers in mind, prior to the busy season;

♥ You can create floor displays of the kitted items;

♥ Create advertisements focused on the kit;

♥ Kitting keeps your customer in the store for their entire purchase, and stops them from wandering the mall to the competitor!


Kitting is just one way to optimize the value of every customer who comes through your door - or checks out your online store - during the Holiday Season.


Over the next few weeks, we will explore more opportunities for boosting your Holiday profits with Windward System Five features, including Special Orders, Promotions, Gift Cards and more!

If you are ready to learn more about kitting, here’s what to do:

Windward clients please contact your Account Manager to talk about an implementation plan to get Kitting set up immediately.

Or, ask for the Windward Learning Academy (our on-demand free training) tutorial, “Inventory Tips & Tricks,” that covers Kitting: +1 (800) 633-5750.

If you are not yet a Windward client, one of our Business Developers would be happy to talk to you about your current business challenges and see how we can help.

Please reach out at +1 (800) 633-5750 or click here to book an appointment.

Santa knows that lots of customers will be out and about, looking around during the Holiday Season.

Why not let your business software do the work of Santa’s elves – pulling ideas and products together, and delivering them in one big package, all wrapped up with a bow! 

That’s what using Kitting strategically can offer your business:

Happy customers and Holiday profits!

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