Are you really ready for London 2012?

An extra 500,000 international customers may sound like a dream come true, but you'll only benefit if you're ready for them. The Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games saw 83 per cent of retailers increase sales. And with an estimated 9.2 million people expected, London 2012 is tipped to boost the economy by £21 billion. So are you ready to grab a piece of the action? Here's what you need to be thinking about...

Christmas comes but twice a year

Well it will in 2012. And just as you'd never want to go into the peak trading period unprepared, you're going to need a battle plan for making the most of London 2012.

We asked three retail experts from BT Expedite, what opportunities the Olympics offered...

Supply chain specialist Robin Coles said: "It's Christmas in June – full stop. Thank god we've got the Olympics next year because it's going to be the only growth we'll see in the UK economy. Other sectors might struggle with logistics, but retailers are experts at moving up and down the gears when required. The secret will be making sure you can respond to the new types of customers that will visit – and be able to meet their specific expectations and demands."

"If people are here for a short period during the Olympics, you have to take full advantage of any time they spend with you," says store expert Charleen Benson. "Mobile point of sale, like those piloted recently at Oasis, enable you to flex checkout capability for peaks in trade and provide a safety net for any potential lost sales. If an item is not in stock at an Oasis store, staff can go online to source it and arrange to have it delivered – in as little as 90 minutes – without leaving the customer's side."

Business development manager Dominic Potter agrees: "We're going to have a huge influx of foreign nationals. An agile network supporting mobile point of sale gives you the maximum possible opportunity for visitors to spend money. Smart features like Dynamic Currency Conversion, which shows people how much they're spending in their own currency, Tax Free Shopping and multilingual support all help to enhance the experience of shoppers – which, in turn, will help retailers sell more."

London 2012 isn't just a London thing. With 36 competition venues, 41 for training and over 70 non-competition venues up and down the country, every retailer in the UK will need to be ready for the Games.

That means you need to be planning for a surge in the number of people missing work and the huge extra demand on your logistics and communications networks, as well as an increase in demand for your products and services.

Some networks will struggle with the extra traffic in 2012. But yours doesn't have to.

Isn't it frustrating when the network slows down during busy periods? Imagine what your network will face during London 2012. Everybody will want to watch the Games, and your employees may even want to work from home – so can your network cope?

Are you sure you're ready to...

Are you prepared for the increase in demand and the pressure this will put on your communications network? Planning and assessing the impact now may help when access to services is reduced closer to the event. Deliveries may be affected and normal access may be restricted.

Have you thought about the increase in customer contact during the Games and how you'll attract the increased footfall at city centre stores and around event venues? Over half of respondents who increased their call centre capacity saw an increase in sales post the Vancouver Winter Olympics 2010.*

With twice as many people using key transport routes during the Games, have you thought about how your employees will get into work? Flexible working, and working from other locations or from home can help keep things running smoothly. And if you need to bring in extra people to cope with the increased demand, have you considered how you will train them effectively?