The holiday season is a time when most companies do more business than the rest of the year. The time between Black Friday and Christmas Day is a busy one, especially if you're in retail sales.
Retail experts predict holiday retail sales will increase as much as 4.8 percent this year to around $720.89 billion. Retail experts predict holiday retail sales will increase as much as 4.8 percent this year to around $720.89 billion. Click To Tweet This year, you can get a bigger piece of that holiday sales pie by doing a few extra things to bring in the holiday shoppers.
1. Stock New Items
Your regular customers know what you carry, but delight them by adding a few new items. Whether they're looking for the perfect gift for their office Dirty Santa gift exchange or an item for their best friend, they count on you to find those unique items and let them know about what's in stock. Send a note out to your mailing list as soon as something new comes in and feature new items in window displays.
2. Get Holiday Specific
As you plan out your marketing campaigns and what products you offer special discounts on, figure out how to tie into the end of the year holidays. Black Friday is a big shopping day for brick-and-mortar stores and Cyber Monday is a good option for online retailers. Some products lend themselves to holiday themes better than others.
Think about some of the companies who offer holiday specific themes. Each year, Krispy Kreme releases a doughnut specifically for the holidays. In 2015, they released four holiday-specific treats, including a jelly filled doughnut called Santa Belly and a peppermint mocha espresso. In 2017, they offered a glazed gingerbread doughnut from December 12th through Christmas.
Think about the way online retailers embrace the holiday. They might add a Santa hat to their logo or change up the images on their sites.
3. Train Seasonal Workers
Increased business requires new workers. Don't just throw them into working with your customers. Take the time to train them in your policies and customer service methods. When a customer interacts with a temporary worker, they should have the same experience as they'd have with a permanent employee. The best seasonal workers might stay on after the holidays, so give them the tools needed to do a good job for you and your customers. Customer service often sets you apart from the competition.
4. Give Back
The holiday season is known as the giving season among nonprofits. Around 34 percent of giving occurs in November and December. The holiday spirit encourages people to give back. Your company can get in on the goodwill by giving back to others. Allow your employees and customers to get involved as well. People who care about the same causes you do will be attracted to your business.
You can also allow your employees to give back by giving them extra time and opportunities to help locally.
Shipley Energy has several programs where they give back to the community and involve their employees in the process. Note how they describe each of these programs in detail and explain why they care about the causes they're involved in.
5. Focus on Christmas Deliveries
If you offer any of your products online, delivery times become vital. Look at all your shipping processes and how you can speed things up and then figure out your drop-dead date for items to arrive in time for Christmas. Allow a couple of days buffer in case something goes wrong and advertise the date people need to order by on your website and in your mailings.
Send out a reminder to your customers two weeks before the holidays and let them know they still have time to order and get the items before Christmas.
6. Use Hashtags
Take advantage of social media traffic by using the right hashtags to attract new customers. Create a hashtag around your Christmas event and encourage those who attend to upload photos and use the hashtag. Tap into traditional holiday hashtags, too, such as #christmas #holidays and #BlackFriday.
Ruth's Cakery does a good job of featuring their holiday cakes and using hashtags for the holidays. They show a beautiful iced Christmas fruitcake that says "Noel" and has an icing wreath and hashtag it with #traditional and #Christmas.
7. Create Bundles
Remember the majority of extra business you'll gain during the holidays is from those shopping for gifts. Make gift giving easy by creating bundled presents that are already in a gift basket complete with a bow or offer free wrapping for larger items.
A bundle is a good way to move inventory that's sat for a while by bundling it with something new and exciting and wrapping it all up with a pretty ribbon. Make gift bundles easy to grab and go for in-store displays and put the offers on the landing page of a website for online sales.
The End of the Year
If you want the end of the year to be one of your most profitable quarters yet, take the time to look at your business through the eyes of your typical buyer. Consider every aspect of the customer experience (CX). What emotions does your store invoke when people arrive? How do you keep them in the store? Are the offers something they desire? Do they leave your store feeling as though you care about them as a customer and appreciate their business? Every little detail makes an impact on your customers. Take the time to make a positive impression.
Lexie is a designer and typography enthusiast. She enjoys writing HTML code and creating new styles guides. In her spare time, she works on her design blog, Design Roast.
