Increase Christmas Sales For Your Small Business
Increase Christmas Sales For Your Small Business
Itās the most wonderful time of the year, certainly for small businesses it can be. The year is ending, people are in holiday mode and ready to drop their hard-earned cash on presents for everyone they know.
Christmas time is an opportunity for small businesses to skyrocket their sales. But how can you maximise your small businessās earning potential this holiday season?
Here are 10 tips to help you increase your Christmas sales this year.
Have a sale
This one might seem obvious, right? A sale, how revolutionary! But a well-thought-out sale with optimal revenue-making activities can make all the difference at this time of year.
Prepare for the sale in advance. From Halloween advertise your upcoming sale and all Christmas promotions. Utilise Black Friday and Cyber Monday to push your Christmas sales and Christmas products.
Create a sense of urgency by choosing one day to have a big discount sale. Make the sale discount a minimum of 20%. Smaller discounts just donāt cut it in todayās market. Convince people they are saving money by shopping with you on that day.
Advertise across your social media channels and marketing lists, create in-store signage and encourage staff and push the sale day to customers in-store in the lead up to it.
Curate gift packs
Christmas can be stressful and everything you can do to take the pressure off your customers and make it easy for them is going to help sales.
Put together curated gift packs, choose several items that go together. This strategy is all about taking the work out of Christmas.
Prepared presents such as this that combine several items with nice packaging make it easier for your customers to tick off their Christmas list.
Promote your gift cards
Gift cards can feel impersonal, but they are one of the best presents for Secret Santas, relatives you donāt know that well or friends of friends.
A gift card to someoneās favourite store is more personal than just cash and it means they need to spend it on something they would like rather than just adding it to the savings account or spending it on essentials.
Get in the spirit
Christmas is a time to create an experience in store for your customers. Decorations, photo opportunities, maybe even a talking Santa. These little festive touches can make your store a must-visit spot for people looking to get into the Christmas spirit. Get active on socials showing off your Christmas set-up, it can bring more looky-loos to the store. And the Christmas spectacle can entice passersby, bringing in foot traffic as well.
Be Strategic with your stocking stuffers
This time of year gets busy and itās likely your customers may have to wait in line for a while after they have selected their items. Make this an opportunity to make another sale by strategically placing impulse buys in this area with signage that markets them as āgood stocking stuffersā.
It distracts the customers, so they are not as likely to get impatient as they wait in line and provides an opportunity to upsell those extra products.
Team up with another small business in your area
No one place sells everything. So get into bed with another small business in your area and refer your customers to each other. Say you sell books and thereās a chocolates store around the corner, suggest they round out the present with a box of boutique chocolates to go with the book.
Get the other store to do the same. Itās rough out there in the small business world, support each other.
Consider offering delivery
With the hectic Christmas period many customers are strapped for time and concerned with keeping their presents a secret from family members and friends. Help them out by offering a delivery service. If you really want to go the extra mile, get your delivery driver to dress up as Santa to deliver to your customers.
A personal delivery service from Santa is going to up your order volume.
Free gift wrapping
Everyone has enough going on without trying to hide their present before they wrap them and then find time when no-one is around to get them wrapped. Take the pressure off by offering free gift wrapping. Get some tasteful Christmas tags made up that say your brand name for free advertising.
Create a gift guide
Gift guides are very handy. A lot of people are not sure what they should get for a family member they donāt know well or an acquaintance. Creating a gift guide helps your customer, making it easier for them is a perfect way to boost your sales.
This gift guide can double as content for online and an in-store brochure. Take the time to consider the most perfect gifts for all the members of a family from your products. Then write a blurb about why itās the most perfect gift for each member.
Publish it on your blog and share it on your social media channels. Print out some copies – in colour, with pictures and use them in-store as a brochure. Make sure your staff are prepped on what products to push for different gift types, budgets and demographics.
Christmas countdowns
At this time of year it can get hectic, and people sometimes lose track of time. Build suspense with a Christmas countdown, set up a countdown in-store and online. Update it each day and choose a product to push on that day. For example, you could do a post promoting a menās grooming kit with copy something like this āThereās only 18 days until Christmas, have you gotten your dad anything yet? Donāt forget about him, show him you care this Christmas with our deluxe beard grooming kit.ā
Final Thoughts
Christmas in retail and small business is never easy. Itās a long slog through the Black Friday Sales to Christmas weekās late-night shopping but these Christmas marketing ideas can help you maximise your sales this silly season.
If youāre looking to learn more about small business or marketing, you can check out our Certificate IV in Marketing and Communication or our Certificate III in Entrepreneurship and New Business. These courses can help you take your business to the next level. Get in touch with us to discuss the best course for your small business.