There are two types of people in the world—people who love Christmas and people who dread the arrival of the holiday season. Luckily for retailers, both types of people tend to spend big over the holiday season. This year Aussies are tipped to spend $10.7 billion on presents, meaning big business for retailers.
With such high stakes, it’s no surprise that retailers want to do everything they can to make the most of the holiday shopping rush. Unfortunately, there is no magic one size fits all guide to maximising sales over the holiday period. Nonetheless, here are some tried and tested tips for a successful Christmas season.
Stay Stocked Up
A great place to start your holiday checklist is making sure you have enough product to keep up with demand. It’s important that customers aren’t coming into your store with a specific product in mind and finding out it’s not available. This varies store to store but a good rule of thumb is having at least four times your usual amount of stock.
Make sure to also keep your shelves topped up as studies suggest having limited stock on display and poorly organised shelves can put off consumers off from making a purchase.
Getting Festive In-Store
Christmas is definitely not the time to be conservative with your storefront. With every shop vying for customers’ attention, it’s important to make sure that your store—especially the window display—stands out. Get creative and try to think of something different than what everyone else is doing. Rather than sticking to the traditional Christmas red and green, consider how you could adapt your current brand colours and brand personality to be more festive.
Think About Your Customer
Leading up to Christmas, it’s also a great idea to assess how helpful your store layout is for your customers. If your store looks great from the outside but is a mess inside all your hard work will go to waste. Make sure your store is logically organised by highlighting your holiday products and making popular items easy to find.
If you know that certain items tend to sell well during the holidays (or in general) make sure they are close to the entrance and easy to find. It’s also a great idea to consider placing less expensive but popular items near the register. Consumer psychology has shown that once a consumer commits to buying one thing they are much more likely to add more to the basket.
Make the Most of Your Marketing
Focus on tapping into emotions with your marketing leading up to Christmas. During the festive season, people tend to have their loved ones on their mind. This makes it the perfect time to think about creating an emotional pull and using tools like nostalgia. Studies have shown that when people are feeling nostalgic they tend to worry less about spending and are more willing to part with their cash.
Spread the Holiday Cheer
Even though the holiday season is notoriously stressful for both retailers and employees it’s important to remember that customers are also stressed out. They have a long list of things to get done before the big day, and there are long lines and the shops are packed.
It’s more important than ever to make sure that customers are having a great experience. Making sure to go the extra mile over the holiday season is a great way to encourage seasonal shoppers to convert into regular customers.
The little touches can go a long way with customers who already have so much to worry about. If you have the capacity, offer free gift wrapping to cross one more thing off their list. It’s also a great idea to consider if any of your products could be pre-wrapped or presented gift-ready. This trick also doubles as helping add even more of a festive look to your store.
Last but not least, don’t forget about hiring the right staff for the Christmas rush. To find out how to hire the right staff for the Christmas retail rush read up on our previous blog here.
If you need help finding the right staff this Christmas contact us here. If you want to find out how Recruit Career Consult is different from other recruitment companies find out here.
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