Without a doubt Christmas for retailers is the most
profitable time of the year.
The last 2 weeks before the big day escalate into a shopping
frenzy, with Australians spending 10s of billions of dollars.
So how can you get a bigger slice of the billion-dollar pie?
Here are 8 ways to make the most of the Christmas season.
1. Be festive
It is very easy to deck out your stall and staff/yourself
with Christmas décor or
uniforms. It doesn’t have to cost a fortune – a Christmas
hat costs around $5. The more fun you have with it the more its attract
customer attention and creates a talking point.
2. Become your
customer’s best friend
Make your customers feel valued–fact is +60% of satisfied
customers DON’T come back because they don’t feel valued. So, Smile, be jolly
and Get off the phone!!!!
Offer:
·
Discounts
·
Samples
·
Free gifts with purchase
·
Complimentary gift wrapping
·
Sign up to win a great prize competitions
·
Let your imagination run wild on what you can do
with your products to make customers feel good!
3. Sell more to each
customer
Hampers / Gift Packs
Put your products into hampers and gift packs. This makes life
really easy for the customer to make a decision. It is a fact that “choice
stifles the brain”. If customers have too many options to choose from, at times
they will not to commit to choice at all. Hampers are also a good way to get
rid of slow-moving stock - just add them to a hamper along with the more
popular items
Specials
Another great idea is to offer specials like buy 2, get 1
free or 50% of the second item to increase turn over. There are many variants
of specials you can try to entice your customers to buy and spend more.
Collaborations
Work with other like-minded-traders and include their
products in your hampers, and get them to include yours in theirs.
4. Get social
Post about all your wonderful Christmas gift options on your
social media channels, using hashtags like #christmasgifts #christmasmelbourne
#xmas etc.
Customers looking for present options will be more likely to
find you.
If you need help with your social media marketing, get in
touch with the Small Business Mentoring Service, we have business mentors and
RMIT student interns in the lead up to Christmas ready to assist you with your
social media needs. Email qvm@sbms.org.au
to book a FREE consultation.
5. Continue the
relationship
Keep in touch with customers by recording their email
address. It’s a great way to remind them of your business during the year. A
little well timed note into their inbox is much more effective than handing out
cards with your website on them.
No one likes to hear the words “newsletter and email
database” so get clever - offer a little wrapped Christmas gift lucky dip in
return for their email address, or run a competition with a prize too good to
refuse.
6. Marketing with QVM
Hopefully you have your product listed in the Christmas gift
guide, or are participating in the Stall Décor competition. If not, make it
priority for next year! It’s free to get involved.
7. Master your
operations
Are your rosters and stock management under control?Good
time to keep your eyes open for any improvements, and note it down as the plan
for next year.
8. EFTPOS – Don’t
have it yet? Get it ASAP.
Have you seen the cues at the ATM machines? Are customers
desperate enough for your product to endure this?
Square Payments offer a simple solution that allows you to
process payments on your phone for a under 2% for Visa, MasterCard and Amex.
The card reader is just $19 from Officeworks. You’d be crazy not to implement
this solution for your customers asap. You could be losing thousands of dollars
in lost sales.
More info here https://squareup.com/au
