Positioning Your Business For A Festive Period
This is the season for businesses across the country to see the bottom line on their income statements change from red to black! Black Friday is just around the corner, and this is a great time to review your sales forecast goals and develop a strategy to meet them through your holiday campaigns.
So what will your business do to make sure your products are top of mind as your customers make spending decisions from Black Friday and Cyber Monday through the end of the year? Christmas shapes the business year and for many businesses, determines whether they’re going to end up being profitable in any given year.
Statistics from the National Retail Federation clearly illustrates the importance of year-end holiday sales:
- 20 to 40 percent of yearly sales for small and mid-sized retail businesses occurs in the last two months of the year.
- Holiday sales in 2017 totalled $687.87 billion, up 5.3 percent over the previous year and the largest increase since the 5.2 percent year-over-year gain seen in 2010 after the end of the Great Recession.
This means that as a retail business owner, you are on your way to cash out big this period. Here are three things you can do to make sales this festive period and keep customers satisfied always.
Offer special discounts to loyal customers and discounts to new customers
Offer special discounts to your best or most loyal customers on the things they buy the most. Why not treat them to a holiday gift, from you to them? Offering deals, they can’t refuse on the things they buy the most is a great way to say Merry Christmas. Also, have a discount for new customers too, this way you can also bring them into the spirit of Christmas which is all about sharing and love.
Offer gifts to existing customers
Aside from giving your customers discounts on your product and services, you can also package small gifts to your most loyal customers to say thank you for their continued patronage and loyalty to your brand.
Brand your products during the festive season
Brand your products during the festive season, design packages and update your brand logos and posters. Syncing your brand with the festive season will present your brand in the light of the season.
Update your online campaigns
If you have not taken your business online or yet to execute social media campaigns around your brand actively, now is the time to do that. A lot of online shopping will be going on; you have to make sure your business is visible to your potential customers to reach you.
If you have a retail store, you can have Christmas sales
Before you dismiss this idea, consider this: pretty much every retail store of every size has some kind of Christmas season sale —because they work. Host an event-like sale in your store and make it fun and enjoyable for your customers.
There is no doubt that festive periods are great avenues to make sales and also rack new customers. Retaining old ones through strategic customer service is also very possible.
