Holiday season is upon us. Let the shopping begin!
For most small retail businesses, holiday season can be the busiest and most taxing season of the year. As welcome as the rush of holiday traffic in and out of your storefront may be, it also means that you have to deal with higher demands and a rapidly diminishing stock. Balancing these two realities can be quite the headache!
Below we’ve listed a few tricks of the trade to help your small business cope with the holiday buzz this season.
#1 Plan out your stocks
As business begins to increase in your store, it is best to keep up with how your stocks are doing by checking your inventory more often than usual. This allows you to check and see which goods are selling well so you can reorder as often as necessary to keep up with demand. The sooner you take care of this the better. You don’t want customers to find your shelves empty. People generally plan their holiday shopping with the goal of getting everything on their list at once. If you don’t have the particular item they want in stock, they will likely find someone else that does.
#2 Display your items well
Customers pass a lot of stores when they go shopping. Some people know exactly where they want to do their shopping, but others base which stores they visit on how enticing the display is. As much as possible, small business owners should display products that would make customers actually want to enter their store. One helpful tip is to follow the top trends of your industry and ensure that your trendiest products are prominently displayed. It also helps to follow the trends of social media to discover what popular verbiage, memes or current events you can use on your signs. Use your signage to speak the lingo of potential customers and pique their interest.
#3 Discounts and Promotions
What completes a holiday? Sales, discounts and promotions! Some customers look forward to the holidays simply for the good deals. The hunt for the best deal can even drive buyers to spend hours going from store to store. It may be tempting to take advantage of the holiday season and mark up your products, but your chances of moving more products would be greater if you chose instead to lower prices or even offer some bonuses or freebies. This will not hurt your sales but will entice customers to buy more, hence allowing you to earn more.
#4 Store Environment
Keep the holiday spirit alive by being creative in the way you decorate your store. Put up decorations that not only encapsulate the festivities of the holidays but that also encapsulate the spirit of your small business. Find interesting ways to incorporate the holiday decorations into your product displays to increase their appeal. Entice everyone to check out your store with your glamorous costumes, props and music!
#5 Small business customer retention strategies
Use social media or email marketing to spread the word and get more people in your doors. You may even consider creating ad campaigns on Facebook or Google Adwords. Once you’ve got the people in your store, remember to strategize various ways you can create holiday-themed gifts for customers that will remind them to return to your store. These could be something as simple as a bookmark or a sample size product from your store that you’ve branded with your small business information. Oftentimes, the best strategy is to give every customer a coupon offering a discount for their next visit.
Tuxedo Impressions LLC has a lot to offer, especially for small retail businesses, to help your business flourish this holiday season! Contact us today. We are here to help you win!
~ Maria Kristine, Team Tuxedo Impressions LLC™
