How Retail Stores Can Win The Holidays This Season
The holiday season for all the retailers in the UK is not only a busy season but also merry and bright. The retail sales that happen in the months of November, December and January collectively are two times higher than the rest of the year.
Over more than 88 per cent of the people across the country intend to shop in stores each holiday season. And over 40 per cent of the season’s sales are bound to come in a week before Thanksgiving.
As more than 50 per cent of the holiday shopping happens before December, why wait until after Thanksgiving to make the most out of this holiday season?
If you are worried about the capital investment needed to make your store holiday-ready, then we might have a solution for you. Look for companies that offer cash advance for business purposes. These companies offer small business loans at a much lower rate than that of the traditional banks.
With that in mind, here are few other things that you need to do if you want to win this holiday season.
1: Get your website mobile-ready
Over 60 per cent of the entire holiday shopping season traffic is sourced by the mobile phones. Whether you sell your products online or not, it is essential that the store’s official website is optimised and made mobile friendly.
2: Prep your salespeople
Any unavailable or unhelpful sales staff will leave an everlasting bad impression on your customers. For most people shopping during holiday seasons, it is unpleasant to not have enough sales staff to address their needs, rude sales staff or sales staff with insufficient product knowledge. Hence, it is worthy to train and educate your staff members about the products and promotional offers, and also make sure that you have enough staff members to address your customers’ needs.
3: Check your local listings
It is essential that you as a store owner review the information in your local search listings to ensure that it is complete, latest and accurate. If applicable, also add special promotional offers and holiday hours to your listings.
4: Enable mobile payments
Over 25 per cent of the people use mobile payments methods while shopping. Making mobile payments available in your store will capture the impulse shoppers by speeding up the purchase process.
5: Think social
Every holiday season, the social networking sites are said to drive in 5 per cent of the retail traffic (with Instagram being a major force in this). Thus, we suggest you to use social media advert to enhance your reach to people with similar demographics or geographical profiles to that of your existing customer base.
6: Decorate
Over 42 per cent of customers shop in-store for the beautiful holiday ambiance. Hence, it is important to create an atmosphere in your store that has the festive décor, music, scents, refreshments and events.
7: Demonstrate
The top most reason why most people choose to shop in-stores during holiday seasons is that they get to see the products in person. Hence, make sure that you have enough stock on hand and display models of products that customers would want to see, feel or test before they make a purchase.
8: Get organised
If your targeted audience is between the age range of 18 to 29 or above 60, then be very attentive when organising your store. Over half of people in this age group are disheartened with not being able to find what they are looking for.
9: Connect your online and offline experience
Remember, the products that you are promoting this holiday season (whether in print or through online advertising) are well stocked up in your store and on your e-commerce site. Also, make sure that it is easier for your customers to find them.
10: Calm the crowds
Crowds are the #1 reason of in-store holiday season shopping stress for many people. For this reason, we suggest you to encourage your customers to shop early in the season so as to avoid the holiday rush. By displaying ideal timings to visit your store can also help your customers plan ahead.
Google’s ‘Popular Times’ feature helps in tracking the best time of visiting your store for you and displays it alongside your Google Maps listing.
