The holidays are an important time of year for your business, especially if you're in the restaurant or retail industry. For some within these industries, the holiday season accounts for as much as 30% of their annual sales.
Although this year has been full of health and financial concerns for businesses and consumers, the holidays are still most likely to be the most profitable season of this year.
Unfortunately, after this busy shopping season, sales tend to be extremely slow until mid-March.To prepare for the inevitable slow in cash flow, you’ll want to do everything you can to boost your holiday sales.
Here are our 7 tips to increase your cash flow during the holidays:
1. Train your team to upsell
The easiest way to boost your sales is to train your team to upsell effectively. You’ll want to ensure that your employees are good listeners and that they know your products and price points inside out. If your employees love your products and are knowledgeable it’s easy for them to offer customers personalized recommendations or tell them about the product.
For example, if a customer needs assistance finding a winter scarf, show them knit scarves, buttery soft cashmere scarves, and the gift sets which include all your winter accessories. This shows your customers that you’re listening to their needs, while still offering a luxe option and a value option, both of which boost their purchase value.
2. Sell gift cards
Did you know that gift cards are consistently one of the most requested holiday gifts? If your shop sells gift cards, you’ll be able to benefit from this trend by making sales and increasing your business’ cash flow.
Aside from increasing your cash flow, businesses that use gift cards can benefit from breakage. Breakage refers to the balance left on a gift card that customers don’t spend (remember that gift card that had $3 left on it that you never ended up spending?). This means you’ll have more money that goes straight to your business’ bottom line.
3. Offer free holiday shipping
With many people opting to avoid the crowds this year, online shopping will be even more popular that usual this year. To stay competitive, try offering customers free shipping for the holidays or an option to add gift wrapping if they want to send a gift to a distant relative. Research has shown that free shipping is a deciding factor in a lot of purchase decisions. In fact, online shoppers are 96% more likely to buy from a business that offers free shipping than one that doesn’t.
4. Invest in a quick checkout experience
A quick and painless checkout experience is especially important this year with the high priority given to physical distancing measures. According to PwC’s Future of Customer Experience report, an efficient and easy checkout experience was ranked as one of the most important factors for shoppers.
Make sure you have plenty trained employees working and a payment terminal equipped with contactless or "tap" payments for hygiene and safety. Long check out lines may cause customers might abandon their purchases, but contactless payments speed up transaction times by 50% so you’ll enjoy a faster check out and shorter lines.
If you really want to delight your customers, you may consider a portable payment terminal that you can bring to your customers if your lines get too long. This way, your customers will be able to bypass the line and checkout in-aisle.
5. Looks at your previous sales data
To ensure that your store is stocked with everything your customers want and need, study your previous year’s sales data. This will help you to anticipate your inventory needs so you don’t run out of stock during your busiest shopping season.
6. Keep your store tidy
Keeping your store tidy and organized might seem challenging when you have hordes of holiday shoppers unfolding clothing and putting products back in bizarre locations (If anyone works in a shoe store, you probably hate the dreaded mismates). However, maintaining an organized shop is important to keep everyone safely distanced and give your customers a great in-store experience. It’s easier to find merchandise when it’s in the correct location, and neatly folded items look a lot more enticing than rumpled up sweaters or a messy tie table.
7. Give your customers promo cards
When your customers are completing purchases leading up to the holidays, make sure you offer them promo cards. Promo cards incentivize your customers to come back to your store for another purchase, which will help boost your slower sales in January.
For example, you could offer promo cards that give your customers $10 off if they spend more than $50 between January 15th to 30th. Whether your customers choose to use their promo cards or not, they’ll feel like they’re getting free money from your shop.
As a retail shop owner, promo cards are a great option for your store because they won’t devalue your product, and they’re only valid during the time-frame that you specify. This means that you can strategically drive more business during your slow season (ahem...January-March). Additionally, since these cards expire, you’ll always know where you stand with your cash flow and won’t have to worry about customers collecting their promos beyond the set period.