Boosting Your Holiday and Christmas sales 

Boosting Holiday and Christmas sales

We are getting closer to the holidays real fast and Christmas sales and prices of things, food and service will be choking our necks real soon. There will be huge competition between brands and businesses trying outsell one another or win over new customers, they will be looking for the best at an affordable price while sellers will be looking for profits and more customers.

Almost every business sees the Christmas season as a period of income boost, offers and promotions, getting more customers and keeping these customers.

Customers on the other hand are planning to have a good Christmas some are on a budget while some will be on a spending spree, some will be out for Christmas discounts while others will simply revisit previous customers.

As a business owner, how do you balance these challenges, get your income boost, get new customers and satisfy the old ones? How do you strive to keep your business afloat without pushing away your old customers with your new prices?

Tips to starting early, keeping old and enticing the new customers

Start preparation now

You should be ready for your December and Christmas sales by now and if not, get on it!

Go back to previous Christmas sales, if you have a business data of those sales it will help you with a head start to help you make wiser business decisions for this year. You need to start considering the strategies you will use for sales, what plan will you put in place to boost profit, what platform, if there will be discounts, will there be giftings, offers and promotions and so many things to consider.

1. Need to consider product inventories; what product do you stock up more, the popular items, new to the market items, old items, expensive items or cheaper items
2. Customers; who are your target audience?
3. Marketing strategy; what mode of communication will be relevant for your business this season, any viable campaigns or ads, what content are you putting on your website or social media pages, what strategy best suit your product, your marketing content, will you be offering discount or promotions or gifts?
4. Online or offline; what platform will you prioritize more? Where are your customers? Will you focus more on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or LinkedIn. Is your website ready?
5. Sales and offers; what will you offer your old and new customers this Christmas to keep them or entice them into patronizing you?
6. Budget; for all this to happen, what is your total budget for ad, offers, stock up, website, SEM bid, etc

If you did not prepare a business data for last year, do it this year.

Evolve

Being able to evolve is a splendid way to improve especially with the everyday change of trends, technology and culture. It will help you maximize every potential to your own advantage for example, the trend of buying shopping online in the comfort of your customers home will make you have a logistic company that will help deliver your products. New and old customers will want what they ordered at the said agreed time.  Also, these trends will help you make important decisions on what to stuck up while technology will help with the latest or software or owning a website will make your strategy easier to achieve and make your customers have easier access to what you offer, your location, contact details and maybe access to your newsletter and email marketing.

Monitoring what’s new, what has changed and what’s happening in your industry will put you above competitors and closer to customers for your Christmas sales

Your marketing channels

How are you getting across to your existing customers and what method are you using to get new ones? Choosing a marketing channel can be a determining factor to your profit boost and it will ensure that all the time and energy spent on your Christmas and holiday sales wasn’t for nothing. Know that all marketing channels has its own unique audience and only the right marketing channels puts directly in front of your target audience which hopefully are converted to customers that will bring in more sales.

1. Social media; Facebook Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and more
2. Search engines; Google, Bing, Yahoo, SEO
3. Local directories
4. Website; paid ads or organic posting
5. Google ads
6. Email marketing or newsletters
7. Offline marketing; face to face conversation, flyers, newspapers, radios and TV

Is your customer service ready?

You will encounter a lot of enquiries both from new and old customers about what you offer, your prices, your promotions, just know customers come with all kinds of enquiry, need support and assistance. That’s where your customer service comes in!

1. Get trained or read books; customer service is a soft skill not everyone has but it is 100% required in a business. To satisfy and please your customers it will do you a lot of good to learn how to deliver good customer service on what to do, what to say, how to act & react and so much more.
2. Empathy; to understand your customer’s feeling. Know that not all fingers are equal and treat all customers equally. This doesn’t mean that you have to reduce cost for one person and increase for the other but understanding situations will let you know how to approach and attend to a client. Your interaction with an intending customer may make them dip their hands more into their pockets, make them come back or may just refer others to you.
3. Communication; Know when and what to say to customers. Always use positive language that are assuring and empathetic, it shows the customer you understand them and helps them understand you and the brand.
4. Be patient; so many customers will be checking you out and trying your business for the first time, everything they will want or will be doing will be for their own satisfaction, so be patient. They will ask questions, confuse you, argue with you, there will be pain on both sides but patience and understanding will help and also create a relationship and connection in the process.

Discounts, gifts and promotions

Of course, people are very much attracted to discounts, offers, gifts and promotions that comes with sales and if you start yours early before everyone, you’ll rid yourself of little or no competition.

Whether it’s a reduction in prices, buy one get one free, buy more get a gift, free items up for grabs or discounts it is a huge boost for your business. It will get people coming into your store all the time as long as you get your marketing channel right. A coupon for returning customers, gift items for new customers and a giveaway to have your name around.

Can you handle increase in demand?

If you get everything right from your plan, customer service to the right marketing channels, you will definitely get an increase in customers which mean increase in demand which also mean sale boost.

So, can you handle increase in demand when orders spike up?

Can your website handle the traffic?

Are your staff well trained to handle heavy flow of customers in and out your premises?

Are products available in stock?

Holiday and Christmas and holiday sales are great ways to end the year and generate revenues for the year, make sure you plan, use the right marketing channels, know how to communicate with your customers and offer things that will entice new and old customers o your side