Are you the owner of a retail business? It can be hard work, with lots of blood, sweat, and tears poured into your business. Retail is difficult, with lots of competition and a challenging environment to navigate. You might run a gift shop, a decoration store, or perhaps a variety store where you sell a range of different discount goods. Whatever the case, success can be yours, but it is not always guaranteed.
The Christmas rush is a massive time for these types of businesses. If you’re unprepared, it can be an utter nightmare. However, this handy article will share how you can handle the holiday rush, boost your sales and beat the stress of this later time of year. Continue reading to learn more.
Christmas Stock Lead Times
Now is the time to order wholesale Christmas decorations in Australia for the festive season. If you sell stock that people use for Christmas decorations, then the holiday boom will be a peak selling time for your business. You’ll want to order now, as in June or July, as wholesalers need a generous amount of lead time to order stock from the manufacturer and have it shipped via ocean freight to get to Australia. Wholesale goods can take between a month to three to be manufactured and then need another month or so on the water to arrive in an Australian port. The customs clearance can take a week or two, and there is road freight to your store to consider.
By the time your decoration stock arrives at your warehouse or store, it’ll only be a few short months before the Christmas rush. This means you won’t have to store the stock for too long and can keep storage costs low. This is an effective way of boosting profit, as you can store and sell other goods before the peak holiday period.
Consider an End of Financial Year Sale
If you have leftover decorations or other gift-type stock at the moment, now is the perfect time to liquidate it and launch an end-of-financial-year sale (EOFYS). You can discount the stock at a rate that still allows for a decent profit margin but still allows you to move last year’s stock at a healthy rate, freeing up storage space for this year’s holiday stock. Customers love sales, and many people start their Christmas shopping for gifts, decorations and other goods during the middle of the year. Leverage this buyer behaviour to your advantage.
Make Prominent Displays
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Another excellent tip to boost your sales during the holiday rush and the lead-up to it is to create some eye-catching displays in prominent locations in your store. Near the entrance, where people walk in, is a great place for a display, as is near the registers, where people might add some items to their basket or trolley on impulse. Clearly mark the prices, including any discounts, in bright coloured tickets like red or yellow, as people associate these colours with cost savings and discounts and are more likely to buy them.
Email Marketing
If you’re the type of business that collects customer emails (if not, you should consider this), then an email campaign leading up to the summer rush period is an excellent idea. This is a great idea for businesses that both operate in a physical location and also sell online. There is a huge return on investment for every dollar and cent you spend on email marketing if the emails lead to sales. You can use email marketing tools to do nifty stuff like segmenting your messaging, performing AB testing, and sending targeted emails that personalise the experience of interacting with your store. Customers feel good when they feel like a business knows them and will trust and purchase from your business. You can also advertise in-store specials, which will get people through the door and hopefully buy more goods once they are there.
Online Selling? Offer Free Shipping
If you sell items online, don’t underestimate the appeal of free shipping. Even if you inflate the price of the item to cover shipping but advertise it as free to deliver, people will buy it. It’s a psychological trick, but a $30 item with free shipping will sell more than a $20 item with $10 shipping. Customers love to feel like they’re nabbing a bargain, so this strategy will boost your sales and decrease the stress you might feel about needing to hit sales targets or generate profit.
Sell Gift Cards
Finally, another way to boost sales and reduce stress is to design and sell gift cards to go along with gifts. When people buy gifts, they will typically include a card with it. By adding gift cards to your available stock, people will buy them. Gift cards have an excellent profit margin, being cheap to design, print and store as they’re small and can be sold at a tidy markup. You can sell these all year round, for all the major holidays, including Christmas.
A Holiday Sales Summary
This helpful and informative article has shared how you can handle the holiday rush in your retail business, boost your sales, and decrease stress. From ordering Christmas stock in advance to email marketing and EOFYS, we’ve covered everything you need to know about this valuable topic.
