Tips for Christmas - Retail Edition

Christmas is the busiest time of year for most businesses. Both physical and digital stores see a major increase in sales during December as people rush to buy Christmas presents for friends and family. Here are a few tips to help draw in more customers during this profitable season.

Deck the halls

Decorating your store, especially your shop window is a sure way to increase footfall. If your store is based in a town or city, you are likely to see crowds of potential customers during the final few weeks leading up to Christmas. The crowds will be on the lookout for new and unique gifts to buy the special people in their lives and having an eye catching, festive display in your window is certain to grab the attention of passers-by in the Christmas spirit and hopefully, encourage them to call in and make a purchase. Give your best sellers pride of place in your window display and add some tinsel to really pull in potential customers. Just make sure you don’t go overboard! Customers need to know what you’re selling otherwise they’ll assume you’re just another Christmas themed shop.

Deck the digital halls

Most retail establishments today have an online presence, even if you don’t sell your products online, you will likely have a website showing off your products and contact details. Adding something as simple as a Christmas banner on your website is enough to catch visitor’s attention. When browsing for gifts on the internet, people often don’t know exactly what they want so they’ll often make generic searches like ‘gifts for men’ or ‘toys for 6 year old girl’. Restructuring your website menu can seem like a tedious task but will be very rewarding. Make sure you group together similar products into categories such as ‘gifts for her’, ‘gifts for children’ or ‘funny gifts’.

Offer a click and collect service

Click and collect services aren’t exclusive to companies like Argos, everyone is having a go. If you already have your products on your website, let customers reserve items online and pick up them up in store. You can either take payment online or, if you’re uncomfortable with taking payments through your website, simply let customers pay in store. Offering a click and collect service will encourage more people to visit your physical store which can often lead to more purchases once customers see your wide range of offerings in person.

Christmas opening hours

It’s common for shops to stay open later during the Christmas period. With many people working during regular opening times, keeping your shop open later gives those potential customers a chance to visit. Late night shopping events are usually very busy so staying open during these times is almost certain to increase footfall if you’re based close to a town or city centre. Be sure to advertise your Christmas opening times in your shop window, on social media and on your website so customers know when you’re open.

Create your own gift sets

If you have different products that go great together, why not package them together and offer a deal to your customers? For example, If you sell baby clothing, put together a dress, tights and a hat, wrap it up with a bow or put it in a box with some wrapping paper and sell it as a complete outfit. Not only will this encourage customers to spend more, they’ll also be grateful that you’ve made the hard fashion decisions for them!

Christmas newsletter

If you regularly send out email newsletters to your customers then now is the time to start getting festive with them. Change your template a bit to add some Christmas cheer and offer gift ideas to your customers. If you really want to draw your customers in for some Christmas retail therapy, offer them a discount code they can use in store during the Christmas period or inform them of any seasonal sales or offers.

Gift wrapping services

Customers love it when a company goes that little extra mile for them so why not offer a gift wrapping service this Christmas? Many people don’t enjoy wrapping Christmas presents and some are simply embarrassed of their poor wrapping skills. Many customers would be over the moon to have their gifts wrapped for them, saving them a lot of time and hassle, most would even be willing to pay extra for the service!