Blog Post
Retailers’ Go-to Plan for the Holiday Season
By Steve Bemister | 13 August 2024
A humble try to make the Holiday Season a great one for retailers!
The Holiday Season is just around the corner and unlike last year it’ll be different. Things aren’t back to normal but with the pandemic under control, people are gearing up for celebrations with family & friends, bustling at shopping centers, all of which seem feasible this year. And this only makes it much merrier for the businesses that run retail stores.
With the upcoming influx of customers expected to retail stores, it’s time for them to level up their game plan to get the most out of this festive rush. And to help you in this process, we’ve summed up some of the best tips and tricks to help you navigate through this Holiday Season & further.
Whether it’s an online store or a retail one, there are always 3 steps involved in the process:
- Getting New Footfalls
- Engaging Consumers
- Retaining Consumers
Getting New Footfalls
Get their ATTENTION
It’s all about making your brand stand out and attracting new customers to your online or retail store by boosting your brand awareness. Here’s how you can go about it.
“Trick 1” - Visual Merchandising
What makes a consumer enter your store? What makes them tick? You have to stand out from the crowd and it all depends on how your products are displayed & branded.
It’s all about the difference your visual merchandising is making when a customer is choosing between your store and a similar one right next to yours.
“Trick 2” - Organize Local In-Store Events
It’s one of the best ways to create a sense of community, which you can further solidify by offering small but personalized giveaways and discount cards. It helps spread the word about your brand through word-of-mouth marketing and grows your community, and, in turn, your store’s footfall.
Engaging Consumers
Make them LOVE the Shopping Experience
“Tip 1” - Themed Photo Booth
A themed photo booth in your store creates an exciting in-store shopping experience and makes the customer spend more time in-store. The more time spent in-store, the greater are their chances of making impulse purchases.
“Tip 2” - In-Store Music
Good light music in the background always makes humans relaxed, and there can’t be a better way to make the shopping experience a delightful one. Good music makes the customer spend more time in-store than usual.
“Tip 3” - Create a Festive Atmosphere
Pick a theme for your Holiday Season Decor, use vibrant lights to add energy & radiance to your store’s atmosphere. You can easily source plenty of great ideas from Pinterest and apply them in your store this Holiday Season.
Retaining Consumers
Convert them into Returning Consumers
“Trick 1” - Exclusive Memberships
A long-term discount membership is considered as one of the major factors contributing to keeping the consumers coming back monthly. This sort of loyalty program can benefit your store immensely.
“Trick 2” - Contests
Organizing a monthly/quarterly contest with prize/gift vouchers for winners makes customers return in the hope of winning a contest someday.
Holiday Season sales form a huge market of well over $1 trillion and if you can get your promotional strategies right, you can take a good bite out of this huge chunk.
This list of tips and tricks is, by no means, exhaustive. In fact, there are numerous strategies that you can employ to elevate your customer experience to drive footfalls, boost sales, and retain your customer base.
But the strategies mentioned above are a good place to get started today for skyrocketing Holiday Season sales.
The idea is to get people to learn about your store and get them to step into it. Even once they’ve stepped in, you need to come up with innovative ideas that can engage them and get them to buy more from you. Finally, increase their customer lifetime value by taking crucial steps to retain them.
