How To Increase Your Christmas Small Business Sales
Sunday, November 29, 2020This post contains sponsored links but all opinions are my own
The holiday periods are prime time for increasing your small business sales. No matter what you're selling, if you're using the right strategies, you can double your sales in the run-up to Christmas. People are willing to spend more at Christmas, especially on small businesses. Coronavirus has affected so many small businesses, so Christmas is a great time to recover some of the loss. Here's how you can increase your sales this Christmas and be able to support yourself in the January lull.
Start Christmas Preparation Early
If you want to make the most of Christmas, you need to start preparing early. Supermarkets start planning their Christmas adverts midway through the year. I'm not saying you need to start in February, but having ideas in your head around July/August time will help you in the long run. It will also allow you to spread the cost of stock, advertising and packaging, so you don't have to shell out at your busiest time of year.
I'd recommend planning and experimenting with new ideas around July time as it gives you a chance to perfect things. You may find that packaging and other stock you require will go out of stock around November time. If you plan early, you can order more items before you can't get hold of it. Planning is the key to any success!
Make Sure You Have Enough Stock
While having limited items is great and creates hype, you could be hindering yourself. You don't want to run out of your star Christmas items in the middle of November as you'll be losing sales. Increasing your stock and being prepared for an increase in sales is the key to thriving at Christmas. You want to find a balance between having too much stock and not enough stock, which is easier said than done. In my experience, it's better to but 10 more items than needed than 10 less, as you can always include those extras in a January sale.
Have Different Payment Options
Whether you're selling online or at a stall, it's worth considering different payment options. Having different payment options for eCommerce stores can boost your sales, especially around Christmas time. Consider taking card payments, multi-currency conversion and even regular billing for subscription models if that’s something you offer. If you are an online store that takes card payments, you may also want to consider what type of card and if there are other payments you can take. Paypal, Google and Apple pay are all common ways to pay. It's also convenient and you may generate impulse purchases if customers can pay quickly. With the Christmas rush, paying quickly for goods without jumping through hoops and logins is a must.
Create Holiday Bundles
Everyone loves a gift set or a bundle of fun things. If you're looking to increase your sales at Christmas, offer giftable bundles. People love the ease, and if you've curated the perfect premade gift set, you'll be helping a lot of people out. You can pair your top-selling items with a few Christmas themed treats and charge a premium for it! Gift sets are fun and a lot easier to gift than a few little bits and bobs. It also means that you can get your lesser-known products noticed, which can increase your repeat sales in the future!
Hold A Sale or Give Discounts
Everyone loves a sale, so make sure you make use of UK sales like Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the Boxing Day sales. People love to snap up a bargain, and sales draw them to your website. You may find it leads to repeat sales further down the line! Another way you could attract sales is by offering a discount for signing up to a newsletter. That way, you can build your mailing list and continue to drive customers to your website! Don't feel pressured to put sales on your website. As a small business or start-up, you might not be able to afford to hold a sale, especially ones as big as competitors.
Release Seasonal Stock
While customers will still want to purchase your typical stock, it's worth having a few Christmas pieces in your store. I love purchasing Christmas scented candles and body washes. Even chocolate bars have snowflakes put on them for Christmas! Adding these new items don't have to cost you the world. Choose your most popular pieces, and add some festive flair to them. Get creative with how you make your stock seasonal. There are so many ways to take advantage of the holiday season, and Christmas themed stock is one of the most popular. Pinterest is full of inspiration for things people are looking for this year, so make sure you do your research!
Create A Special Seasonal Event
If you're like me, then you love to be involved in the latest things. At Christmas, boots do special weekly star buys which attract lots of customers. Some brands will do 12 days of Christmas, with a new release, freebie or discount leading up to Christmas. Make something special, and you can attract social media hits as well as an increase in sales. Whether you create a Christmas hashtag or team up with another small business, there are lots of little events that you can do to attract people. When creating these events, make sure it's personal to your business. If it trends, you want people to think of and be sent to your brand. There's no point releasing a technology gift guide if you're selling candles, for example.
Use Social Media To Your Advantage
I've done a whole blog post on social media marketing for small businesses. Social media is great for attracting crowds to your products with minimal costs to your business. Make sure you're sharing Christmas, business updates and of course, your Christmas products. Social media is such a big tool. It reaches most demographics, and the possibilities for its uses are endless. Make sure you're posting regularly and engaging with your audience. You can attract a lot of traffic through social media. You can also showcase your products by doing a gift guide on your social media, which can attract more clicks to your site too!
Add Festive Touches To Your Deliveries
Adding a mini Christmas card instead of your regular thank you card is a cute addition to any Christmas orders. Adding festive touches makes people excited. Don't you just love when snowflakes are falling down a website, or your order comes in candy cane tissue paper. There are lots of little touches you can make to your business and orders to embrace the Christmas spirit, ones that won't go unnoticed. Here are some things I've noticed brands doing, and ones you can do yourself:
- Changing your mailing bags to Christmas colours
- Adding a Christmas hat to your logo
- Putting Christmassy things on your website e.g. snowflakes falling or tinsel
- Wrapping parcels in festive tissue paper
- Putting Christmas cards in packages
- Adding Christmas confetti into the bottom of parcels
There are lots of ways to take advantage of Christmas to help your small business. If you're not a small business, try to support them where possible. There are so many amazing businesses out there that would appreciate your money more than big franchises. I'm releasing a small business gift guide in the next few weeks to give you inspiration for what to buy people! What things have helped you to increase sales this festive season? I'd love to hear what Christmas themed treats your small business has bought out this year!
2 comments
This is very useful for me as I only just started my small business in October. I do love putting little christmassy touches like stickers on my xmas packages for customers! 😊
ReplyDelete✨ Marissa Belle × marsybun.com ✨
this is such a great post!! thank you so much for sharing! I love the adding festive things to your packages. I love cute packaging!
ReplyDelete