Tech The Halls: The Best Holiday Technology For Small Business Retailers

By Ed Cortez, Rubicon Global.

From apps to POS systems to e-commerce, there are one million different ways to ring in the holidays smoothly and successfully. And as most small businesses know, preparing for the holiday retail rush is no small task. Fortunately for today’s small businesses, the retail tech is getting better every year.

Here are a few of the brightest ways to tech the halls of your shop this holiday season: 

Customer Engagement

Yep, there’s an app for customer engagement.  The Perka loyalty rewards app enables customers to accrue points on local purchases at participating shops and redeem them on a repeat visit. Plus, it helps you learn your customers by name and give them a little somethin’ somethin’ when they return for repeat business. 

Employee Scheduling

Check out When I Work, an app that makes scheduling employee shifts easy. So easy in fact, it allows employees to request shift changes directly in the app. If you’re bringing more hands-on deck for the holidays, you might want to consider simplifying your scheduling process as your team grows. 

Social Media Advertising

Like2Buy helps kick up your Insta e-commerce a notch by allowing users to click through to your website directly from a photo. (Tip: Don’t make images that look like ads. Give your pitch in the text box instead.) 

Online Presence

Whether or not you have a robust e-commerce strategy, be sure to ramp up your Yelp page and Google My Business account.

Word of mouth is the top seller, and word of mouth spreads like wildfire on the internet.

Some easy but extremely helpful things to aid your effort is by posting business/service photos, hours, contact information, and anything else you’ve got access to that makes shopping with your business easier and more reliable.

Take your approach a step further by focusing on customer reviews. Putting a proactive strategy in place for shop reviews will pay dividends when it comes to credibility and word of mouth. 

Making Your Shop Merry

Have you ever been in a shop with no music? Sometimes it’s ok, but most of the time it’s dull and off-putting.

Spotify offers Soundtrack Business for small business music streaming and will help you find the right vibe, and sound, for your shop. When every other store is playing holiday “Rudolph” on repeat for the 1 millionth time – or heaven forbid, nothing at all – customers will love your shop’s trendy take on seasonal tunes. Try a month free to see if you jam well together. 

Staying Sane

Wunderlist is an awesome checklist app that is good for any season, but particularly for the holidays.

Stay organized, stay on track, and stay sane by building out a holiday prep checklist (check out the sample checklist provided in the full guide). Checking items off the list will help you feel productive, and next year, you’ll already have the same list waiting and ready to go.

Ed Cortez is Director of Channel Sales at Rubicon Global. Rubicon Global works with its small business customers across the United States to find new efficiencies and cost savings in their waste streams and to develop new and innovative ways to reduce, re-use and recycle materials.Check out Rubicon Global’s complete Retail Guide at http://link.rubiconglobal.com/retail-guide-ppc-retail-minded