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Holiday Ideas To Help Your Store Thrive

Tis’ the season to start planning for your holidays! While it may seem far away, most retailers knows it takes months to plan for a successful holiday season. Despite knowing this, though, Thanksgiving often passes us and Christmas comes so fast that retailers aren’t ready for the rush of business. Though their excitement for sales is always there, their ability to support it  and encourage it are not.

By planning in advance, retailers are able to better support their customers and overall sell thru. In addition, they can be better prepared to compete in a competitive  shopping environment.

A few tips to help ensure this happens include the following points below.

1. Partner up with a local charity. Use your store as a collection base for donated items, such as for a local food pantry. Offer customers a discount on their store purchase in exchange for bringing in items. 10% for one food item, 15% for two and 20% for three or more. Take pictures throughout your collection and when you deliver it to the pantry. Finally, tell the local press about this both ahead of time and after you have actually made the donation. You will likely gain press as a result and more customers in return.

2. Offer customers shopping baskets or bags. Although this may take away from your store “style”, there is nothing worse than customers feeling overloaded with products in their arms. Not only will they be less likely to grab something  else, but their natural instinct to linger will diminish since they instinctively know they have no more hands to spare. The overall goal should be to make their shopping experience easier – so a basket or not, make sure customers always have free range to shop.

3. Have a list of back up staff ready to go just in case.Possibly they are family, friends or even former staff, but there is a good chance you will need some last minute help one day and this is a great way to feel more secure about this. Train them on the basic store responsibilities they will need to know before the rush of the holidays, and if you are able to, pay them a little more than your average employee to help encourage them to drop everything when you call for help.

4. Have an assortment of promotions and sales.Don’t just plan one big blow out and call it a day. Instead, stretch your incentives throughout the holiday shopping season to see a consistent customer base coming in. Make sure to have a calendar posted somewhere easy for your customers to see so that they can see all the great sales and events you have planned! Include flyers in bags with purchases to help spread the word.

5. Clean your store, stockroom and cash wrap in advance. This includes stocking all necessary items that you will need throughout the season, such as tissue paper, gift wrap, bags, receipt paper rolls, cash register ink and much, much more. There will be no time for last minute errands to be made. So plan in advance! And having your store as clean and organized as possible is the only way to dive into this hectic season effectively.

Thinking ahead about any obstacles you may see, products that still need to be ordered and staff you may need to train is the best way to get through the season. There is no sure proof list to ensure your single store success, but making your own to conquer what you believe will be effective for your store is a good start !


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