Ways to Set Your Small Biz Apart From Big Retailers This Holiday Season
Last year, on Thanksgiving weekend alone, the average holiday shopper spent $423, according to the National Retail Federation. Armed with cash and unable to resist the great deals and the glitzy advertising, many of them headed to the big retailers. As an independent shopkeeper, you have to fight a David-and-Goliath battle each year to get holiday shoppers through your doors, but with the right techniques, you can easily draw in new customers.
Be Distinctive
Offer something distinctive, advises the Jewelry Business Advisor. Shoppers know where to find cookie-cutter T-shirts, predictable electronics, and repetitive toys. You need to draw them in with distinctive designs, innovative items, and surprising style that they haven’t seen anywhere else. If you have to offer a few boring standbys to keep your margins high, then do, but remember that what your clients really will remember is something quirky that differs from the norm.
Offer Value
If your customers wanted the cheapest products, they would go to a store like Walmart. Offer them exceptional value without being cheap. Make their shopping experience more convenient with a personal shopper, provide them with unparalleled service from knowledgeable staff members, and offer value-laden freebies like custom gift wrapping, free alterations, or extended warranties.
Give Them Doorbusters
Draw prospective clients in with doorbusting deals. These great offers should only be available for a limited amount of time to encourage shoppers to act quickly. Before you play with your pricing too much, see how department stores successfully pull off their holiday sales. Macy’s, for example, offers great Black Friday sales, and their range of products makes it easy for all kinds of retailers to compare costs.
Show Personality
When shoppers walk into shops like Pier One or a Sports Authority, they know exactly what to expect. Their experience will be the same whether they are in a big city, a small town, the east coast or the west coast. Your little store, however, is one of a kind. Use your shop as a platform to showcase your personality. From the decor to the music, create an ambiance that reflects your unique shop and the offerings within.
Use Social Media
Many shoppers share their daily deals on their Facebook or other social media account pages. Groupon and Livingsocial encourage this, by offering customers free deals if they get three of their friends to sign up. This is fabulous exposure for your company, but your social media engagement should not end there.
Make sure that you have social media accounts and that you are using them to entice customers, advises Fox Business. Don’t just use your social media platform to offer coupons and deals. Use it to build up your brand. Share stories, quotes, and content that will engage your audience. The more entertaining or useful your posts are, the more likely they are to be shared and the more exposure you will get.
Photo Courtesy of Social Monsters with permission to use.What's your reaction?
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Those 5 areas are a good start Nicole. Small businesses are increasingly behind the 8-ball when it comes to online shopping. Google has made it clear that big business and big ad spends are where they want to focus. From Google Shopping going all paid, to display ads for search results for only the biggest brands, it’s clear SMBs have their work cut out for them.
The biggest mistake I see from small businesses is a lack of original products that consumers want. You can’t offer the same things Amazon and Walmart do and hope to be successful these days. Just drop-shipping standard items is not going to cut it anymore. You need niche products customers can’t get elsewhere. You can then use cross-sell to pair standard items with these unique items.
The idea of door-busters can work, but the small merchant must look at profitability *and* demand for products and really “run the numbers” to make sure you get them in the door, but also that you can get them to purchase other more profitable items. Good cross-sells and upsells are a must to pull this off effectively.
The numbers for 2013 for small businesses on Black Friday and Cyber Monday show an uphill battle. We just posted these stats for some of the small ecommerce merchants we host:
http://www.lexiconn.com/blog/2013/12/small-ecommerce-holiday-stats-2013/
Total order volume is down, although revenue and average order value is up this year. It takes a lot of work to compete with the big players. Alternatively, small merchants could skip trying to go head-to-head with big retailers on these big days, and instead focus on the entire shopping season to have a great 2013 holiday.