Carl Gould – How to Increase Sales Revenue After the Holiday Rush is Over
In just a few days, retailers will be raking in the highest revenues of the year.
Znet.com predicts that 25% of all holiday shopping will be done on Black Friday and 40% of the season’s sales will occur during Cyber Week (Tuesday before Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday). About 68% of holiday spending will be done from mobile devices.1
Robust holiday sales can make a huge impact on the bottom line of retailers. But when January rolls around, sales fall flat. Retailers can keep up the momentum by offering incentives on peak shopping days. Don’t just have a clearance sale. Come up with offers for shoppers while they are already in your store and on your website.
It’s all about timing. Place your promotional information in prominent places on your site and inside your store before and during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, where bargain shoppers are sure to see them. Make your offer contingent on customers doing certain things on certain dates to retrieve additional savings.
Here are a few tips for creating awesome promotions for the biggest shopping days of the year:
Tip #1: Cash In On the Next Visit – Offer an incentive for shoppers to return to your physical or online store and make an additional purchase AFTER Black Friday or Cyber Monday. For example, offer them redeemable store credit for X number of days (i.e., the week AFTER Xmas, or the week after New Year’s Day).
Tip #2: Award More Rewards – Award DOUBLE or TRIPLE points to anyone in your rewards club when they shop on either Black Friday or Cyber Monday. Also offer to DOUBLE or TRIPLE their points on the next purchase when they show their Black Friday or Cyber Monday receipt.
Tip #3: The Selfie Surprise – Tell customers to take a #selfie inside the store while shopping on specified dates and post on social media. Then, have your social media team send them a surprise of some sort, like a voucher or gift card. To design suitable vouchers or gift cards for your particular business or promotion, you could look into designing gift vouchers with online creators such as MyCreativeShop, creating deeper relationships with the likes of personalized gift vouchers can increase customer retention and sales.
Tip #4: Like Me, and We’ll Like You Back— Have your customers retweet or repost one of your promotions for Black Friday or Cyber Monday. When a customer reaches X number of “likes,” they’ll receive a gift card to use on Cyber Monday or Black Friday.
Too many retailers treat the holiday season as a transaction game, whereas savvy retailers will treat this as an opportunity to build a long-term relationship with the buyer. Loyalty starts with the retailer, not the shopper. These tips should help you build those long-term relationships
Carl Gould writes about catalyzing and sustaining business growth. He is an entrepreneur who built three multi-million dollar businesses by age 40, and his consulting firm has mentored the launch of over five thousand businesses in 35 countries. Each week he co-hosts “Quit and Get Rich” on iHeart® radio; and in his keynote speeches, he shares his insights from growing top companies from around the world. You can learn more about Carl and his firm at www.7StageAdvisors.com and www.CarlGould.com.
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1Vala Afshar, “2018 holiday shopping predictions: AI-powered recommendations will generate 35 percent of retail revenues, September 17, 2018.