Business
Holiday Shopping Trends
So, how is your business doing so far with its Black Friday sale? Yes, you read that right. If you don’t have a Black Friday-related sale going on now, or at least have one starting well before Thanksgiving, you’re likely missing out on valuable revenue that your competitor may be taking from you.
And that’s just one thing business owners need to keep in mind this year in order to stay competitive in this tricky COVID-19 market. To make the most of the holiday shopping season, be sure to:
Establish Black Friday Month
Setting up holiday shopping deals before the official kick-off the Friday after Thanksgiving is nothing new; businesses have started holiday shopping sales early for years now. However, this year it’s even more important due to the probable drop in sales you’ve experienced over the past several months. You need to get as many customers attracted to your products or services for as long as possible over as many competitors as possible. And you do that with extended sales.
Hence, Black Friday week or Black Friday month. Or Black Friday two months, as the case may be.
Balance Shopping and Social Distancing
In addition to grabbing as much customer attention as possible, putting out holiday shopping hooks for a longer period of time than normal is especially necessary for brick-and-mortar retail experiences. Crushes of people waiting to get inside your store for a super-great, one-time deal is not acceptable this year. Instead, you need to spread out your great deals to try and keep shopper traffic steady but safe.
In other words, when it comes to in-person shoppers, you want a steady trickle over the course ofseveral weeks, not a one-day tsunami.
Make Your Online Experience as Smooth as Possible
You can, of course, still stick with the one-great-deal tradition. Just do it online. In fact, everything you may plan to do in a physical location, you should also plan to offer on your company’s website. Especially since this is where you’re likely to get most of your holiday shopping business.
Hopefully, the past couple of decades havealready taught you how important it is to have a slick, well-functioning website in order to remain competitive. People love shopping online, period.
Excellent images and content, accurate inventory levels, and up-to-date customer care phone numbers and other contact information give customers confidence, as well as a good experience that will keep them coming back. It’s never been more important for your bottom line as it is this year.
Have Your Delivery/Pick-Up Ducks All In a Row
With so many people shopping online this year, common shipping services are already starting to feel the strain. To keep customers satisfied with their online experience, you need to properly set-up their expectations when it comes to timely delivery. “Shop early” is the online holiday shopping motto this year.
For any local customers, you may offer the option of in-store pick-up, which offers them the best of both worlds: a quick and convenient online shopping experience and guaranteed possession of the items purchased. Plus, no shipping costs (if you charge for shipping, that is).
As a business owner, you know that you may need to adapt and be creative at times to grab customers’ attention. This year has no doubt presented all kinds of challenges in that regard. But if you’ve made it this far, you can’t stop just when shopping should be reaching its peak. Use the next couple of months to try and get your business back into the black. This year, aim to survive and then next year, you will hopefully thrive.
