We all want to make this Christmas’s sales better than last year, to make an improvement to the number of a certain product sold in the run up to the big day, and ultimately to improve your end of year sale figures.
To help you with this, Digital Nachos have devised the following ideas to help you achieve this goal.
They may not suit all businesses due to the customer base and your own resource constraints, but they can all be tweaked to suit you. Everything can be scaled up and down as needed.
No. 1: Christmas Marketing Campaign
The most obvious way to drive sales this Christmas is to run an effective Christmas marketing campaign.
This campaign can be launched on several different channels – whether this be in-store, on your website, social media, email, print and even via post.
The main challenge with this is ensuring that your marketing campaign is captivating enough for your target audience. It needs to be able to stand out (for good reasons) from the thousands of other Christmas marketing campaigns your target audience will see in the run up to Christmas.
This is the challenge that all businesses face and can easily get wrong.
Be realistic when planning your Christmas marketing campaign and don’t forget that its better to do a small campaign well than it is to over stretch yourself and deliver a messy and uninteresting campaign. You will be wasting time and could end up damaging your reputation and brand.
No. 2: Customise your Products and Packaging
Make it crystal clear that your product can be given as a Christmas gift and give it an extra touch.
You will find companies doing this on everything from car washing sponges to bin bags (Christmas Pudding Bin Bags anyone?) in an effort to make the product appear like its for Christmas.
Whilst changing the packaging entirely is the ultimate in customising your product for Christmas, you can simply add little touch like a red ribbon and a special tag that provides space for people to write who the gift is to and from.
No. 3: Don’t Forget About Black Friday and Cyber Monday
Christmas shopping doesn’t just happen in December – see our blog post on ‘When do People Start Shopping for Christmas?’ here.
So don’t forget about Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
- Black Friday – 23rd November 2018
- Cyber Monday – 26th November 2018
These are key times for people to buy and so they should feature in your plans for Christmas sales.
Consider what you can do to entice people on these days to buy from you. The main way that retailers encourage purchases on this day is to add value to the product, you can do this by:
- Offering free postage and returns - helps to encourage impulse purchases
- Offering free products for certain purchases or purchase amounts
- Offer a discount on future purchases with all purchases – encouraging people to return to you after Christmas
The main consideration for these key shopping dates is whether your business can fulfil the offers and messages that you conveyed to help gain sales.
Do you have the stock? Can you afford to provide the discount without impacting your bottom line? And can you deliver when promised with the delivery network at capacity?
No. 4: Forget about Black Friday and Cyber Monday
Yes, you have read that correctly. You need to remember Black Friday and Cyber Monday but also forget them as there are new kids on the block which provide you with even more key shopping dates to target.
They include:
Singles’ Day, 11th November 2018 – a Chinese shopping date which celebrates people without a significant other.
Grey Thursday, 22nd November 2018 – this is viewed as a soft launch of Black Friday as many stores begin to compete for shopper’s attentions and cash ahead of the real competition.
Retargeting Tuesday, 27th November 2018 – this is a date for those companies making the most out of advances in ecommerce technology. The idea behind the date is to retarget people who did not complete their purchase on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Small Business Saturday, 1st December 2018 – this date helps to promote small businesses and celebrate their offering. There is a great deal of media and publicity on this date so its worthwhile making the most of if your business fits the bill.
More information on this year's Small Business Saturday can be found here.
Green Monday, 10th December 2018 – this is a self titled date courtesy of eBay. This is the date that they predict they will have their highest sales in the run up to Christmas with people wanting delivery before Christmas. If you sell on eBay make sure your listings are up to date and ready for this date.
Free Shipping Day, 14th December 2018 – this date is seen as a last chance saloon for many companies of getting those last minute sales and guaranteeing delivery before Christmas.
Panic Saturday, 22nd December 2018 – this date only applies to those companies who have a bricks and mortar store. It is predicted to be the last big shopping date this year where those last minute shoppers flock for their Christmas gifts. Home delivery won’t be an option any more so ensure you have adequate stock to hand.
No. 5: Create a Gift Guide
In the chaos that is Christmas, make things easy for your customers by creating gift guides.
Break down your products into their intended customer or price range, then turn this list into an easy to read and understand graphic.
These graphics can be shown on your website, on social channels, via emails and also in store.
Anything that helps in selecting a gift for someone from you and your products will help to encourage sales.
This gift guide should also help you promote Christmas themed gift sets as you may find natural bundles of products that you can promote as a product of its own.
Goodwill to All
Whilst boosting your sales at Christmas is fantastic, one of the principles of Christmas is goodwill to all men (and women). Don’t forget this element of Christmas and consider how you can do this, benefiting your brand and reputation in the long run.
You can partner up with a local charity, or a not-for-profit organisation that helps your community or customers.
Anything from donating a certain percentage of sales from particular products, a blanket donation from all sales, or even giving your customers the option to round up their orders and donate that extra few pennies to a chosen charity will all help spread the goodwill.
Whilst this may impact your Christmas sales it may help boost the number of sales you make and attract more returning customers after the Christmas period.
Published: 28th Sep 2018