The holiday season is here and every retailer would love a piece of the pie! Is your shop holiday ready? Here are some tips for all our retailers!
1. Organize: Is your shop organized? Is your layout easy to follow? Have you grouped like-minded or individual products into sections that relate to each other? These are all good ways to make it easier for your buyer to find what they desire. The more organized you are, the better it will be when it comes to the rush of the holidays, the demanding clientele and the savy buyer who knows what they want. Organization allows you to keep track of inventory, know how to quickly put items and packages together and keep in front of your orders. Organization makes it easier on you, the retailer, by freeing up your time for putting out those "small fires" that come up every day. You know, those surprises that keep us on our toes and are unexpected.
2. Bundle: Organizing your products into bundles is a great idea for the holidays, especially. Grouping like minded products together, say massage oil with a massager and massage book, gives your client a complete package and nice gift set they can purchase for that enthusiast in their life. Reducing the price on a group of products is another way to entice your customer to buy the bundle, instead of buying pieces individually. It also maybe ideas that your client may not have thought about. You just made it easier for them!
3. Offer Specials: Holiday specials, end of the week specials, throw back thursday specials.... no matter what the reason, offer some type of special to your customers. They need to be enticed, intriqued enamoured by you! You are the "romancier" and need to attract what it is, you seek. Specials are always an important part of your marketing campaign. It brings people to your site. It gets peoples attention and it opens the door to a host of buying power. Consider, BOGO (buy one get one), coupons with purchase, FREE gift with every purchase, free shipping, gift with purchase...
4. The "Must-Have" Deadline: These are specials you offer with a quick turn around time. "Purchase today! Offer is for 24 hours only". "Weekend special only", "3 day sales event". The bigger and faster the deal sounds, the quicker and faster the sales come in. When you offer a BIG sale, offer it fast. It lets your client know, they have limited time to make a purchase, which often "motivates them to buy".
5. Your Holiday Mark: In this extremely competitive world, there is always someone to learn from. Have you ever taken a look at your "competitor"? Really, we are all in the game for the same reasons. We have products we want to share with the world and have our name/brand/goods out there for all to see. Your "competitor" is really your teacher. And believe it or not, your "competitor" can learn from you also. Your goal is not really to compete, but to take your product/brand/ideas and make them better. Constantly bettering your product, is an important step towards your growth. Maybe you now have a great product after weeks/months/years of "tweeking". So now you need to improve your marketing of your product(s). How are you getting out there? Consider a newsletter. Try an email marketing campaign. Write an article about the subject your product works on/for. Use the power of socal media to introduce your product. In your marketing campaign, it is important to tell your customers why your product is something they need and how important it will be for their lives. Marketing is about the "spin". You have probably heard the old adage "there are only 100 good ideas, the rest are variations on a theme". How is your variation, different?
Happy Holidays and happy selling!
Andrew Pacholyk MS L.Ac
http://www.peacefulmind.com
