25 Things You Can do to Boost Sales for 2020 Holidays | Webinar for Small Business Retailers

Join POS Nation's retail experts for an exclusive webinar! We work with over 10,000 (and counting) small businesses, and we know exactly how to set retailers up for success. You can win Black Friday and the 2020 holiday season with these 25 tips. Interested in working with POS Nation? We support retailers with industry-specific hardware and software, 24/7 in-house tech support, and payment processing. Schedule a free demo with our product specialists who can answer any questions you have about your business: https://bit.ly/35pN5P1 TRANSCRIPT: Set up e-commerce if you haven't already. So generally Black Friday is synonymous with in-store doorbusters and those 'early bird gets the worm' type deals but as previous years have shown, the shift to online shopping is actually growing larger and larger, so retailers who can successfully bridge this in-store and online operations gap are going to win big this season. While in-store versus online shopping patterns may be shifting customer buying patterns indicate that people are actually spending more around the holidays so these promotions will entice them to do so. From standard coupons in your mail or in your newspaper to digital promo codes and QR codes, 90 of consumers are using coupons. So if you haven't already implemented coupons or you're looking to switch up your coupon strategy, consider integrating digital. And as a pro tip, QR codes can actually be generated for free online. Step one here is creating your profiles on Facebook and Instagram, and then if it's relevant to you consider getting on Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube or any of these other networks. But the biggest piece of advice for social media marketing is to stand out while staying loyal to your store's brand. As a small business owner you might have caught yourself without a gift at the last minute just to resort to a gift card. Be sure to have some beautiful branded gift cards in your store that are tied with discounts and bundles this time of year. Google My Business is a powerful and free tool for any retailer. Google offers every business the opportunity to claim and verify their business listing which ensures that you show up on Google Maps and on the sidebar of Google when someone searches your business. So even if you don't have a website, just updating this free tool to include your store hours, your address, your social media accounts, and photos can be enough to help you get discovered by brand new customers. It's 2020 so there's really no excuse not to have a website, even if it's a simple one-pager. As I've mentioned a few times now, the online and in-store hybrid experience is more critical now than it ever was before, so while e-commerce is a huge step in the right direction, most consumers are used to and enjoy going through a full web experience. As I've been singing the praises of email it might strike you as odd that POS Nation recommends a direct mailer. Additionally 9 out of 10 households receiving a Valpak mailer open and look through the offers, so if anything at all this, is a great brand awareness opportunity. So sms marketing aka text messaging is a sales or marketing message is delivered in the form of a text. Several retailers are already taking advantage of this form of marketing to send updated store hours or promotions straight to the one item that people are always on, which is their phones. If you recall with the Google My Business tip, Facebook and Instagram have fantastic, free tools that any business owner can leverage. So just because you don't have a website or maybe you don't have a website with chat, that doesn't mean that you can't leverage existing and free technology such as Facebook or Instagram Chat. This will just help you open a channel of communication with your customer. If they're searching for a specific item, looking for store hours, or they have general questions, it's easy for them to use these tools that they already have like Facebook or Instagram to engage with you on another channel such as chat. Create a customer loyalty program. If you've already got one, you can offer additional incentives for higher purchase thresholds or more frequent visits. Another tactic for Black Friday is to party up or co-brand with a complimentary business partner. For example, if you're a wine and liquor shop, you could invite a local bakery or a deli or cheese shop to offer free tastings in your store and get in front of your customers. This way, you're both exposing your customers to a new business and in turn, being exposed to potential new customers. As much of a tradition of camping outside of a store versus eating Thanksgiving dinner with your family has become, many retailers and consumers are reversing this year. Some larger retailers are remaining closed all Thanksgiving and even into Black Friday to allow people to spend the holiday with their family. So for your business to take advantage, consider offering extended holiday hours.

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