How to sell Christmas with Catherine Erdly, The Resilient Retail Club

2022 has been another tough year for small businesses and with a tough winter hanging over us, focusing on Christmas has never been more crucial. But what is the best way to prepare for Christmas, and how can speciality food stores use their Christmas sales to springboard their business into 2023?

Make a plan
Preparation means planning, and a sales plan is the foundation for growing sales during the festive season. Don’t have a sales plan? Now is the time to sit down and decide what to aim for in this all-important quarter.

Once an overall target is decided, break it down by month, then by week and also by day for peak weeks. Look at how sales can be expected to be split by sales channel, for example how many sales retailers expect to take on their website. Clearer, more attainable goals will help motivate their team to hit them.

Not only that, but having a clear plan will allow business owners to check their capacity and the support they have in their team. It’s far better to figure out now that extra people or packaging is required than to realise that in the middle of the Christmas rush.

Top tip: Retailers need to set a realistic target based on how they are currently trading against last year. If in doubt, keep sales targets on the lower side to avoid overcommitting to stock or staff.

Tick some jobs off now
Alongside any planning, retailers can complete some pre-preparation tasks right now. They should review their festive emails, social media content, events, collaborations and marketing materials. Having Christmas emails pre-drafted, social media content produced and scheduled will all contribute to growing sales at Christmas. Getting ahead now is vital.

What other jobs could be done now? Pre-planning shop floor layouts and windows also helps take the pressure off for retailers during the busy period.

The key with the final quarter of the year is that the focus must be squarely on growing sales, and nothing else. If there’s a long-awaited website overhaul to undertake, a brand refresh or even a change of shipping partner – park that until the New Year and focus entirely on customers’ needs for a magical Christmas.

Sell across channels
Small business retailers should utilise as many channels and opportunities afforded to them to sell. Online shopping is set to be popular again so whilst having a website is key, so is getting customers to it. Giving customers multiple platforms and opportunities to buy will enhance Christmas sales, whether that be selling on a website, at an event, via social media or in a bricks and mortar store.

What can they do to make their business easier and more appealing for their customers while also encouraging shopping across multiple channels? Can they offer click-and-collect services for example? Allowing customers to browse at their leisure from the comfort of their home, buy online but pick up for free in-store next time they are out and about, is the kind of convenience that their customers will appreciate but is not too time consuming for the retailer either.

For those retailers who also sell online, they must ensure their shipping service is tip top and clear, their stock levels have been carefully planned for and their customer service staff can swiftly deal with any issues that might arise. This is a year-round goal but is never more pertinent than at Christmas.

Shopping online offers ease and convenience coveted by many shoppers, yet so many online retailers seem to complicate the checkout process, with small businesses, in particular, falling foul of creating this purchase hurdle to a degree that’s off-putting.

Constant requests for usernames and passwords, when many are weary of handing over their personal information to create yet another online account, can mean lost profits when consumers abandon their basket at checkout. Retailers should ensure their ‘guest checkout’ option is up and running over the festive period to avoid losing potential sales and new customers online.

Retailers should conduct a complete audit of their online presence, especially their website, before Christmas selling starts in earnest. The purpose of this is to help them identify where there might be problems or bottlenecks (such as the checkout process) and resolve them before they are starting to see greater levels of traffic.

It is also important to take the time to check websites once a week during the peak selling period, on both desktop and mobile, just in case there are issues that have not been identified.

Best foot forward
It is much easier to drive Christmas sales when retailers have taken the time to identify the best-selling products that are likely to be loved by their customers as gifts.

These are the products that should be featuring prominently on tables or other store displays and should be a major focus of marketing campaigns. From stock levels to social media content, hero products should take centre stage.

Business owners should remember the 80/20 rule – 80% of sales are likely to be coming from 20% of products. Taking the time to work out what these most desirable gifts or products are at Christmas will pay dividends.

If in doubt, remember that sometimes Christmas shopping can be overwhelming for customers, especially if they have a budget to stick to. By offering a gift card service, retailers are giving customers another gifting option that still is extremely popular across the demographics.

Standing out
For speciality retailers, the key to a successful Christmas shopping season is to ensure that they stand out through those small touches that larger businesses cannot match.

Whether it’s taking part in local marketing events such as a late-night shopping event, or offering services such as click and collect as discussed previously, retailers should think about ways to go above and beyond.

Offering recipe ideas, cooking demonstrations, pre-made gift hampers or expert advice are all ways that speciality food stores can help their customers at Christmas. Some services, such as free gift wrapping, might be more time intensive in terms of staffing needed, but can also help set retailers apart.

For some customers, simply shopping with a business who remembers who they are and caters to their needs is just as important. Retailers should ensure that they are checking in with their most loyal customers during Christmas. Many shoppers who are short on time and attention would really appreciate a thoughtful message from their favourite speciality food store with suggestions or reminders to help them take care of their food needs at Christmas.

Small businesses can also stand out through a “giving” approach. Many people feel more charitable at Christmas so incorporating a charity partnership or other types of giving back can be very powerful. Giving customers an altruistic reason to buy is crucial.

Map it out
Once retailers have their hit list of promotional messaging and know what they want to achieve by running that promotion, they need to map out the activity.
They want to avoid bombarding their customers in one week with multiple messages then have a quiet week.

Map out content so it makes sense as it flows through the season – for example stocking fillers tend to be last-minute purchases but secret santas are often purchased around the first week of December when people are getting ready for their Christmas parties - virtual or physical!

Map out promotional messages for each week – what is the main topic to communicate to customers for that week. Factor in other communications such as an email drop, a newsletter and social media feeds – ensure they work together and power up promotional messages throughout the festive period.

Another key is taking care of loyal customers. As well as planning out overall Christmas messaging, it is well worth retailers taking the time to map out a special set of communications just for loyal customers.

These might include special shopping evenings just for loyal customers, the opportunity to order their Christmas food early or simply a voucher or discount code just for them. Whenever retailers plan an offer, they should think about what extra they can add for their most loyal customers.

Christmas and beyond
Small business owners rightly plough much effort into their customer experience for the festive season – but how can they retain this customer base after Christmas and beyond?

For every customer that has purchased during the festive season there is no reason why that relationship can’t be continued into 2023. A promotion encouraging customers to return in January is often a great way to start building a long-term relationship.

For any new customers businesses have attracted over the festive season the new year is a great time to share their story with them. Being able to tell the story of how they came up with their business idea, or what the business and products mean to them is critical in reaching the modern consumer.

Working on a post-Christmas retention strategy now is a very wise move for retailers, not least it is considerably cheaper holding on to existing customers than trying to acquire new ones. Special attention should be paid to ways in which retailers can get email addresses from their in-store customers, so that they can use these to build on that relationship in the new year.

For any retailers who have had a turbulent summer and have begun to lose motivation, they should remember that there is still everything left to play for. Many product businesses receive over 50% of their entire year’s sales in the final six weeks in the run up to Christmas!

So the key now is to prepare, map out their activities and think about ways that they can continue to delight their customers well into 2023.