Achieving Holiday Sales in Unprecedented Times

If you’re unaware of the holiday product scarcity concerns raging throughout American consumerism right now, you must be living in a cave.  It seems you can’t turn on the television or scroll through social media without hearing talk about empty store shelves, delivery delays, and backordered inventory.  As of the beginning of November, Amazon Prime has already extended their normal “two-day” shipping to 10 to 14 days.

With all these fears swirling around gift buyers’ minds, how can you optimize these conditions, achieving holiday sales this season?

While it may be too late to completely reconfigure your sales strategies for this holiday season, there are plenty of tactics you can put into place to attract customers and increase holiday sales.  In fact, with a few smart moves, you can position your business to compete successfully with big-box retailers and online shopping mega sites.

1. Promote gift certificates.  Gift certificates allow recipients to have the ultimate flexibility in selecting the perfect gift and are simple to purchase and send.  Use email campaigns, signage, and other marketing material to promote how easy it is for holiday shoppers to check people off their lists with gift certificates.  Consider unique ways of packaging gift certificates such as in combination with a small trinket, tin of candy, free decals, a coffee mug, etc.  Discounted gift certificates (ie, “$50 of value for only $45.”) will help you stand out from the competition.
2. Advertise experiential gifts.  Especially after being cooped up at home for a year or more, consumers are looking for fun ways to spend time with friends and family.  Besides, after many people used quarantine to “Marie Kondo” their homes and simplify their lives, people are wanting less “stuff.”  If part of your product portfolio includes lessons, dinners, tours, hosted parties, trips, or other experience-driven activities, now’s the time to advertise how well these work for holiday gifts.  Make gift-giving easier by packaging pre-paid certificates with small items from your business in a gift basket.
3. Sell what you have.  Consumers may be struggling because the most popular gift-giving items are sold out online, but chances are, you have plenty of great products sitting on your shelves.  Make sure you’re promoting your products online and in-store to provide shoppers with new ideas for gift giving from available inventory.
4. Start your sales pricing now.  “Black Friday” sales are already in full swing.  The Washington Post reported that “more than half of shoppers surveyed plan to start their holiday shopping before Thanksgiving Day, according to NPD’s Holiday Retail Outlook.” If you aren’t promoting discounts to get shoppers in your door, you’re losing valuable sales opportunities.  Retail sales in September and October were higher than anticipated, and U.S. retail sales topped $625.4 billion in October alone.  Gasoline sales were also up–by 38% as compared to October 2020.
5. Continue to enhance your online shopping platform.  Even though more consumers are leaving their homes, newscasts describing the pending gift shortage are encouraging them to shop early–and that may be during lunch breaks, during commercials, or while waiting to pick up the kids from school. Use email promotions to get your customers’ attention and use links that make shopping on your online portal fast and simple.

Redefining your sales strategy is a good idea any time of the year.

Mid-November may be a bit late to implement a new marketing strategy for the 2021 holiday season, but these new shopping behaviors are forecasted to continue for years to come.  Now is the perfect time to plan 2022 sales goals and begin formulating your marketing strategies.

Contact our team at Paradux Media Group today to learn more about marketing strategies that work.  We’ll work with your leadership team to review your needs and outline ideas within multiple marketing channels to enhance customer communications and turn leads into sales.  Let’s partner together and make 2022 an extraordinary year.