As a small business owner, the festive season is the best time to increase sales. Reports show that compared to 2021, six in 10 customers across India, China, and South-East Asia expect to spend more this holiday season.
Holiday sales are the most profitable because they increase profit without increasing retailers’ costs. Therefore, prepare your Christmas marketing campaign strategies to increase sales during the holiday season. Here are five tried-and-tested Christmas marketing ideas to improve your sales.
1. Incentivise customers, host social media giveaways
Social media is currently one of the most effective channels to boost sales. And the best way to increase reach is to promote your Christmas marketing campaign across Facebook, Instagram, and Tiktok since these social networks have at least one billion active users each.
So how can you get maximum reach? One way is to organise a contest on these platforms and reward people for joining by giving away attractive prizes. Clearly state the mechanics and be ready with a FAQ. For example a giveaway, that requires contestants to follow your account, post a photo of your product on their public account, tagging you, with the giveaway hashtag, boosts your brand awareness and grows your followers. As an added boost, you could even partner with well-known influencers.
2. Generate leads through email
You often hear that email marketing is ineffective, and well pretty much dead. It’s so not true! According to a McKinsey & Company study, email marketing can generate more effective leads than social media. How can it boost Christmas sales?
Firstly, establish a customer database for your Christmas email campaign – Qashier’s Customer Relationships Management solution can help you record customers’ essential details. You can easily carry out any email campaigns or provide in-store discounts with a tap on our smart POS. Once you have an email database, set up your email marketing campaign in three stages to generate leads:
- Pre-festival season email campaign: Few weeks before the Christmas period.
- Christmas email campaign: Christmas and the days surrounding it.
- Post-festival season campaign: A few days or weeks after Christmas.
You can use your emails to offer discounts for different products at different stages. Plan your inventory and delivery to ensure goods reach your customers on time. You can also thank your customers for their support or share uplifting content that can improve their lives.
3. Personalised Christmas shopping experience
Another Christmas marketing campaign idea to improve your Christmas sales is customising Christmas gift packaging, using branded gift paper or gift bags and cards. Personalising gifts can create excitement and a Christmas spirit among your customers. Make the Christmas packaging of your products festive and unique during the holiday season. Customers will feel a sense of exclusivity purchasing your product. If you offer gift-wrapping services, provide gift cards or tags as well. All these personal touches go a long way to making your customers feel special and adding convenience to the shopping experience.
4. Offer fast and affordable shipping
Research by e-commerce platform Shopify found that free shipping significantly affects purchasing decisions for many global shoppers. For example, 60% of these shoppers expect free same-day, next-day or two-day delivery. Removing shipping costs motivates shoppers to purchase products. It also enhances the shopping experience and boosts brand loyalty. As a result, free shipping adds a competitive advantage to businesses. Of course, providing free shipping with every purchase might be challenging, although that is the ideal situation. Instead, to avoid negatively impacting profit margins, you can also have shipping promotions.
How do your customers qualify for free shipping? Here are some suggestions from Shopify:
- Reach a minimum order value to qualify
- As a perk of joining a customer loyalty program
- As a limited-time / promotion code to new email newsletter subscribers
5. Invest in a smart POS system
A smart point-of-sale (POS) solution is vital in managing your business, especially during the holiday season. For example, you likely have several critical products on your shelves in high demand. Running promotions during the festive season can lead to low stocks, and frustrated shoppers – leading to lost sales. To avoid such a scenario, use an inventory management tool that comes with Qashier’s POS solution. Through a notification system on the POS terminal or Qashier app, you will be informed when you’re running low on a specific item. Allowing you to strategize and make marketing decisions before it’s too late. Check out our blog post here on our best tips to improve inventory management.
Tap on Qashier’s real-time sales reporting via the QashierHQ portal to provide you with all the metrics you need to optimise your Christmas marketing campaigns. For example, having real-time stock figures for each product is a great way to position which product you should discount and promote. If stocks are running out, you can motivate shoppers to buy now, as stock is “limited”. Plus, our cloud-based system means you can access data and manage your business from anywhere with a web browser.
If you’re new to Qashier, Consider Qashier’s multiple digital solutions in an all-in-one device for your startup.
The smart POS system can handle different operational aspects, from QR code table ordering to table management (F&B), employee management, customer relationship management (loyalty programs), inventory management, data analytics, and cashless payments.
Try the Qashier app for free on your own Android device! Alternatively, you can speak to us to see how Qashier can meet your business needs. Schedule a meeting with us here, call us at (+65) 3165 0155, WhatsApp (+65) 8887 7687, or email [email protected].