How to Prepare Your Small Business for the Boxing Day Sales
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In the retail industry, January is a tale of two extremes – the mad rush of the sales and the desperately quiet slump that follows.
The Boxing Day sales may not be as frenzied as they once were, but there are still plenty of customers looking for a bargain. As a small business owner, being prepared is key to making the most of this exciting period. (And keep your business going during the quiet spell that follows.)
Here’s how you can get your business ready for the post-Christmas sales.
Get your payment infrastructures in place
Don’t lose out on sales because your website keeps crashing or because you can’t accommodate your customers’ preferred way of paying. Make sure you think about payment infrastructure now, before it’s too late.
If you run an online business, is your payment portal of choice safe, secure and reliable? Do you offer alternative methods for people who may prefer to pay by phone or by cheque? If you run a shop or market stall, can you accept card payments? Do you have plenty of petty cash for change? Always make sure you have back-up options in place, in case something fails.
Consider a variety of discounts or offers
Offering a blanket discount on all items is all fine and well, but it doesn’t really encourage customers to linger, spend more, or return.
Offer a range of discounts instead, and stagger them throughout the sale period to entice customers to return. If you don’t want to (or can’t) discount items, offer free gifts or free delivery.
Plan your discounts and offers now, so you’re ready for the next step...
Make a marketing plan
Do you want your sale to be mega successful? Make a marketing plan.
No one will know your sale is happening if you don’t tell them.
So now’s the time to create social media posts and schedule them to go live throughout the sale (Buffer and Hootsuite are great for this). Prepare the emails you intend to send to your mailing list and schedule those too. Write your blog posts. Think about online and print advertising - this can be an extremely useful tool if you have the budget for it.
If there’s a way to shout about your sale, use it!
Streamline your bookkeeping processes
During the sale you’ll want to focus on promoting and processing orders but bookkeeping admin can really get in the way of all this. If you’d rather not spend your time manually recording each and every sale or expense, now’s the time to act.
Your first option is to download and learn to use digital software like QuickBooks – it’s quick and easy to set up but may take a while to fully get to grips with.
Your second option, if you want to make it really easy, is to hire a bookkeeper. A bookkeeper will streamline all of your business financials, which can help make your company more profitable. They will deal with payroll, self-assessment, VAT returns, credit control and more, so you can just focus on making money.
We hope these tips help you make the most of the Boxing Day Sales. For more small business tips, guides and advice articles – check out the rest of our blog.