Merry Christmas Sales
Christmas is a huge untapped opportunity in convenience. It does not necessarily require a huge amount of time or effort to create an offer – with a few simple tweaks to the existing range and merchandising retailers can provide a credible offer ready for customers’ festivities.
Over the last 10 years him! has been talking to thousands of shoppers about how their shopping habits change at Christmas time.
FACT: Shoppers will conduct more top up shopping trips in December than compared to any other time of year.
However...due to the current economic climate, consumers are expected to be spending more carefully this Christmas and be shopping around for the best deals.
Those looking for the cheapest possible price will be swayed by the big supermarkets as they can offer the biggest bargains...so it can be difficult for small retailers to compete on price. Convenience stores need to leverage their biggest advantage over the supers; the locality to customers homes, personal relationships with customers and the ability to deliver outstanding & fast service.
So...how can convenience stores compete with the big supermarkets at this time of year?
FACT: At Christmas, current customers will start to use convenience stores more AND... convenience stores will also start to attract new customers who don’t normally shop there.
What should smaller stores be doing at this time of year to maximise the sales opportunity?
1. Get to know customers better – over the course of the next few weeks maximise personal one-on-one relationships that they have with customers. That is the secret weapon that smaller stores have against big national chains. If staff can communicate with customers well, they can continue to draw loyal customers into store before they go into the supermarket chains and also to make a good first impression on new customers. Queues may start to build, so stores need to ensure they have the right staffing levels at busiest times and apologise to shoppers for having to wait to be served.
2. Door drop promotional leaflets within the local catchment area - by showing customers the special seasonal lines that are being stocked and deals are running it can encourage loyal customers to visit more often and spend more. It can also encourage new shoppers to visit! Through this sort of marketing, retailers can strengthen their relationships with their best customers and appeal to those shoppers who want to take advantage of the convenience of shopping locally.
3. Communicate externally opening hours and range - new customers who don’t normally shop there will not know opening hours or what you sell so it is important to communicate externally. This is especially important if a store is open on Christmas Day, Boxing Day or New Years Day which are days that represent a real opportunity and point of difference for convenience stores. Highlight any special prices/promotions on top selling lines externally in window posters or A boards if possible.
FACT: Price goes out the window and availability and choice of range comes up the list of importances.
4. Ensure 100% availability on best selling lines - your customer has run out so they don’t expect convenience stores to have run out as well. Make sure stores are well stocked with toilet rolls, batteries and headache tablets – some of the top selling lines over the Christmas period! Small retailers can take a cue from large chains that display as much merchandise as possible on the floor, rather than holding stock in the backroom - get the stock out there where the customer is.
5. Think “party time” – the majority of purchases at c-stores is for consumption by the shopper and others (i.e. not for “me alone”) so ensure stores are stocking multipacks and party packs.
FACT: 72% of wine shoppers consider buying more than one bottle per shopping trip from a c-store.
8. Make it as easy as possible for shoppers to buy more and spend more on BWS – by offering special seasonal promotions such as ‘buy a premium bottle of spirits get a tin of chocolate half price’ or even offer bundle deals such as ‘2 for 3’ to get people to buy more than they would have done.
Create festive gifting solutions by dual merchandising boxes of chocolate, spirits, cards, wrapping & gift bags in the BWS section.
FACT: Christmas POS and signage positively affects 17% of shoppers to purchase.
9. Festive POS & theatre - create festive spirit and in store theatre with Christmas POS. In addition, stores could give out chocolates to shoppers waiting in the queue or even get all of the staff to wear Santa hats!
10. Stock up – don’t worry about managing stock holding too tightly - any gifting, seasonal or alcohol lines that do not sell at Christmas stores still have the opportunity to sell them at new year, valentines, Mother’s day or Easter!
From everyone at him! we hope you have a profitable Christmas!
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