How to make more money at Christmas

Last year British shoppers spent an astonishing £7.9bn online at Christmas, and online spending is likely to increase even further during the festive period this year. This means that spending is moving from the physical stores of our high streets to the internet. It follows that all retailers but especially those which are independent are facing a big challenge to increase consumer spending in-store.

It’s therefore crucial that stores turn both casual browsers and loyal customers into spenders and higher spenders respectively by encouraging impulse purchases, loyalty purchases and highlighting special offers the customer can’t resist. After all, entire businesses have been built on impulse purchases and everybody knows that loyal customers spend more and spend more often. It is essential that retailers are thinking about their Christmas strategy and the role that their stores can play in this to ensure that they have a unique offering for shoppers. Not just that but sensible stores will find ways of turning the impulse shopper into a loyal customer of the future.

Your store can pull in a huge amount of money this Christmas if you get things right, from desperate boyfriends on a panic mission to parents with demanding little ones, everyone will be spending more than normal for the next three weeks. Make sure you get a piece of the action. Tried and tested techniques will still work: easily interchangeable point of sale such as pavement signs or boards outside the store can be updated with changing offers and prices throughout the festive period, as can free-standing poster holders and show-card stands inside, and even used for the January sales.

But for a really special look to stand out from the crowd a loyalty app will go a long way. By pinning your store onto your customers phones you are giving them a reason to return and spend again. Grab some new customers this Christmas and by encouraging them at point of sale to download Loyalzoo you can make sure they become regular customers during the next year. If you’re a coffee shop why not fill a bin with stocking fillers right next to the till and offer a saving if someone downloads your Loyalzoo app there and then? Like everyone else we’re on Twitter so let us know how you got on, we’d love to hear from you.