This Community Voices column is written by Jill Morenz, the CEO of Aviatra Accelerators in Covington.
For many retailers, there are seasonal shifts in sales and consumer behavior throughout the year with the fourth quarter being one of the busiest – and most important – times of the year. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas and other winter gift-giving holidays can bring a significant increase in sales.
Experienced retailers understand the fluctuations of the retail cycle. Newer retail and product business owners, however, may not yet be accustomed to the roller coaster of sales throughout the year – or realize how much preparation needs to occur now, before the holiday sales rush begins. Holiday customers will start shopping this fall, but your holiday success starts well before then.
To create your holiday sales strategy, follow these four steps.
- Choose a hero product
- Price your hero product for profit.
- Make your hero product gift-worthy
- Get your Hero Product in front of the right buyers
Step 1: Choose Your Hero Product
Your Hero Product is one product, collection, bundle or gift that you position as the obvious choice for a holiday shopper. To choose which of your products should be highlighted as the centerpiece of your offerings, consider these criteria:
Is it already a top seller? Is it profitable? In other words, if you sold a lot of this product, would it make you money or cost you money?
Does it represent your brand, meaning when someone buys this product, do they immediately understand what your business is about? For example, if you’re a bookstore owner and your tote bags sell well, they may not be your best hero product because they are not directly related to your core offering.
Does this product open the door to additional sales? A great example of this is an iPhone. When you buy it, you will likely also consider buying a case and charger, and maybe even insurance or an Apple Watch. Your hero product should have the potential to spark similar add-on purchases.
Step 2: Price Your Product for Profit
Pricing for profit is the second step. Look closely at the direct costs that go into producing your product, as well as overhead (electricity, rent, marketing, etc.) Build in a good profit margin, particularly if you expect to sell a high volume during the holiday season.
Step 3: Make Your Product Gift-Worthy
Next comes marketing – communicating the value and “giftability” of your hero product. Holiday sales are different from sales made during the rest of the year. During the holidays, your buyer is probably not the end user. So, your messaging must shift from focusing on the benefits to the user to helping the shopper imagine the joy a recipient will experience when receiving this product as a gift.
Step 4: Get in Front of the Right Buyers
Once you know how to position your hero product, the next step is getting it in front of the right customers – the people who will buy it as a gift, not those who will buy it for themselves. When gift givers have a specific product in mind, they often access a big store or online marketplace like Amazon to search for exactly what they want.
However, many gift givers are still in discovery mode, searching for a great gift and hoping they will know it when they see it. These shoppers are often searching with a recipient in mind, rather than a specific product. They are thinking, “I need gifts for my sister, my neighbor or my child’s teachers.”
That creates an opportunity for product business owners to present their offerings in a way that will help buyers make a decision. A display of your products with signage that says, “Great hostess gifts” or “Perfect for the readers in your life” will help shoppers find the right gift and check someone off their list.
Don’t wait until the holiday rush to decide what you want to sell and how you want to sell it. Start now by choosing your hero product, pricing it for profit, developing your messaging and deciding where and how the right buyers will discover it.
A little preparation before the holiday shopping season begins can put your business in a much stronger position when customers are ready to buy.