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As the festive season is in progress, there is a lot retailers can do to bank more sales and boost profits as much as possible. The key is to be proactively prepared. If retail businesses expect to grab larger portions of the festive shopping cake, it is up to the retailers to take charge and make it happen.
- Have enough product inventory on hand
Plan for sufficient buffer stock to meet the targeted sales volume for the season. Keep the warehouse inventory handy and the display amply stocked so that customers feel spoilt for choice. Implementing the right type of omni-channel retail software with a unified inventory solution such as the ETP Omni-channel Retail Solutions and Unified Inventory Management solution can help to tackle this issue quite comfortably. The Endless Aisle function which ETP’s solutions offer further aids to avoid stock out and lost sale situations by presenting the inventory carried by the brand’s nearby stores and local and/or regional warehouses to the shoppers on a single screen.
- Focus on cross-selling and upselling
Identify which potential products can be coupled for sales to add value to a sale (cross-selling) and products that have big-ticket or upgraded models that can be suggested for customers to consider (up-selling). Slow-moving items can be offered as complementary products or repackaged as a special buy in combination with best-sellers to get the slow movers out of the door. ETP’s in-POS CRM coupled with its uber stable promotions engine, ETP Accelerator can together facilitate to cross/up-sell to customers while they wait in the queue either outside the store or at the checkout counter. A suitable mPOS solution such as the ETP Mobile Store further enables retailers to execute the additional sales by offering quick product lookup, line discounts, quick billing and loyalty points’ accrual, and queue busting in the store.
- Deck the stores to be a “happy place” to encourage sales
Highlight the most distinctive features of the mainstream merchandise with the right communication or offer some new and unique products that cannot be found elsewhere, to attract the attention of curious customers looking for the latest in the season. Set the festive ambiance at the stores with the right paraphernalia to match the season – merchandise displays, lighting, colours, music, and other means to delight customers. Focus on creating a space that is shopper-friendly.
- Know your customer
The festive season will bring in new customers. Know what customers are really looking for in terms of shopping experience in the festive season. Take the time and effort to ask questions and receive actionable feedback from all channels. Understand the demographics of the region and choose your product offerings accordingly. Capture every customer’s data in your CRM. Further, track and analyze their buying behavior and preferences to spot which products are trending up and which are getting eluded to be able to personalize offerings and boost loyalty.
- Make training your store staff a priority
Consumers who find deals on their smartphones are quite likely to redeem them in-store, making in-store promotional content more important than ever for mobile shoppers. However, a good deal found on an app can turn into a negative customer experience if frontline employees aren’t properly trained to help shoppers redeem an offer at the register. Training store employees on how to make the redemption process frictionless can be the best way to reverse the trend of sales moving to a competitor. Moreover, make sure in-store salespeople know the product features and benefits thoroughly. Store staff should also be well versed with the technology at the counters to be able to service customers faster.
The All-in-1 ETP Retail POS software – ETP Store – is user-friendly, fast, and reliable with touch-screen technology – making it a proven retail POS solution that transforms your point-of-sale into a point-of-delight for both your end customers and your store staff.
- Manage finances to last the season
Plan the pre-season stock allocation and in-season procurement of inventory to last through the entire festive shopping season, which is starting earlier and lasting longer each year. This makes it crucial to handle budgets accordingly.
- Secure your payment card data at the point-of-sale
With a plethora of transactions taking place due to the rise in shopping activity during the festive season, it is necessary to protect shoppers’ payment card data and ensure secure transactions across channels. Retailers must take measures to make payment card transactions safe for customers, no matter which channel they use for their festive gift shopping, by employing a payment application that helps you do just that by protecting the heart of the festive shopping experience – the transaction.
The ETP Store solution integrates with a wide range of payment systems electronically, including all the well-known credit, debit, and cash cards, PayPal, and NFCs such as online payment systems (online wallets) and mobile payment systems (mobile wallets). The ETP Omni-channel Retail Suite consisting of omni-channel retail solutions is certified as Payment Application Data Security Standard (PA-DSS) v3.2 compliant by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC). In order to ensure that all sensitive cardholder authentication data is secure, PCI requires merchants, banks, and all other parties to use a third-party application that meets the PA-DSS standard for processing payments. The use of compliant software solutions is a key element of demonstrating their ability to protect sensitive card data. Being compliant with the security standards, ETP makes it easier for its customers around the world to apply for PCI PA-DSS certification.
- Plan for the last-minute frenzy
Employ the right skills and technologies to handle in-store as well as online traffic on the e-commerce website. Keep the supply chain engine running through the season to ensure sufficient stock is always handy through careful planning and allocation of stocks across all retail touchpoints.
- Transcend your customer experience to a superior, amazing one
Focus on customer centricity by understanding customers better and then servicing them accordingly. Employ technologies to enhance customer service particularly during peak business periods and to ensure safe transactions. Unify your retail processes by integrating your omnichannel retail software solutions with your inventory management, order management and fulfilment, and product information management systems. It gives you a single view of your customers, one version of the truth of your inventory helps to secure all your payment transactions, and to gain better control over your logistics and order deliveries. Enhanced customer experience can help induce repeat purchases, increase festive sales and profits, create brand loyalists out of your regular customers, and make you stand apart from the competition.
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