How to prepare for the annual Boxing Day sales
It happens every holiday season: A day of sales that some customers will avoid like the plague, and others brave in search of the best bargains. We’re talking about the Boxing Day sales. A day where shoppers will brave the heat and notoriously long lines to purchase a bargain.
While Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales have become increasingly popular, Boxing Day is still one of the biggest Australian shopping days on the retail calendar. The National Retail Association (NRA) forecasts that Aussie shoppers will splash more than $2.6 billion in cash nationwide, eclipsing all previous Boxing Day sales records.
Here’s what you need to know and how to prepare for the upcoming Boxing Day sales.
Have an understanding of stock levels
Stock will be one of the biggest concerns going into the boxing day sales. Despite its underlying importance, every year there are businesses that are still failing to adequately prepare stock levels.
There is nothing worse than disappointing a customer who has been battling the crowds and lines to get to your store only to find the particular special they are after is sold out. While this may be completely unavoidable in some circumstances, an alternative is to train your staff to redirect customers to a suitable replacement. However, the key to avoiding the disappointment caused by out-of-stocks lies in preparation.
Minimising out-of-stocks can be done in numerous ways. Firstly it’s important to have an accurate count on your current inventory. Physical discrepancies can easily arise due to theft and damages especially over the holiday season, so accurately updating these levels after an audit is important.
Demand forecasting is another way to help understand stock levels. If you have access to previous years sales figures through your POS System, then analysing this data will help you to forecast future potential sales and plan accordingly. This data will be limited, however, if you sold out of one particular item 1 hour after opening, or if specials are different.
Think mobile & offer online
While consumers will still go to physical stores to make purchases, especially during sales, online retail is continuing to grow. Offering your customers the option to avoid the crowds and lines by shopping online with your ecommerce store can increase your success during the sale.
60% of consumers already preferred to buy their holiday gifts online, with smartphone usage for these types of purchases up 11% last year. This monumental shift in shopping behaviour means it's simply never been more important to have an online presence to not only capture but also propel holiday purchases.
With the ability to integrate your point of sale software and ecommerce platform, retailers can now manage the entirety of their inventories side-by-side in one single system. This ensures that you won't sell out of a product online, because you sold it in your physical store.
Take advantage of this, and create your own fully integrated online/offline proposition with BigCommerce.
Properly train seasonal workers
In most businesses, it will be essential to hire additional workers to handle the increase in customers over the holiday season. And because customer experience is important, especially during peak trading times, seasonal workers need to be trained in the same manner as you would your full-time employees.
Make sure you allow them ample time to learn and understand your business’ fundamentals and don’t tarnish your brand's reputation simply because they were unaware. Additionally, pair up newer staff with more experienced staff during the busiest times to avoid bottlenecks at checkout due to inexperience.
Provide outstanding customer service
With competition being high during these sales it’s all about making sure your customers have the best experience possible. A great way to achieve this is by putting yourself in their shoes, shopping all day, navigating through the large crowds and long lines on an extremely hot day.
So what would make your store stand out from the many others that they will visit on the day? The answer could lie simply within offering free water bottles, free treats to replenish their sugar levels or an area for them to catch their breath away from the crowds. Having some sort of service edge over your competition will help your store to stand out in the minds of customers and potentially build loyalty heading into the following year.
When your doors open on the morning of the 26th you want to make sure your store and employees are well prepared to provide customers with the best experience possible. Being prepared by having well trained staff, fully stocked shelves and a competitive service edge will help your store to stand out for Boxing Day shoppers.
Get prepared for the Boxing Day sales with Epos Now
Your point of sale system is crucial to your business, and during the holidays you need a fast and intuitive solution that is powerful and easy to use. With the Epos Now POS system, you can:
- Seamlessly integrate with ecommerce platforms like BigCommerce to offer your customers an omni channel shopping experience
- Train your staff to process transactions in as little as 15 minutes
- Connect with 100+ apps to help with items like marketing, customer loyalty, and accounting
- Accept credit, debit, gift cards, and contactless payments
- Manage your store from anywhere with 24/7 cloud access