When to Start Preparing for Christmas

Although it started as a purely American invention, by now most of us probably know about Black Friday. It is the Friday after the 4th Thursday of November, when most businesses usually declare massive sales for one or several days. According to a popular legend the event gained its name because that’s when businesses go from being in the “red” (losing money) to being in the “black” (profiting). While that legend’s not true, there’s a grain of truth in the fact that businesses profit greatly during Black Friday and the ensuing Christmas shopping. Some retailers have even gone on records stating that they earn more in two months (November and December) than the other ten combined!

A big deal for the retail businesses

Obviously, the holiday season is a big deal for any business, especially retail. Many large retail chains start to prepare for it all the way back in August in order to meet the overwhelming demand.

But what if you’re a small or even medium retailer and you just remembered Christmas exists in early October? Don’t panic, it may not be too late to profit from the holiday surge! But you’ll have a lot of work to do. First and foremost, make a battle plan on how you want to take advantage of the holiday shopping spree. Which items will you discount, and by how much? Which do you think will sell well? A good retailer knows how to take advantage of its sales in order to bring attention to other items in the store and turn in a profit at the end of the day. Feel free to take cues from your competitors. Perhaps you’ll be able to offer better deals to your customers?

A step-by-step plan

Once your battle plan is ready, prepare for it. Make sure your clients know about the big holiday sale you’re holding. An online bulletin is ideal, but not every small business has one of those, so you may need to resort to flyers and signs. If you have any social media presence this is an excellent time to post about your upcoming sales, too. Generally you should start building up hype among your consumers about a month before the sale actually hits, so you still have a little time to set everything in order before you begin your marketing campaign.

Stage two is to actually make sure you have a big enough stock of items. Are you selling the cheapest iPads in the neighborhood? Be prepared for everyone to come to you for one, if you only have a handful of units that may not be enough. Depending on the nature of your store, you may even offer some extras like free gift wrapping. Most importantly, don’t forget to list your opening hours during the holidays somewhere easily visible, because while you can probably work the whole day on Black Friday, will you or your employees do the same on Christmas?

Speak with your employees to double-check their schedules. You need to know if anyone will be taking a vacation, and also verify that there will be enough people in store to handle the increased traffic. Christmas time will bring in a lot more customers than you’re used to, and if you’re not prepared then you will absolutely lose sales.

Taking multi-channel payments

Luckily, myPOS has you covered on several of these points. First and foremost, you’re guaranteed that the terminals will handle the extra traffic the holiday seasons bring. We have tested our infrastructure rigorously and can assure you that you’ve got nothing to worry about! Second, you can create custom gift cards for customers who aren’t sure exactly what they want to buy their loved ones. You can order gift cards from us customized specifically for your store and then top them up straight at your payment terminal with whatever your customers need!

Last, but not least, if you’re planning on expanding your sales online you can add payment links and buttons to your Facebook pages, guaranteeing you extra sales from your online marketing. Needless to say you can also implement myPOS checkout buttons into your storefronts themselves, guaranteeing that all of your profits will go to your business account and you can use them as you need them.