We’ve put together this guide to help small and medium-sized businesses navigate the 2020 holiday season — Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas, and everything in between.
After a year filled with pandemic anxiety, fire tornados, and an intense election season, the 2020 holiday shopping season is bound to be unpredictable. While the holidays generally pull in a considerable amount of revenue for small business owners, this economy has largely produced a cash-strapped consumer — with 39% of shoppers expecting to spend less on gifts this year. And for brick-and-mortar shops, finding ways to compete with eCommerce giants is more important than ever.
COVID-19 has thrown retailers of all sizes a curveball. With businesses uncertain on whether there will be a new lockdown, and consumers cash-strapped and anxious about the virus, every company has had to innovate to survive.
With the dominance of eCommerce, brick-and-mortar stores need to find ways to stand out. In fact, online retail holiday sales are estimated to grow by 25% and 30%, despite the fact that overall 73% of Americans have reported they plan to reduce their overall spending during the season. But for business owners of all sizes, it will be critical to be prepared for anything.
To survive and thrive, it can be helpful to plan for continued social distancing efforts and, in the worst-case scenario, another lockdown. You’ll need to ask yourself:
You’ll want to manage your inventory appropriately and be extra strategic this year.
To help you make the most of the holiday season, we’ve put together this comprehensive checklist to give you as many ideas as possible when it comes to optimizing your sales. Keep in mind, the holiday season will include major days like Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday, and general Christmas shopping.
So whether you sell online or in person or use both methods, there are tips for every kind of business owner.
SOURCES: Deloitte and Morning Consult
The first thing you need to decide is your operations. 2020 isn’t just a year of challenges — it’s also an opportunity to test different business models. Will you be selling solely online? Do you plan to merge brick-and-mortar and eCommerce? What about pickup options?
It’s possible that you’ve already pivoted into a new delivery system or starting selling online as well as in your store. But you should go ahead and plan out your shopping setup for the remainder of the year.
You can choose to allow in-person shopping with limited occupancy or let customers book appointments to have the store to themselves.
When it comes to marketing, you have many chances to stand out. Even if you don’t have a website, you’ll want to optimize your online presence to ensure people can find and contact you. With COVID-19, even loyal customers may not be certain if you are open or not. Make it easy for them to find out.
Before you do anything else, you need to update your online information. If you have a website, make sure it looks good on mobile phones and includes all updated information related to store hours, shipping, and COVID-19 precautions.
You’ll also want to update the same information on all your social profiles. Ecommerce sellers should also look at updating their product offerings and deals for the holiday season, and let buyers know if there will be any shipping delays.
If you don’t have a website or don’t sell online, you’ll still want to update your information on Google Business to let customers know if you are open and how to contact you. You may also decide to spruce up your website with a new landing page or two to highlight your seasonal discounts and products.
When it comes to social media marketing, you have a lot of options. Not only should you have organic (non-paid) posts on your profiles, but you should also look at offering a small amount of ad spend.
Consider creating new ads for your top products on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter to promote your discounts. You can also create ads on Google Adwords for your online store, or to a special landing page designed to promote your physical location’s seasonal promotions.
You may also want to highlight how you are taking precautions due to COVID-19 on your social profiles. For an extra boost, you can highlight your best employees with a candid photoshoot — preferably while they are wearing a mask — and write a quick post on social.
Outside of the major social media channels, you may also want to sign up for a Nextdoor business page. Nextdoor is an app centered on connecting neighbors with one another, and this could be a great opportunity to showcase your local business. In fact, 88% of Nextdoor members shop locally at least once a week.
For businesses selling items online, coupons and discount offers are easy to create. Contests can also increase brand visibility.
For those selling online, it is a cinch to create limited use coupons or discount offers using your eCommerce platform. Both Shopify and Amazon have inbuilt mechanisms to create coupons. However, there are also numerous plugins that can give the same experience.
In addition to online coupons, you can sell physical or digital gift cards for your shop — especially if you haven’t reopened yet. These are always a popular gift item and can be a quick fix for customers on a budget or who don’t want to come to a physical store to shop.
You can also set up contests to find more customers, and you can advertise these online or at your physical locations. Contests are a great way to increase your brand visibility while offering customers a unique experience.
You can also reach out to your mailing list to let them know about your latest details. Consider creating a scheduled and automated workflow so that you watch the orders pour in while you focus on other aspects of your business.
If you sell on platforms like Amazon, you can also customize your auto-responders — such as asking for a product review — to increase open and click rates.
Why not try the direct mail method? While it does have a higher cost than sending an email, it may also offer a bit of novelty for the consumer. Combined with a discount coupon or free gift card, it might be enough to bring the shopper to your physical or online location.
During the pandemic, we’ve seen businesses become creative in order to maintain their customer base. Bookstores, in particular, have come up with customer-specific packages — such as online book readings or curated reader gift boxes. You can take this same approach by creating holiday bundles to cater to your customers’ needs. Not only will these items look more attractive, they are often more practical.
You may also offer freebies or gift cards based on how much a customer has spent in your store. In addition, you can pair up with complementary businesses to create unique packages or business opportunities.
For example, if you sell homeware or kitchen items, perhaps you can team up with local takeout restaurants to advertise your holiday catalog or offer a prize for whoever buys the most takeout in a week.
Adding Thanksgiving signage or Christmas lights to your store can boost visibility and help customers reconnect to the regular buying experience.
When it comes to improving your brick-and-mortar space for holiday shopping, you have many options to spruce up your store and attract attention:
Onboarding during the holidays just won’t be the same. Similar to dealing with customers, you’ll want your employees to maintain social distance, and wear masks or possibly make use of more advanced PPE requirements.
You may choose to limit your employee training batches or choose remote methods of communication to ensure social distancing between employees. You may also choose to onboard your employee with electronic materials rather than paper files, to lessen points of contact.
It may be a good idea to bring on contractors rather than employees, especially for online-based tasks such as marketing. You can also consider taking on seasonal employees for non-customer based tasks, such as:
It can be hard to predict how the holiday season will go. Depending on your product offerings and the way you decide to sell, you may be overwhelmed or face random quiet periods. Either way, you’ll want to keep your employees motivated.
There are a few easy ways you can keep employee motivation and productivity high regardless of the ups and downs of holiday shopping:
Protect your employees by providing PPE equipment and training them on how to properly use it.
Whenever you onboard a new employee, you’ll want to cover pandemic essentials. You will want to train them on the proper use of the PPE equipment and you will need to provide it. You will also need to review, update, and evaluate PPE precautions regularly. Workers will be expected to maintain and clean their equipment.
OSHA guidelines recommend the following for maintaining a safe work environment:
In addition, you can encourage employees and customers to wear face masks, restrict the number of people who can visit your physical store, and have all employees work from home if possible. You can also consider alternative setups for your brick-and-mortar location, such as selling goods outside if you run a store or having outdoor seating arrangements if you have a restaurant.
