It’s a time of robust activity for retailers. With Christmas out of the way, your customers are ready to enjoy their newfound leisure time to commit to some serious retail therapy. This is a fantastic opportunity for retailers to end the quarter on a high note. Yet, while the end of the quarter is a time traditionally associated with healthy buyer activity, retailers should not assume that just because they open their doors, customers will flock to them. The robust commercial activity that comes between Christmas and the new year can be a real boon to retailers, but it doesn’t ensure that closing the quarter will be a home run.
There are still a great many factors that could harm both your productivity and your profitability. Guard against them, and you’ll see out the year on a high…
Faulty POS
Faulty POS equipment can either lead to a serious bottlenecking in productivity and profitability or even grind your whole operation to a halt. Faults with POS mean stressed employees, long queues, irate customers and damage to your profits and your reputation. Be sure to keep the number of a Barcode Scanner Repair specialist in your address book. This will help you to minimise downtime and ensure a pleasant and consistent customer experience.
Employee turnover
After the festive spendathon, it’s likely that many of your casual employees will be jostling for extra hours while Christmas temps will still be amenable to getting as much work in as they can. However, if you don’t look after your employees by ensuring that they are well remunerated and enjoy reasonable working conditions, don’t be surprised if you endure higher than average turnover. While employee turnover is a factor that’s traditionally associated with retail, you can ensure a much more consistent customer experience and spare yourself profit-sapping recruitment costs if you keep your employees sweet over the coming days and weeks.
Stock that’s gathering dust
Don’t fall into the habit of letting stock gather dust for the sake of your margins. ‘Tis the season to be selling, and at this time of year more than ever it’s worth your while to take a short term hit on profits per unit to incentivise foot traffic and build value into your transactions for your customers.
Sales teams that take no for an answer
It’s also the season to be upselling. Your customers have negotiated the spend-a-thon that is Christmas and still found themselves with enough disposable income to indulge themselves in the post-festive sales. Fail to capitalise on this consumer enthusiasm at your peril! Over the coming weeks your employees should be identifying and capitalising upon upselling and cross-selling opportunities and they should not be taking no for an answer!
Assuming your customers will come back if you don’t reward them
Hopefully, the post-Christmas sales will see a surge in sales for you… But what will you do with this newfound boom in consumer interest? While you should ensure that you go out strong this quarter you also want to start 2019 on a high, too. Don’t assume that your customers will keep coming back to you if you don’t take steps to reward their loyalty.
Stock that’s gathering dust
Don’t fall into the habit of letting stock gather dust for the sake of your margins. ‘Tis the season to be selling, and at this time of year more than ever it’s worth your while to take a short term hit on profits per unit to incentivise foot traffic and build value into your transactions for your customers. Now could be a great time to put a promotion on these products – customers love feeling like they’re getting great value for money, and some take finding deals very seriously. They may already use coupons and codes over at this website to help them save with big retailers but retailers of all sizes can also make use of discounts and promotions to help you shift some stock, where needed, and potentially get some new customers in the process.
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