How Speed Bumps Set You Up For Holiday Success

RETAIL IS IN the details, especially during the holidays. Small details may not seem so important if the weather has yet to turn cold in your area, but they will make all the difference when you have a store full of shoppers in November and December. Your holiday goals should include increasing awareness, building foot traffic, and encouraging impulse buys. Ready to make your Holiday 2024 To-Do List? Let’s go!

1. Choose a theme. And carry it through the store. Silver & Gold? Home for the Holidays? Santa Paws? Whatever theme you choose should put customers in a happy mood to spend. So set your windows to pull customers into the store, play holiday music even if it drives you crazy, and holiday-ize your dress code.

2. Install speed bumps. Located approximately 10 feet inside the front door, speed bump displays build an instant first impression. Their job is the same as the speed bumps in parking lots: to slow you down. These displays create the first perception of what shoppers can expect to find while perusing your sales floor. Use them to tell product stories, feature new arrivals, and cross-merchandise holiday items with those carried year round. Change speed bumps weekly and zhuzh daily.

3. Build on your holiday theme. Use props that tell or enhance the product story. Think mannequins, Santas, snowmen, faux snow, garland, trees, tabletop fixturing — anything that will help even the most basic of merchandise stand out and make shoppers smile.

4. Cross-merchandise like products. Holidays are made for cross-merchandising. You can increase your average sale by displaying complementary items next to one another. A customer shopping for a holiday collar might also purchase a coat or snow boots if those items are together. Anytime you cross-merchandise, you encourage impulse purchases that help increase your average sale.

5. Put a holiday spin on signs. Too many stores are undersigned, and that’s a problem because signs sell. Did you know that 70% of purchase decisions are made right on the sales floor? Proper signing can be a big help with those decisions. Add signs that talk about a product’s features or encourage shoppers to pick it up and give it a try. It’s easy to change how your signs look during the holidays with fun papers, print colors and text.

6. Encourage impulse buying at the cashwrap. Shoppers should never stop thinking about product, so set an enticing display of holiday gifts on the wall behind or in an area adjacent to your cashwrap. Placing displays of low-cost, high-margin product on and within reach of the cashwrap will help, too. The goal is to encourage customers to continue shopping while they wait to pay.

Well-planned holiday displays allow you to express your creativity while optimizing the square footage on your sales floor. When the dust settles, take note of what worked, what didn’t, plus ideas for improvement next year. These notes will come in handy when it’s time to plan Holiday 2025.

The post How Speed Bumps Set You Up for Holiday Success appeared first on PETSPLUSMAG.COM.