As the festive season approaches, many business owners experience extreme highs or extreme lows during this time. This can be a make or break time for many small businesses so the question is how to maximise your sales so that you can make enough money to accumulate funds to carry your business in the lean months.
WAPPoint has various options for taking payment, and a Pocket Pro is ideal if you want to save on expenses. We also offer short term rental options which are ideal for the festive season, especially if you require extra terminals to handle the rush or just to keep as a backup in case of technical failures.
The obvious answer to “how to get more sales” is to get more customers or to get customers to spend more
Festive season holidays offer an opportunity to promote your products and services to customers who are eager to buy and often buy in a hurry. With the holiday approaching, customers will be looking for ways to be entertained and the obvious choices will be for them to look towards their local malls, expos and markets for their festive season shopping.
By ensuring that you are fully geared to handle the rush and ride the wave properly, we have put together a few tips that may help you this year:
1. Gear up so your clients don’t stand in long queues
As the Christmas rush approaches, clients will become impatient in long queues and leave their baskets behind, causing you to lose out on sales. WAPPoint has different options to help you with these challenges. You can process transactions faster by making use of our Dual SIM credit card machines, rent multiple terminals for this time period or let your clients take control by adding a MasterPass QR Code to your till point. Clients can then quickly scan the QR code and process their payments in less than 2 seconds. By having multiple terminals to operate from, you are able to process sales faster and thus eliminate queues!
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2. Make a great first impression
Most people will decide whether they like your products within ten seconds of seeing your store and interacting with you or your staff.
- Acknowledge the customer by giving a friendly greeting.
- Wear neat and appropriate clothing and always smile.
- Use humour to put people at ease and break the ice.
- Know your market: different venues have different demographics of customers, who in turn respond to different types of sales techniques.
- Read people’s body language: Leaping on a customer as soon as they approach isn’t always the way to go. If they keep their eyes down, they probably want to be left to browse in peace and not be pressurised. If they pick something up, they might want to know more about it so be available but out of the way.
- Create attractive signage or posters to lure people into your store.
- Design your stand or shop window to reflect your brand and style. A display that has clear, visible and understandable branding instantly tells people who you are and what you do and will grab people’s attention and stand out in a sea of similar stalls or shops.
3. Have a sale or special with a limited time or stock offer
Scarcity marketing is one way of getting customers to buy on the spot. Run specials on items that are moving too slowly or items that generate the most profits for your business and then add a fixed end date or limited stock clause to the special. Put up posters to advertise and use words that would immediately catch the eye. Make it really worthwhile, because shoppers do compare. Advertise your sale widely on the most appropriate marketing channels for your ideal customers; social media, newspapers, radio, over the intercom at an Expo, etc. People talk and the word will soon spread.
4. Always have a backup payment solution
So, you’ve landed the sale and the customer is standing and waiting to pay. Unfortunately, your till system has gone down or your card machine has suddenly packed up. Festive season shoppers are impatient and don’t want to wait for you to come up with an alternative solution and sending them to an ATM will cause you to lose the sale as well. WAPPoint has different options to help you with these challenges. Unlike the majority of the suppliers out there today, our card machines come fitted with Dual SIM cards so you can easily switch between network providers when one network goes down. By opting for a variety of terminals eg Pocket Pro & Card Machine or Card Machine & MasterPass, you will also be able to transact between GPRS signal and 3G or Wi-Fi signals. If you are trading at any major event or market this festive season, chances are good that we will have back up terminals on site as well, allowing you to get a swap out quickly if all else fails. Our advice would be to enquire about this ahead of time so we can cater to your needs and help you prepare for the worst case scenarios.
If you think about it, how much money will you lose in 4-8 hours of downtime while you wait for a bank or supplier to swap your device? Some take 24-72 hours, what then?
Check out our MasterPass & PocketPOSTM Combo Deal HERE
5. Advertise to your existing database
Existing customers spend 67% more than new ones so it is important to build a database of customers who have shopped from you. Email marketing is three times more effective than social media, and the average customer order is 17% higher. Send email newsletters informing your clients of any specials that you are running during the festive season or that you will be at a particular exhibition or market.
Whatever kind of email you send out to customers, be sure to address them personally. Use the recipient’s first name in the subject line and send customers special offers such as extra discounts just for them, buy-one-get-one-free deals not available to the general public, etc. The message is “you’re special” – a message which is tough to resist.
If you require a platform to use for sending mass emails, we recommend checking out 123Media on www.123media.co.za
