Handy Hints to Increase Sales in your Shop this Festive Season

Christmas is coming – are you ready?!

Whether you are a customer or an employee, Christmas in retail can be a hair raising experience.

Customers have to deal with struggling to find a carpark, large crowds, long lines everywhere they go and screaming kids.

As an employee you are trying to manage long hours, early starts, late finishes, shorter lunch breaks and frustrated customers.

An effective Christmas set up in your store will not only make your life easier, it will increase productivity, improve staff morale, and most importantly, increase sales.

Christmas preparation isn’t all about having enough stock – although this is important! It is also about making sure it is merchandised effectively to increase sales, your shop counter area is organised and functional, rostering is completed in such a way that it makes the most of the strongest team members and busy periods and that customers needs are met quickly and efficiently.

Here are some tips for a pain free Christmas!

Rostering

One of the biggest opportunities for businesses to increase sales is to improve the way they roster. Christmas rosters should not just be thrown together, and the term ‘less is more’ certainly does not apply here. If you need to take a full day to complete your Christmas rostering, then make the time to do so. Your sales will directly reflect how much planning went into your roster for this period.

Things to consider are:

– Extended trading hours. Ask your centre for these as early as possible. Some large centres can increase their opening hours by up to 30% during the Silly Season – do you have enough staff to cover these extra hours?

– Do you know the law? If you are lucky, you might have team members that are happy to work 12 hour days everyday with only short breaks in between shifts. But do you know there is a minimum time that staff must have off between finishing one shift and starting another? Did you know there is a maximum hours a team member can work without a break? And did you know these laws differ from state to state? FairWork https://www.fairwork.gov.au/employee-entitlements/hours-of-work-breaks-and-rosters/rosters is the best source of information when it comes to ensuring you are protecting your business and looking after the needs of your staff.

– Aces in their places. This term refers to having the best person, in the best position, in the busiest time. So if you have a team member who is excellent at working the register, can process sales quickly, has the common sense to handle exchanges and refunds the way you want them to, and is an overall high achiever in this position, roster them accordingly. Then make sure you also roster someone who excels on the shop floor, and excels in the fitting rooms, and so on. For large retailers who have multiple team working at the same time, there will be many different areas in a store that need to be covered, such as the floor, registers, fitting rooms and also the front of the store (providing you have enough team to do so).

– Looking at previous years sales. If your POS system has the capability, take a look at your sales by hour for the previous year, or years. This will hands down be the best indicator for what times of the day you need to increase staff members, and what times of the day you only require skeletal staff. The busy periods may surprise you – I remember the busiest time for one of our large retail stores was between 2am-3am during their 24 hour trade. Knowledge is power when it comes to effective rostering.

Stock

– Quick replenishment is key during busy periods. Most customers assume their size is out of stock if it is not on the rack, resulting in missed sales. Using shelving systems with additional storage is a great idea, because staff can replenish on the spot instead of hunting around for the items in the backroom.

– Have a think about whether it is worth getting staff in early to unpack stock so that by the time the customers arrives the only thing your team have to focus on is making sales. This is something to consider when competing your rosters.

Counter Area

– Do you have enough change? Do you have a designated time each day when your staff can get to the bank to deposit any takings and top up on change if needed?

– Does your team know what to do in the event that the EFTPOS goes down? These days customers are so used to ‘tapping and going’ that having to wait for a team member fumbling around with an ancient click clack machine might result in missing out on the sale altogether.

– Ensure you frequently top up carry bags, receipt rolls, pens and any other necessary items.

Following these small but handy tips will ensure your Christmas runs smoother, your staff are more engaged, and will help your business increase sales.

Merry Christmas from the Team at Shelves for Shops.