Why add on sales are important to small businesses

Have you ever made a purchase only to get home and realise that you didn’t buy everything you needed in order to make that purchase work for you?

Let me give you a perfect example that I experienced recently. It was Christmas Day and our son received a number of beautiful new toys. Imagine his (our!) disappointment when we realised that almost half of them didn’t come with batteries – thank goodness he isn’t a year or two older because I could imagine an absolute tantrum being thrown! I’ve made a mental note to self to always have batteries at the ready for future special occasions but after my long history in retail, it really got me thinking about the extra money there is to be made by retail businesses by simply adding on something that the customer truly needs to make their purchase work.

The example above is a no-brainer to me. Let’s say a store sells 50 units in a day of a toy that requires batteries to function. For arguments sake lets say the batteries are $5. If even half the customers purchased the batteries that’s an extra $125 per day/$875 per week/$3500 per month. What small business couldn’t do with an extra $3500 in the month of December?

There are many places to attempt to add on sell to your customers, but in my long history in retail, one of the most effective spots is the counter.

Try our spinners or small showcases to display add on sales at the counter, and if you are worried about your staff forgetting to ask a simple sign asking ‘does your purchase require batteries?’ might be the solution for you.

Retail is tough at the moment, don’t miss these small, obvious sales that could make all the difference to your business.