Introduction

People around the world will in the next few days celebrate Christmas and New Year, which typically come with the holiday season as many count down the years.

This holiday season allows many to celebrate and reunite with their families and loved ones.

As holidays are typical, there is that inevitable rush as people scramble to shop and get ready for the celebration, presenting valuable opportunities for businesses to boost sales and acquire more customers.

From brick-and-mortar stores to e-commerce businesses, all retail businesses must take deliberate steps to take advantage of this crucial period.

This article highlights five tips.

1. Optimise your online presence

Adopting digital technologies as a business is crucial to surviving in this digital age, and it even becomes more critical when trying to reach more customers during the holiday season.

With many customers trying to avoid the rush and stress of going out to shop in brick-and-mortar stores and regular e-commerce shoppers looking to make purchases, businesses must optimise their online presence to take advantage.

Optimising your online presence means having a solid digital platform to push your business.

Having a mobile-friendly website is the first step to getting started. In Nigeria, for instance, mobile users have dominated e-commerce purchases.

According to a study by Jumia, Nigeria’s leading marketing place, 71% of its users in the country access their websites via their mobile phones.

Other ways to build a solid online presence are to use social media platforms to promote your products, run targeted ads and engage with your audience.

2. Stock up and streamline inventory management 

Inventory management is critical to the success of any retail business. Efficient inventory ensures that businesses can consistently provide customers with their desired products and meet the demands during the holiday season.

Inventory management involves analysing historical data to forecast demand and avoid stock-outs.

For example, for the upcoming Muslim holiday, it is not rocket science to forecast that there would be an increase in demand for food products, including items used in seasoning meat.

This forecast is based on the Muslim tradition of slaughtering goats, rams, sheep and cattle, commemorating the significant event.

3. Enhance customer service and support

Exceptional customer service is crucial for business success, but during holiday sales, it leaves a lasting impression on customers.

Excellent customer service helps businesses to retain customers, which significantly allows businesses to remain stable and competitive.

Train your employees to deliver exceptional customer service during the holiday season, as new customers will likely purchase from your businesses. Having an excellent interaction with your business during a peak period like the holidays will leave a lasting impression on your customers, who will likely return in the future.

There are several strategies to deliver excellent customer service. Live chats or chatbots, personalised messages during a significant holiday for Muslim customers, a clear and customer-friendly return policy, etc, will help improve the customer experience for your business.

4. Plan promotions and special offers

There’s a lot of sharing and gifting during a holiday season like this, and businesses must participate.

Attractive discounts and special offers are some of the best ways businesses reward their customers and put smiles on their faces.

It doesn’t just end with putting smiles on their faces; businesses must plan these promotions and special offers to lead to more sales and attract more customers.

Limited-time offers, bundle discounts, free shipping etc., are some of the most popular tricks in marketing books.

5. Optimise payment processes

During holiday periods, when people work extra hard and face various demands, it is crucial to optimise payment processes.

Customers should not be burdened with difficulty when attempting to pay your business.

To ease this stress and make the shopping experience hassle-free, businesses must optimise the payment process.

Optimising the payment process differs with each type of business. Businesses that sell online can implement a secure payment gateway to enable customers to pay from their mobile devices or computers.

Another way to optimise payment is to allow for mobile payments and by offering customers multiple payment options. This ensures that individuals can choose the method that suits them best, thereby enhancing their overall shopping experience.

Enhance payment experience with Fincra

Optimising the payment process is critical for businesses during holiday sales. Fincra provides businesses with the tools and services necessary to offer the best payment experience to their customers.

With Fincra, businesses of all types have the solution to collect payments from their customers during peak holiday periods easily.

To help businesses sell online, Fincra has Checkout solutions where online customers can pay with their cards, bank transfers, PayAttitude and Mobile Money (M-PESA) for Kenyan businesses.

Fincra also has Payment Links for businesses to sell online without a website. Businesses can share the payment link online for customers via cards, bank transfers, PayAttitude and Mobile Money (M-PESA) for Kenyan businesses.

Fincra also offers Virtual Accounts to enable businesses to receive payments.

By creating an account with Fincra, businesses can access various features and benefits that will enhance their payment processes. Start optimising your payment procedures today by signing up with Fincra.