Back-to-school is one of the top spending events in retail. According to the National Retail Federation, shoppers spend more on back-to- school shopping than Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, and Father’s Day combined.
Retailers who don’t sell back-to-school supplies or clothing can still benefit from one of the biggest spending seasons of the year. Keep reading to find out how you can take advantage of the back-to-school season and increase your retail sales.
Smart Retailers Leverage Back-to-School
Back-to-school season can be stressful for some seasonal businesses. It may sometimes mean lower sales and a decrease in foot traffic.
Back-to-school is a time of change for many people – teachers, parents, and most importantly students. Many see it as a fresh start and a time for new perspectives.
Smart retailers will play on these feelings with creative marketing tactics.
3 Back-to-School Promotions to Help you Sell More
Even if your store has no connection to back-to-school or college, you can still engage with your shoppers in a memorable way.
Here’s how: cater your promotions to shoppers by using change as a marketing tool.
Listed below are 3 promotion strategies that can help you sell more.
1) A free gift with every purchase made
This type of promotion offers every shopper who spends a certain amount in-store ($50 or above, $60 or above etc.) a free item.
One example of a gift with purchase could be a back-to-school basket with different school supplies. You can also print your brand name on each of the items in the basket. It doesn’t necessarily have to be school related either – popular store merchandise or a gift card are also effective gifts.
The benefits of this promotion strategy include:
attracting shoppers’ attention
increasing the likelihood of impulse buys
making it easier to up-sell and cross-sell
improving shopper experience
enhancing attraction and remembrance of your brand
Social media contests are a great tool to increase sales and generate a buzz online. As most shoppers (college students and millennials especially) are conducting product research online, it is also a great method to reach target shoppers.
This back-to-school season, 49% of K-12 families and 45% of college shoppers are planning to shop online. So get in front of these consumers by running a giveaway or contest with effective prizes.
Here are some ideas for effective prizes:
A “back-to-school survival kit” for different ages of students.
A de-stress prize such as a gift card for a popular restaurant or spa nearby (consider partnering with a local business)
Free tickets to fall festivals, concerts, apple picking or other events
Promotion Examples
Here are some examples of creative back-to-school tie ins:
A store that sells cleaning supplies could offer discounted packages for college students. It could be marketed it as an all-in-one package for cleaning dorm rooms.
A health food store or grocery store could give away healthy meal plans and recipes for college students. Or alternatively – recipes for preparing healthy lunches for children.
Families love including their pets in holidays, birthdays, and other milestones. So a pet store could offer back-to-school merchandise for pets! Pet-smart is a great example of a store that has leveraged back-to-school. In the past, the retailer has taken advantage of the back-to-school season with their school-themed pet gear.
Want to know more about how to increase foot traffic to your store?
Editor’s Note: COVID-19 has drastically changed the retail environment and traditional methods used to increase retail sales may not be as effective as they once were. With that being said, this article has been updated with new recommendations to help retailers increase their sales during the pandemic.
Below, we’ll go over how consumers are adapting their gifting plans in light of the pandemic.
Keep reading to find out how you can increase your Mother’s Day sales by taking advantage of consumer spending habits.
4 Ways To Sell More On Mother’s Day
1) Offer Convenience
About ¼ of shoppers state that convenience is most important when picking out a Mother’s Day gift. So make it easy for busy shoppers to find a special gift – both in your store and on your website.
Consider creating a point of purchase display that features all your Mother’s Day merchandise. You can even use signage to lead shoppers to the display. This way, busy shoppers can grab and go.
If you are located in a region impacted by COVID-19 lockdowns, take advantage of your website or ecommerce store instead. In particular, displaying a Mother Day’s section on your website is a great way to increase sales. To make things convenient for your shoppers, add product recommendations. For example, dedicate a part of your website to “Top Products for Mother’s Day” or “Most Popular Gifts for Mom”.
For those retailers with ecommerce stores, highlighting popular fulfillment options on your site is another way to increase convenience. As an example, you can encourage shoppers to purchase products safely with a BOPIS option.
2) Give Your Shoppers Gifting Inspiration
More than 8 in 10 shoppers state that they are looking to retailers for gifting inspiration. You can cater to these shoppers by creating a gift guide to give your customers some ideas.
Start by creating a list of items for different types of mother figures (gifts for an aunt, grandmother, godmother, and new mom etc.). The gift guide should feature merchandise from your store but you can also include some homemade gift ideas too.
It’s important that you make it easy for shoppers to find your gift guide. Since most shoppers will be searching the web for inspiration, display the guide on your website homepage. Include a call to action such as: “Thinking about what to get mom? Check out our Mother’s Day gift guide!”
Not only will this create a better shopping experience for your customers, it will also help you appear higher up in search results.
You can also create email guides to send to your mailing list and printable guides to give to walk-in shoppers.
3) Run Google Shopping Ads For Last Minute Shoppers
With 83% of adults expected to celebrate Mother’s Day, you can bet that there will be last minute shoppers desperately searching online for gift ideas. So target local shoppers who don’t have time to spend on gift shopping by listing your products and promotions on Google with GoogleAds.
Here are some tips for driving traffic to your website or store prior to Mother’s Day:
Create a separate campaign for your Mother’s Day merchandise. This can be done with custom labels. Ultimately, this will help increase your online visibility and reduce your spending costs.
Use remarketing lists to target shoppers who are already familiar with your web site. This includes returning shoppers, previous visitors, and those who abandoned their shopping carts online.
Use descriptive titles and high-quality images.
15% of shoppers are focused on finding a cost-effective gift. So make sure your promotions are displayed through your Merchant Center.
Use holiday keywords in your title and descriptions. Consider targeting general keywords such as “Mother’s Day Gift”, “Gift Ideas for Mother’s Day”, “Mother’s Day Flowers” and so on.
That’s why it’s a great idea to create unique gift baskets for different shoppers
Some good ideas include a Mother’s Day Skincare Gift Basket and a Mother’s Day Healthy Snack Gift Basket. Click here for more Mother’s Day basket ideas.
Gift baskets are a great solution for shoppers who are unsure of what to gift their Mom. Group discounted items with regular price items in each basket. This way, shoppers feel that they are getting more than what they paid for. Not only are gift baskets convenient for shoppers, they present the perfect opportunity to up-sell and cross-sell.
Up-sell by suggesting gift baskets to every shopper in your store. Bundling products in a gift basket will help increase your store’s average order value. Cross-sell by placing smaller gift baskets near the checkout area so shoppers can easily and affordably add them to their orders.
Again, if your store is not able to operate due to COVID-19 related lockdowns, you can always highlight different gift baskets on your website or ecommerce store.
We hope you found these tips helpful. Happy Mother’s Day and happy selling!
Easter is right around the corner and after a year of COVID-19 related restrictions and lockdowns, shoppers are looking forward to celebrating safely with their friends and family. As a result, retail owners can expect to see an increase in sales.
Considering factors such as positive trends in vaccinations, new stimulus funds, as well as growing consumer confidence, the NRF’s annual Easter survey indicates that there is a lot of momentum going into the Spring. This momentum is reflected in consumer spending as 79% of shoppers are expected to celebrate, spending an average of $179.70.
Below, we’ve prepared some tips to help you gear up for the Easter holiday weekend and make the most of this year’s consumer spending habits.
To tempt more shoppers to buy from your store, consider discounting your best selling items. You can even set up a dedicated landing page or section on your website/e-commerce site so shoppers can easily browse through sale or seasonal items.
For example, Mastermind Toys set up an Easter landing page encouraging consumers to shop their Easter merchandise.
2. Reposition Your Products for Easter
Don’t sell chocolate or Easter related products? That’s ok – you don’t have to sell Easter merchandise to benefit from the holiday.
You can always position your products for Easter by finding a unique angle. For example, The Body Shop encouraged customers to celebrate the holiday by treating their loved ones and themselves with their nature inspired products.
Bath and Body Works did something similar with their slogan “Gifts For Every Bunny (And Basket)”.
3. Launch Retargeting Campaigns
It may be a good idea to attract old visitors back to your website with Easter offers and promotions. You can do so with Facebook retargeting ads.
By setting up your Facebook pixel on your website or ecommerce store, you can present different offers based on shoppers’ interaction with your site. The idea is to retarget past users based on their buying intent (e.g. visitors who added to their cart vs shoppers that initiated checkout).
If you are using TAKU eCommerce, click here to find out how to set up your Facebook pixel on your ecommerce site.
4. Promote Popular Fulfillment Options
While pandemic related restrictions and lockdowns are easing in some regions, many consumers still prefer popular fulfillment options such as buy online pick-up in-store (BOPIS), local delivery, and shipping.
You can encourage shoppers to purchase their Easter gifts safely by highlighting some of these fulfillment options on your website. For example, Indigo’s home page calls attention to the fact that shoppers can purchase their Easter items safely with a BOPIS option.
5. Launch a Giveaway on Social Media
An Easter giveaway on social media can be done with little effort and a minimal budget. For instance, you could do a classic giveaway by asking participants to tag a loved one in the comments.
Or you could do something directly related to Easter by asking your followers to guess how many Easter eggs are in a basket. Alternatively, you can apply this concept to one of your products (e.g. making followers guess the weight of chocolate, the amount of beads in a necklace etc.).
Consider boosting your social media giveaway to widen your reach and increase the number of participants.
We hope you found these tips helpful! For more helpful retail tips, you can subscribe to our blog.
