For many retailers and consumer-facing businesses, the busiest shopping season kicks off with Black Friday (in South Africa that’s Friday, 23 November) and its extension over the weekend to include Cyber Monday (Monday, 26 November).

These two days represent the official start to the festive holiday season, with only five weekends left before Christmas. This is your opportunity as a retailer to join in on the spending frenzy and make money.

To help you out with this, the team at Arc Interactive has compiled a list of marketing tips, tricks and pointers to help you get an early start and capitalise on the largest shopping season of the year.

Here’s 11 top tips for capitalising on the largest shopping season of the year in your retail store:

1. Have a really great offer

Having a great offer will instantly capture attention. Consumers are looking for big bargains during this time, so a stingy 5% off won’t cut it.

2. Let your customers know you're having a sale

Let consumers know that you're having your sale well ahead of time. This gives them enough time to plan for it financially, as well as think about what they’d like to purchase from you.

3. Bundle products together

Put products together (that make sense) for an easy up-sell strategy.

4. Partner with other businesses

If you’re a small retail business trying to cut through the noise, consider partnering up with other small businesses and focus your efforts on a common goal. The greater the number of participating business, the more appealing your offer will appear.

5. Extend your hours

If you have a retail store or outlet, consider extending your operating hours during this period. Staying open until later in the evening gives more customers an opportunity to shop.

6. Offer something special

Offer something special or unique in order to stand out from the crowd. This could be free gift wrapping, a free gift with each purchase, etc.

7. Create hype

Create hype with some build-up strategies such as playing the FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) factor with promo codes, free gifts and other incentives, as well as sneak peeks to build anticipation.

8. Create gift guides

Make gift guides according to specific interests, such as 'gifts for green-loving enthusiasts', 'gifts for foodies', 'gifts for Crossfit lovers', 'gifts for her', 'gifts for him', 'homemaker and hostess gifts', etc.

9. Host hourly flash sales

Host flash sales on the hour and create hype around this by keeping your customers posted on social media.

10. Hire extra staff

Consider hiring extra temporary staff for the Black Friday weekend if you’re a huge retail outlet in a busy mall. Long waiting times at queues may deter potential customers, and there’s nothing worse for your employees than having to control a mosh-pit in-store.

11. Remember your strengths

Play to your unique strengths and don't try and compete with the big box retailers – especially not when it comes to price slashing.

There you have it. Our top tricks for prepping your retail store so you can get the most out of this intense shopping season.

For more information, visit www.arcinteractive.co. You can also follow Arc Interactive on Facebook, Twitter or on Instagram.     

*Image courtesy of Vecteezy