For many merchants, the holiday season from Thanksgiving through New Year’s generates approximately 40% of their annual sales. As the holiday season is quickly approaching, make sure your business doesn't get caught off-guard by making preparations now. Black Friday is just around the corner so don't wait until it's too late. The following tips will help you plan for a productive and profitable season without the headaches.
1. Evaluate your previous year’s performance for any big picture needs:
- Do you have enough areas to process all types of payments? Should you add another terminal or wireless processor in a new aisle or can you create a cash-only lane? Be creative to your specific situation.
- Make sure you have enough supplies in stock, such as terminal paper; this is not the time to run out.
- Are you offering enough payment options? Should you expand the card types you accept? Or should you add another payment option such as EPS90 No Credit Check EZ Payment Plan to bring in more customers? Remember, the more payment options you have available, the more customers are able to buy.
- Promoting $5 or $10 gift card giveaways to the first 20 or more customers is a small cost to bring shoppers in. Or tie the gift card giveaway to a purchase where they have to spend $50 to get a $10 gift card. You can also make it redeemable at later date like week after Christmas or the first week of January. This promotion doesn't cost anything until the gift card is actually redeemed, so it either brings customers back to shop again or doesn't cost anything. With either promotion, the cost is well worth it as the majority of shoppers end up spending more than the card value. Just make sure you have plenty gift cards preloaded ahead of time for efficiency.
- Utilize social media to get the word out about your promotions. If you run any other advertisements, make sure to include it there as well.
- Hire and train new hires now - don't wait until the last minute. Stopping the line during rush time to teach your new employees how to run a gift card transaction or how to change the terminal paper is definitely not optimal.
- Make sure your employees are capable of processing every type of payment transaction you have available quickly and efficiently as shoppers tend to get frustrated in slow checkout lines. The check out experience can make a lifelong customer or lose one so use your less experienced, seasonal holiday employees to help customers in other areas, if possible.
- Institute refund policies ahead of time so employees know the process to follow. For instance, require manager approval for refunds. And training employees to always offer store credit or exchange items first rather than simply refunding money back is a good way to keep sales.
- Eliminate the after-holiday bill shock by planning ahead and expecting a higher than usual payment processing cost. Tripling business over the season is really great, especially since these months typically account for more than a third of yearly sales, but save yourself some aggravation afterwards by being prepared for the higher bill as well. Keep in mind that as your sales increase, so do the cost associated with payment processing.
- If you think your current processing rates are too high, shop around and switch now. Typically a new merchant account is set-up in 72 hours or less and lowering your rates can save you a lot of money as your processing hits its all time high. If you're not sure about your rates or are confused over what your true processing cost are, call EPS for a free statement analysis, there is no obligation and understanding your rates is extremely important for any business owner.
Click to learn more about how EPS90 No Credit Check EZ Payment Plan can increase your businesses profits. Or call us for a FREE statement analysis at 800-863-5995 to see how much money you could be saving on your processing cost - we guarantee the lowest processing rates or will give free processing for a year!
