The National Retail Federation predicts holiday sales will increase 4.1 percent (to $616.9 billion) this year, a full percentage higher
Sephora’s “Giftopia” campaign with pre-packaged goodies of four to five popular items from the store sold like hot cakes last yearfrom last year. With a huge opportunity for profit, large retailers are fighting tooth and nail for consumers to spend their holiday budgets on their businesses.
At Shopify.com, Shilpi Tomar, a content strategist for creative brands, said smaller businesses should be prepping now to get a piece of that action. She recently collected top ideas from major brands that smaller companies can steal and tweak to capitalize on holiday spending.
Wrap and go. According to the Journal of Psychology & Marketing, consumers viewing beautiful packaging have had more intense brain activity than neutral packaging. Product packaging has a strong influence on how customers feel about products, and should be valued even more strongly during the holiday season.
Example to emulate: Sephora’s “Giftopia” campaign with pre-packaged goodies of four to five popular items from the store sold like hot cakes last year. Why? The company made gift-giving easy and selected the staff’s top picks in each box.
Create a video. Eye-catching videos can make your brand stand out from the crowd. A small budget and a creative mind can go a long way when promoting your store, so if your video is distinctly humorous or clever enough and aligns with your brand you can have a recipe for a heavily-shared video.
Example to emulate: Movie and show-streaming website Netflix did an incredible job last year providing a trailer for a fireplace. The idea was so simple and elegantly executed, that it racked up over 250,000 views. If you notice, the video only includes shots of the fireplace and “reviews” so the excuse of a low budget can’t be made on this one.
Need additional inspiration? Check out how the team at Tiger Lily Florist in Charleston, South Carolina, used YouTube to give its customers a behind-the-scenes look at the shop’s wedding and event business and busy spring season.
Pin to win. According to marketing & analytics tool Piqora, each “pin” a user attaches to his or her Pinterest boards is worth (on average) $0.78 in additional sales to the brand whose merchandise is featured. That’s almost an extra dollar worth of sales for each pin.
Example to emulate: Last year, Topshop, a UK-based women’s fashion retailer, used Pinterest to power its online gift guide. They attached oversized tags to the most pinned in-store merchandise, and included a giant touchscreen in Topshop New York and London, which allowed shoppers to pin while shopping in store. They incentivized shoppers by including a contest in which users included #DearTopshop when pinning items from the retailer to add the item to their wishlist. Not only did these ideas retain loyal shoppers, but also drove hefty amounts of traffic to their social sites. While the giant touch screen might not be feasible for every business, the Pinterest tags in-store and social media campaign can be used by anyone.
Read about how some florists are using Pinterest to increase sales and build awareness online.
