Entering the middle of Ramadan, preparations for the month of Ramadan are getting busier. Usually, people will start going to shopping centers to buy various needs ranging from Eid clothes, Eid cakes, prayer equipment, and others. Maybe you’re doing it too. However, as a retail business owner, you need different preparations because the retail business during Eid experienced a high increase. One of the things you need is marketing to customers. You can send newsletters to your customers or quote prices according to the customer’s purchase history in the CRM system.
Maybe you’re doing it too right now. However, if you are a retailer, maybe you need an extra preparation.
Eid can be a momentum for retail business to levitate their profit. Several large retail companies in Indonesia, in Eid 2024, could achieved more than 80% of increase.
For this year, the Deputy Chair of APRINDO, the Indonesian retail association, claimed that the growth that retail business will relatively the same as last years. It depends on what they sell. Food and drink store can increase up to 50% while clothing can reach 200% to 300%. Interesting isn’t it?
However, to be able to maximize these opportunities, you must have an extra preparation. Here are 10 tips on how retail business can prepare for the big day.
Table of Content
1. Hire Extra Help
Most of the time, the number of employees you own would probably be not sufficient to handle the crowd. Hence, do not hesitate to recruit people who would match your criteria. You can hire them for a short-term contract.
2. Train All Employees
Because your employees need to work on so many things, customers in your store are could be unintentionally neglected. Therefore, training the employee is a priority that must be prepared well.
Train employees how to serve and greet the customers. If your employees are good in doing it, the risk of your customers turns to your company will reduce.
The following are things that must be emphasized when giving a training:
- How to welcome customers
- How to sell goods
- How to identify theft
3. Set Your Store Hours
If you’re store operates in a mall, you probably already have the fixed hour. If you’re store is independent, you can consider to open it longer than the usual. Refer to your last year sales to see if it’s necessary or not. Well, the longer you open, the more sales you can have.
4. Set Your Employee Schedule in Busy Hours
You must schedule the busy hours of your store and then determine how many employees you need during that period. The less time your customers spend in waiting, the more satisfied they are.
Therefore, you can make shift schedules for your employees so they can interact with your customers more efficiently.
5. Decorate Your Store
Your customer will definitely be interested in shopping in your store if you set up an attractive decoration. Design your shop as good as you can but prioritize your customer’s convenience.
You can put posters that intrigues your customers, answer their questions, or make them touch or hold your product.
Don’t forget to “decorate” your website. If your customers check your website and it turns out that your website is still having Lunar vibes, they would probably close your website as soon as possible.
6. Prepare Your Strategy in the “Battlefield”
There are several situations that requires everyone’s attention from every level. Here are the three of them:
- Be ready. Make sure your employees are focused during the work hour with the customers. If they experience any difficulty while shopping, or wave their hands as a sign that they need help, your employees must be ready to serve them.
- Approaching the Eid, your store will be vehemently crowded. It can be a chance for thieves to steal your items. Therefore, make sure you have a good preparation and a fixed regulation in handling theft.
- Running out of stock. With an increasing demand, you might have to face low stock situation because you have no idea how the selling in this year is like. To tackle this, you might want to consider inventory management system to predict the sales and easy inventory tracking.
7. Give Your Customers Tips in Shopping
Providing your customer shopping guide will be a good idea to attract them because some people have no idea what to shop for the Eid.
For example, you can give them suggestion what to wear for men in EID, what accessories or scarf for women, or even outfits for kids. You can give the suggestion through instagrammable pictures and captivating caption.
You can make schedule to promote items in your website or social media. However, do not stuck in those two platforms. You can send newsletter to your customer of personalized price offer based on their purchase history in the CRM system.
Read more: Benefits of Marketing Automation for your Retail Business
Conculsion
The closer to Lebaran, retail businesses will usually get a jump in sales in contrast to usual days. Consequently, you must prepare your inventory of goods and employees properly. Retail software from HashMicro can automate your retail business operations, from stock management to marketing. This system can also simplify the collection and collection of inventory that you will sell.
