3. Set up eCommerce on your website.
If your website lacks an e-commerce component, get one set up now. Make sure all the items that you’re going to advertise, including gifts certificates/cards are available to be put in the cart all the way through Cyber Monday.
4. Focus on Small Business Saturday.
Another option might be to follow in the path of national sporting goods retailer and tree hugging co-op REI with their recent decision to close not only on Thanksgiving Day but Black Friday as well. And make a big conservative “Chick-fil-A” deal out of it in your print and online advertising. Let your current and potential customers know much you think of your employees during the holidays.
Plan your campaign to open on the increasingly more important and nationally hyped “Small Business Saturday,” conceived by American Express and now in its sixth year. AmEx has a thorough website dedicated solely to this great idea filled with all kinds of clever marketing ideas. You can even see what sellers in your area are doing and band together. Opening the next day … Sunday … might work too if you’re in an area with strong foot traffic.
5. Make it a staff party atmosphere.
Bring in your whole crew including even your family to work this. No retail experience necessary. Make it an event for them. Buy lunch. Pay bonuses. Maybe even commission and/or profit sharing for their time. Hey, it’s Christmas!
And on that ho-ho-ho note, hire a Santa Claus so your customers can get their free Santa pictures with the kids. These can cost anywhere from $20 to $40 at the mall. Or ask for a small charitable donation for a community cause. Good guaranteed Santas from an agency run between $125 and $150 an hour and are worth the investment. Stuffing a pillow in Uncle Joe’s cheap Santa suit, let alone allowing him to wear a fake beard and hair, will turn off more customers than not.
6. Promote it.
Advertise, advertise, advertise. Tell your old customers via both e-mail announcements and even direct snail mail if you have the time and budget.
Consider a small ad in your local daily newspaper. Put it in the sports section, not run-of-paper (ROP) which gives the paper full control over your ad’s placement. With ROP you will more likely than not get lost in a sea of small ads. And even if you’ve never advertised before, do not pay the open rate. You should get at least an ad agency discount of 15 percent even if the paper composes your ad from scratch. Newspapers need the business too, but be sure to heed their deadlines for the best deal. The same rule all hold true for traditional terrestrial (AM or FM) radio.
Follow all this up with a promotion on the social coupon sites like Groupon and LivingSocial. Again, the car electronics guys are doing this with car starters, back-up cameras and other stuff that is as cool as yours. Run this promotion through Super Bowl Sunday. These sites are struggling a bit so deals can be made.
If your foray into retail on Black Friday weekend shows promise, consider doing it again on the last shopping weekend before Christmas as well as the week after Christmas into New Year’s Eve to get some generic gift card action.
Who knows? You might grow to like this retail thing and become the next Crazy Eddie—hopefully without the fraud conviction.
Author Chuck Schneider is a freelance writer with a long history in consumer electronics. He started and restarted his award-winning manufacturer’s representative firm, Value Added Marketing, and was also a vice president and general merchandise manager for a multi-regional CE chain, as well as a buyer for Lechmere’s (a division of Target).
