5 Christmas Sales Ideas for Small Businesses

Did you know more than one third of British shoppers actually leave gift buying until the last minute?

This means small businesses can benefit hugely by offering discounts and deals right up until Christmas Day. Are you stuck for Christmas sales ideas? Can’t decide how best to communicate Christmas marketing campaigns? Take a little inspiration from our top 5 Christmas Sales Ideas for Small Businesses.

Gift Guides

There are plenty of creative opportunities to make your gift guides stand out this holiday season. Instead of tailoring your gift guides by gender or relationship you could tailor them by personality e.g. “gifts for chocaholics” or “gifts for adventurers”. You could even use short quizzes/questionnaires that users can fill out with details of their gift recipient’s preferences and include multiple products at a discount as part of gift bundles.

Mystery Savings

“Click here to claim your mystery discount!”

Mystery savings are a classic example of gamification in marketing. Here, an offer is turned into a ‘prize’ rewarded through the simple act of clicking a link. Mystery savings can be communicated on site, on social media, or via email marketing. Randomly assigned mystery savings can be used to generate click throughs and engagement on social media with posts encouraging users to share which mystery saving they got.

(Fred Meyer Mystery Discount Offer)

New & Loyal Customer Deals

It can be very difficult to offer marketing incentives for new customers with no data to go on. That’s why we recommend offering sign-up deals and using this as an opportunity to A/B test discounts. By offering one half of customers a “10% new customer discount” and the other half “free shipping on your first order” you can identify which deals are more likely to convert to sales.

Similarly, you can encourage repeat business by offering deals or discounts for existing customers. Discounts can be personalised for existing customers by using their browsing/purchasing history, allowing you to show your audience deals on the products they are most likely to purchase.

Time Sensitive Offers

Customers often pause or take breaks during online shopping to think purchases over and this can lead to abandoned baskets. Time sensitive deals or limited time offers, however, create sensations of urgency or scarcity, encouraging consumers to act promptly when making purchases due to a psychological phenomenon known as “loss aversion”.

There are a few different ways you can use limited/timed offers in your sales campaigns. You can discount a different set of products every day or hold flash sales that last for a few hours at a time. Alternatively, you can run “last in stock” sales with a limited number of products on offer.

Host an Offline Event

According to a survey by JLL Retail, 57.3% of consumers plan on visiting stores this Christmas. You can incentivise customers to visit you with Christmas themed events and in-store exclusives. Everybody is looking for an opportunity to party this season so why not dedicate a bit of that marketing budget to hosting an in-store Christmas light switch on with a free glass of fizz and mince pies?

The Digital Marketing team here at Platform81 are experts when it comes to generating Christmas sales. Want to supercharge your marketing strategy? Contact us today!