from Mondelez SA Be Sales Savvy this Holiday Season

MARKETING

BE SALES SAVVY THIS HOLIDAY SEASON Up your holiday marketing plan, give thanks to your customers and increase your sales at the same time with these fun tips and tricks.

The holiday season is here, and our customers are relaxed and spending more than they usually do. So, how do you get a piece of that money pie and get them to spend some of their holiday cash with you? No matter how big or small your establishment is, there are a few simple yet effective marketing gems you can implement that will have your customers coming back for more.

Everyone is going mobile

Recent statistics show that almost 90% of South African consumers have mobile phones. Mobile marketing is extremely important and efficient, and all you need is some personal contact details which is easily attainable by running a competition, where your customers give their personal details to enter.

Create a loyalty card programme for your business

Millions of South Africans use loyalty programmes, and large retailers have the country’s biggest rewards programmes. But what exactly is a loyalty programme? While the specifics of each programme may differ, the premise remains the same: a loyalty programme is a marketing system instituted by a business that rewards purchasing behaviour, thus increasing the customer’s urge to stay loyal to the business. It is up to you, as the business owner, on how you want to reward loyalty. It can be something as simple as a bar voucher, an airtime voucher, a shopping voucher or a specific product. Punch cards are affordable and you can personalise them. Loyalty programmes will help you to gauge who your customer is, how often they shop and what they purchase.

Ramp up your seasonal merchandising

Create specially decorated seasonal and holiday displays to promote services and products throughout the year. Mix it up and change these displays regularly. Move your displays and products around as you clean and dust. Make sure you have last-minute product displays that change regularly at your checkout counter.

Sharing is caring

Most retailers don’t realise that some of the best promotions happen when they tie in with other retailers in their area. Working with competitors to bring awareness to shopping in your town with people who live there can be lucrative for everyone. Get all the township traders together in support of local events and traditions.

Utilise cross-merchandising to increase sales

Cross-merchandising is the retail practice of marketing or displaying products from different categories together, to generate additional revenue for the store. The main objective is to link different products that complement each other or can logically be used in association, such as peanut butter placed nearby loaves of bread. This strategy also aims to improve overall customer experience, by enabling them to pick up related goods in the same place, instead of having to spend time searching for them.