For many Filipinos, the shopping experience is more than just a simple one that involves picking and purchasing products. There’s an entire culture around bargain finds, gift-giving, and even what are regarded as “shopping holidays.” On top of specific holidays, like Christmas and Valentine’s Day, Pinoy shopaholics typically mark the following events on their online shopping calendars:
- Payday sales at the middle and end of each month
- Midyear or end-of-season sales
- Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, which are traditions adopted from the United States
- Monthly double-digit sales (e.g. 8.8, 9.9., 11.11, and 12.12)
For up-and-coming retail businesses—especially those run by women and mompreneurs—shopping holidays are golden opportunities for increasing revenues and growing a startup brand. All the same, running campaigns and launching promotions on shopping holidays can come with their fair share of hassles. Some problems you can expect to encounter during a big shopping event are surges in orders, increased chances of miscommunication between customers and staff, shipping delays, and overloaded e-commerce website servers.
To address these obstacles and to ensure seamless and enjoyable shopping holidays for your customers, here are some strategies you can implement to ready your boutique, online store, or pop-up store. These will help you secure the best chances for profit and for standing out in the growing sea of retailers out there.
1) Diversify and Streamline Your Payment Process
Oftentimes, customers experience increased frustration at checkout during shopping holidays. Knowing that crowds of shoppers may also be taking advantage of the same deals, customers may already dread waiting in line for longer than usual just to pay for their items. Online shoppers, on the other hand, may have difficulty accessing their typical checkout options because of the sheer volume of people visiting a retailer’s e-commerce website. For these reasons, you should consider integrating payment systems and features, like payment links, that can diversify and streamline your payment process.
When you offer different payment solutions, like a link for payment over a messaging app, your customers will enjoy greater control over their checkout process. This can significantly improve their shopping experience, thus increasing their chances of making a repeat purchase from you. Many of the latest payment solutions are also designed to be fast and easy to use, which means that it’s possible to finish transactions in an instant. As a result, you’ll be able to handle more transactions and improve your bottom line per shopping event.
There are a variety of payment systems and features that you can choose from, but depending on the type of business you run, some might suit your needs better than the rest. For example, if you’re a mompreneur with your own pop-up fashion store, you can make use of cashless payment solutions like Payment Links by Maya. This system allows you to bill your customers by sending a free payment link through their preferred messaging app. When your customer clicks on the link for payment, they’ll be directed to their chosen online payment platform to complete the transaction.
If you own an online store that specializes in baby products, on the other hand, you can make use of a third-party payment plugin that allows your customers to complete their payments through their credit cards, debit cards, or e-wallets. Your customers will remember the convenience they experienced during a shopping holiday and will consequently see your brand in a positive light.
2) Optimize Your Inventory Management
Whether you own a brick-and-mortar shop or run an online store, there’s no denying the role of effective inventory management when it comes to achieving complete customer satisfaction. This especially applies during shopping holidays, when you feel the pressure to have more items available.
A good inventory management strategy enables you to stock up on your products promptly—especially items that are high in demand—so that you can avoid the shortages that often lead to missed sales opportunities. An optimized inventory will also prevent you from overstocking, reducing your chances of damage or spoilage in the middle of shopping holiday fever.
To know how many items you need and when to stock them, consider utilizing historical sales data and predictive analytics features to accurately forecast demand for various products. A solid understanding of your target audience’s purchasing trends will make you better at anticipating the volume of orders you’ll receive during a shopping holiday.
You should also invest in an inventory tracking system that allows you to monitor stock levels in real time. This way, you can restock quickly when needed, maximizing your brand’s sales potential per shopping holiday as a result.
3) Choose Good Logistics Providers
Collaborating with reputable logistics providers is a must during shopping holidays. The best logistics and shipping providers will have sufficient resources to ensure smooth and timely deliveries to your customers. Your choice of logistics partners, especially during shopping holiday crunches, will reflect either positively or negatively on your brand. You’ll want the former to apply so that your customers can associate your brand with their best-ever shopping experiences.
It’s in your best interest to strengthen the partnership you have between you and your providers. Not only will this make communication easier and enhance customers’ confidence in your brand; it’ll also put you in a great position to receive discounts on your shipments, which will ultimately improve your margins.
4) Level Up Your Business’s Customer Service Readiness and Responsiveness
Providing exceptional customer service is a must for both brick-and-mortar and online retailers during shopping holidays. If you and your team are properly prepared to handle the chaos that can ensue during big sales, you’ll be able to establish good rapport with your customers and achieve positive recognition for your brand.
As such, it’s a good idea to increase your customer service resources, both in-house and online, so you can handle the anticipated influx of inquiries, order tracking requests, and potential technical issues that come with shopping holidays. You can also implement live chat features to assist online shoppers, ensuring that their questions are addressed clearly and promptly.
Though your first shopping holiday as a retailer will come with its fair share of challenges, mastering these events will help you earn big bucks and achieve great publicity for your brand. Your performance during shopping holidays can cement your position as an up-and-coming retailer in a particular niche—
like mom fashion or inclusive beauty products—and make your brand a top choice among members of your target market all year round.
Leave a Reply