The festive season brings in lots of business — which is mostly a good thing — but also comes with some challenges, from long queues, inventory management to tired employees, just to name a few.
If you’re in the midst of preparing for a busy Black Friday (and the Festive Season rush), we’d like to help. Our team has put together a quick guide on trends to look out for and tips on how you can prepare your business for this peak shopping day.
Manage the crowds with Square
Long queues — nobody likes them and they are not a great customer experience. So what can you do about it? Here are a couple of tips:
- Use Team Management to allow more staff to take payments on either side of the counter. Free and paid plans for Team Management are available as well as a 30-day free trial.
- Offer multiple ways to pay — that can be getting additional hardware, or creating QR code so customers can scan and pay for items.
- For Food and Beverage sellers, create QR codes with Square Online to allow your customers to view the menu and order online, which will help cut down the time spent at the register.
Spread the word on social media
People are shopping on social media more than ever. Instagram, TikTok or Facebook isn’t just a useful medium to interact with customers — they can make shopping easier:
- Use Instagram Shopping to highlight new products or special items for sale and sell them directly from shoppers’ feeds.
- Let your customers know about any deals or promotions you have and changes to your business hours on your social channels. You can also use marketing tools to stay connected with your customers (and don’t forget to take advantage of the free 30-day trial of Square Marketing).
- If you’re concerned about getting an influx of customers all at once, consider extending your promotions for longer to space out traffic. Use email and in-store marketing to make sure customers know you’ll honour promotional pricing even after Black Friday. 📅
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Keep customers coming back
Get into the festive spirit by giving gifts to your loyal customers and to keep your new customers from coming back:
- Black Friday is an ideal opportunity to thank your loyal customers for being part of your journey with an exclusive surprise deal, such as an extra discount.
- Likely to have winter weather? Offer free coffee and hot chocolate for your customers in-store to create an inviting and memorable environment. ☕
- Use Square Loyalty to reward repeat customers and motivate them to come back. You can offer loyalty stars per visit or amount spent and customize the type of reward you offer. There’s a 30-day free trial for Loyalty too, so you can see if it’s a good fit!
- Thank your employees for their hard work, especially during the long days of the busy season. Make sure you’re listening to them and helping create a great working environment. Happy employees = happy customers! 😊
Hear from other sellers
See how other businesses handle Black Friday — you may find something that will help you with your business when the big day arrives.
