It is Valentine's Day, and the gifting season is in full swing, estimates are that total sales today will be $415 million.

But do not forget the last-minute shopper. They are not small or minor in terms of trade. The problem these people have now is that they cannot order online. They need something now, and you are local.

The odds are they are in your area looking for ideas, want to spend now, and want an instant solution. 

Here are some actionable tips you can use right now.

* Put a sign on the window, so this person knows you have something. It does not need to be flashy.

* Make a featured area with items that would be suitable and make it easy to find.

If you are not sure what to offer on that day, look at what sold well last year. It will give you some ideas.

This is easy to do in your POS system.

Go to the Register reports.

Now select "Top N Stock Sales for a Given Period".

Select last year on February 14, 2021

Out will come the top sellers for that day, they sold that day, why not this year?

* Review, remember this guy is flexible as they have little idea of what to buy.

* Offer gift wrap

* Have appropriate greeting cards on offer if possible.

Final note: Some of this stock will lose much if you do not sell it today, so watch your stock levels.

Ignoring Valentine's Day can cost you. It is dollars considered the fifth biggest shopping day in the year. COVID has shown that even in the middle of the most significant pandemic that we have all experienced with its unprecedented shakeup of our economy and all the jobs lost, consumers did not cut back their spending on Valentine's Day.

I put in Valentine's Day for Australia for this year, last year, and 2019 (pre-pandemic) in google trends. This year's outlook looks like this.

Interest is lower now but comparable to these years.

Now, if you want some ideas, see what does sell in your shop on Valentine's Day and what stock you have? It will take you seconds to find out and give you some good ideas. Remember unlike other marketing holidays, many products on Valentine's Day are still marketable afterwards if you select wisely plus many of you are well-positioned to get the *Last-minute shopper*, the guy who needs to get something at the last minute. That guy is open to ideas for a gift and requires a card.

So in your POS software, I recommend you look at the Top N stock report, which gives you the top-selling items.

Go to Register Reports marked in green.

Select stock.

Now you will see two reports, click the one on green first. The purple you should hold in memory as you may need it before placing an order.

Now select last year Valentine's day, select the top 40 items, which should be plenty. I would suggest doing it by quality sold.

Now you will get a report with top sellers over Valentine's day, plus your current stock holding to see how you stand for Valentine's day.

Also, run his report for 2019. This was in the pre-pandemic period, and one expects that this year will be a mix of last year and 2019.

Do you have a minute spare, well what is stopping you from doing this now?

Back-to-school is an important shopping occasion. In 2022, the importance of the season is increased by the unique environment we find ourselves in. 

Let us start.

Your POS System has an advanced Back to School system. 

Tip 1: Check it out

It would also be a good idea to check that you have stock for the items that parents are likely to buy for their scholars. 

Tip 2: Have the right products.

Because of the supply chain shortages, most shoppers will be planning early. So now is an excellent time to start getting ready.

Tip 3: Have stock, do not count on being able to get stock at the last minute.

What I am sure of is that this year, retailers that get a good back-to-school market will have a great jump start for the year. 

Don't let this opportunity slide!

A bad way to analyse your promotions is by guesswork and instincts in business.

What you need is proper KPIs with metrics to compare the sales for each promotion. For example, do a $20 item with $2 off do better than 10% off?

The only way to find out is what we call A/B analysis. You do option(a) for a week, then option (b) for the next week.

Then here is a quick way of finding this out.

Go to the stock system.

Select Sales Promotion here

Select reports

Fill in the dates, and now you can investigate.

The time has come to begin planning for 2022. 

The first place to look at is the holidays. The issue here is that many of these holidays dates are based on the lunar calendar, not the solar one that we use. This caused them to move in our calendar. A few years ago, this happened to one of my clients when they ordered cards for Chinese New Year. They thought it was the same as the previous year, so they got their cards too late.

So I suggest you click here. Here there is an impressive list of holidays in Australia. If you need clarification on a holiday, click on it to get a description.

If you have many customers from other countries, you can select that country to see if they have any special holidays!

I am sure you will get some good ideas here.

Today's retail season is boxing day. This is when retailers usually try to shed the remaining stock of 2021 before the product is currently due in 2022. This is probably the most important day on the Australian shopping schedule. What is needed is something bright and colourful to attract their attention. So what is recommended is that you fill their entrances with colourful merchandise to brighten the mood and bring them into the shop.

Anyway, I hope you are ready. If you want some more ideas at the last minute, then look at my previous post titled "Last-minute shoppers" here. It should give you some ideas.

While gift bags are more expensive than wrapping paper and the immediate problem is that wrapping paper has recently gone up a lot in price. So now is a good time to learn how to wrap items so you can save some money during the holiday season. 

Gift wrapping is a popular service many retailers offer.

It distinguishes its products from other retailers.

Although gift wrapping is popular all year round now is an excellent time to offer such a service. Learning to do it is not difficult and only takes a little practice. Once you get going, you may consider having * free * and * luxury * pricing services. Luxury includes a card, so a toy becomes a beautiful gift wrapped in attractive wrapping paper with a card.

This method can be used to wrap even difficult items like cups.

​
Holiday creep is when you extend the actual marketing holiday season. For example, Black Friday is over, yet many people keep pushing it long after it's gone. Why? Because Black Friday works, so retailers want more of it. Why make it a day when you can make it a weekend as above or, better yet, two weeks as below, see the green arrow.

What they are doing is changing a holiday day to a marketing season. It is working too as Black Friday sales now exceed those on Boxing Day.

So to stay competitive as a small business, you need to start your marketing early to make sure you do not lose customers who are ready to make a purchase now. Then keep up with those who will wait till the last minute of the day. After count on having something for the people that buy afterwards.

This creep strategy is so successful today as shoppers know of the problems with the supply chain. I have a client whose goods sailed from Shenzhen, China. It is now somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. What worries them is whether it will turn up soon. There is a significant loss to them if it is delayed another month.

Sometimes, you want to add a special short note on the receipt message if you sell an item. Generally, they are promotional offers but sometimes special instructions on the item. These can be specially set to be added at the bottom of the receipt. 

In our point of sale, this is easy to do.

Call up the stock item in stock maintenance, see where the green arrow is, now press the box notes. In the note and add a "^" then add your message.

Every time this printer paper is sold, a promotional offer for your ink cartridges will be added if a receipt is printed.

You can, of course, be more creative if you think about it. Because your receipt is a business document doesn't mean it has to be dull. This receipt could be your last contact with a customer, so why not leave them with an enduring impact? 

Adding a creative message can be a game-changer for your marketing policy.

Many of my clients do use Facebook marketing. When asked, they will say for them it is the cheapest and most profitable form of advertising. That is why they use it.

The first question that many who are not using Facebook advertising will ask is, can they get more people onto their Facebook business page without paying? This is tough as you will find that even with those who liked your page, few get your latest updates.

Although Facebook sees itself as an advertising medium, its main hook is for family and friends. These get priority. What is left, hundreds of million organisations worldwide with Facebook pages are all fighting to get noticed. Now a few years ago, Facebook changed their systems so that unpaid got less to try to get people to pay if they wanted to get people to see their latest stuff. This means you are competing with all these people in a smaller space.

So those that use Facebook today, what they see is what Facebook thinks most interests them. If Facebook feels what you posted is of little interest to your public and does not invite meaningful interaction, they will not display it. 

Your content has to be good to show up if you do not pay.

It is not so easy if you pay either, but that is a story for another post.

Now if you do want to use Facebook you need to test and continually review what is working. No point in using Facebook measures as really who cares how many likes you get in business if no one comes and importantly buys. So put in Facebook if possible a rarely used phone number and/or email address. Most email systems support disposable addresses without needing to register them first. This is perfect for this task.

Next is what you need to know is who did respond to your Facebook post.

Luckily our point of sale software has a very advanced system for doing this. What you need to do is enter into the POS system a Promotion ID.

Firstly you need a Promotion ID here are some tips:

- Make a unique ID for each different promotion. This will allow you to distinguish each promotion. Don’t reuse or recycle these IDs for different promotions. If you feel you must use the same ID  add a date or year after it, eg add say F2Nov2021 (F=Facebook, 2/Nov/2021 if it was first live today).  

- Once you make an ID, don't change it. 

- Do not use spaces, it can be confusing, e.g. a person was looking at Jan  2019, and it sometimes worked, and sometimes it did not. What we found was the ID was Jan 2019 (One space no, two spaces which he sometimes used)

Now in Detailed Transaction Entry see the red arrow, below for more details.

Now you see the Promotion ID. 

Enter the code when putting in the sales.

Now you can watch the transactions based on this code, letting you recognise whether you are receiving value for your efforts.

Too many people now are looking at last year when Halloween due to COVID-19 was dicey.

Today, many people are interested in Halloween costumes and makeup. Families want to join in the festivities so this is not only for children anymore but also for the parents and surprisingly for people's pets.

Most retailers are scared of these product ranges as if they do not sell over Halloween, they are stuck with unsellable items. Still, many of the popular items are not Halloween items, e.g. facepaint, vampire teeth, fairy costumes and makeup. So I would suggest while there is time to look into it.

Halloween was once considered American here, even though it's Irish. Over the years, as you can see, interest in it has been growing in Australia.

Today, it has become an annual event here too.

It is expected that Australians will spend big on this Halloween this year. What the public will be looking for are costumes, candies, decorations and greeting cards. Consider that many of the public with the conditions the way they are now will have trouble getting these products. Why not do something for Halloween?

I am sure that Australians will spend scary amounts this Halloween.

Roy Morgan has released their expected Christmas Shopping Survey. I'm sure you find this useful.

The Australian Retailers Association have provided a good visual representation of the survey results. The detailed figures are available here.

For many of you, this Christmas will be the defining moment this year.

There are some big positives this year:

1) Our vaccination rates are rapidly growing. Based on current rates, if it keeps up, we should be able to achieve 80% earlier than Christmas. This is much better than anyone thought possible, even a month ago.

2) The other big plus is the public has plenty of money. For Christmas, people will spend so some of that money should come out.

The big negatives are:

1) The new COVID variants are less lethal but more contagious. The big concern here is delta. Still, we are losing control of the situation. Despite stricter lockdowns, COVID is up. It will not disappear. It will mutate, just like the flu does every couple of years. Everyone who wants a vaccine will get it, and the rest will end up with their immunity after fighting the disease. We have to open up, and somewhere between 70% to 80% is the agreed point. That will be earlier than Christmas.

Still, this is something you need to consider for your shop. If I were in a shopping centre or a strip shop, my thoughts would be very different about the possible effects of more lockdowns on my business. Also, is my industry is classed as essential or not?

2) The supply situation. All stages of the delivery network are now reporting problems. Delays and shortages are everywhere. The public is aware of this, so we can expect that consumers fearing product availability and delivery delays will start to buy early.

Currently, most forecasts are for higher holiday retail sales than last year.

This is why I am saying that it is time to think about Christmas.

Don’t let this Christmas be a retail nonevent for your business!

Parcel delivery updates are generally emails. These are sent to people to tell them where their parcel is and the expected delivery details. 

Today most people appreciate getting them. 

So if you are sending your customers goods by courier or doing it yourself, it is good to send them. You can use our POS Software to do it, or you can forward to your customer the information as you get it by email. 

Here are some benefits

) It provides an appreciated service to your customer. 

) Provides a personal touch to your business.

) It reduces the amount of work you need to do. Customers with this tracking information will generally contact the courier company directly if there is a problem - this sort of keeps you out of the problem loop. 

) It puts your name out to an engaged customer. For this reason, always put a picture of your shop or logo with your details in the email. Also, set in the email a link to your social media, e.g. Facebook page. 

) It provides you with an excuse to get your customer's email for both future marketing and accounting reasons.

I do not see any downside.

You have a good reason to contact your customer; why not use it? 
 

At the end of the upcoming fiscal year, make a marketing plan for the next few weeks. Do they work? Well, look at any large retailer, these people have heaps of experience in this matter, what are they doing? Would they do all this advertising if it did not work?

If it works for them, why not you?

Take a look around your shop for some loss leaders to fuel the sale.

Need some ideas? Here is something that will take you a few seconds to give you these ideas.

Go to register reports > stock titled "Old Stock on hand by Date last received"

This will gives you a listing of your stock based on when you received it. Unfortunately, this stock is rarely doing you much good, and it often costs you to keep it.

Here are some ideas for you to season your EOFY sale.

1) What about making some of this into a bundle by putting some of these with something that does sell.

2) Make a bargain bin.

3) Use them as specials

Now put them out and put a sign on your shop.

Let me know how it goes. I doubt you will be sorry you try, but I am sure you will be sorry if you do not try it!

Everyone is trying to get some more retail sales. One of the most effective methods is tripwire marketing.

How to set up a tripwire marketing campaign?

What you are doing here is making a cheap item, a bargain for shoppers. The idea here is that people who do not know you. They have never experienced your products and services, so they do not buy from you.

They do not know you; so they do not buy from you. That is where the tripwire comes in.

What it is, is a cheap item that is low-risk that potential customers will buy. The purpose of tripwires is an introductory offer. 

Firstly you need to find such a product. A good way of starting is to look at your top-selling products. This is easy to do in our point-of-sale system.

Go to Register reports

Now select "Top N Stock Sales for a Given Period"

Now in the form put in last month.

Now a report comes out that looks like this with your top sellers listed.

Now a report comes out that looks like this with your top sellers listed.

Now see the sort of products here. 

This gives you an idea of what people will buy from you and at what a price.

Now see if you can find such a product. 

All you want from that product is a sale to build trust with the public to make the first sale. Then hopefully recurring purchases will follow.

Try it, good luck, and let me know how it went for you.

CRM is short for Customer Relationship Management.

You all have a CRM software written for retail that we supplied to you *FREE*.

Why not try it out?

Consider this if you go to a corporate and talk to their retail executives and experts there. What you will find is that these people know about retail. Often they have heaps of years in retail. Behind them are many experts that are giving them scientific information. They know retail. 

These people do not think its enough to have a shop and then wait for people to visit them. This is, unfortunately, is what so many SMB retailers do. What they feel is that people need to be enticed to come to their shops. So they look at how to give these people a reason to visit and shop with them. This can be expensive so what they need is a way of measuring how they are going. What they want is to make changes and then see how it goes. Then they want to know if these changes did or didn't work and also why. This is partly why they need CRM. 

Also, they want to build up loyal customers as it is said, "Good customers are as rare as latinum (Gold) - treasure them". A retail CRM system is required to find and build loyalty. A customer that comes regularly is worth much more to your business than the big buyer who comes once.

CRM today is the key to managing business communication in modern retail. 

Shops that had a CRM are doing much better during our COVID world than those who did not have one. I bet they will continue to do better in the POST-COVID world too.

Why not give it a try?

My post on the need of item sales information caused a lot of inquiries. 

-The problem is that besides sales, many people want to know the items that sell the most.

-The items that give the most profit, stock turns, etc., in a category, department, location, etc.

So go to Register reports > Stock> Top N Stock Sales for a Given Period.

Let us say you want to know, for this range, what sells the more by quantity, well it is easy to find out. Click "Select Top By" above and click "Units Sold". Retail experts call this the vote. They consider that the shoppers are when they buy they vote on that item. That is considered to be why people are coming into your shop. 

I think a more meaningful measure is the profit item below it. This shows the things that are producing money for you. 

A useful idea that works is to put near the best selling item, the most profitable items.

I do suggest that you try out these options above now and experiment with them.

This is the Last minute shopper, you know the person that decides to go shopping for Chinese New Year or Valentine's Day in the last few minutes in a mad rush. 

I've been there myself, thrown out of the house and told to come up with a suitable gift for the occasion. 

This is good news for savvy shop manager ready for this last-minute rush. Here are some tips.

1. Put a sign on the window, so this person knows you have something.

2. Make a featured area with items suitable and easy to find outside on a stand. 

If you are not sure what to offer on that day, see what sold well last year on that day, it will give you some ideas.

This is easy in our POS system.

Go to Register reports.

Now select "Top N Stock Sales for a Given Period".

Select the day. 

Outcomes a report with the top sellers for that day 

3. Offer clear gift alternatives, remember often this shopper has little idea of what to buy. 

4. Offer gift wrap

5. Have appropriate greeting cards on offer if possible.

Final note: Much of the stock is lost if you do not sell on the day, so consider doing deals.