This year Black Friday falls on 25th November and it will mark the start of the 4 busiest weeks of the year for most retailers. A trend from across the pond which has grown significantly in popularity here in UK since the Credit Crunch is now the biggest day of trade for many stores. The flip side is that shoppers have come to expect discounts and are unlikely to spend much money in the first half of November. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing as it means you still have 3 weeks left to prep so here’s our list of top tricks to get your brand is ready for the Christmas rush.

❄ Reward your best customers. 

Everyone loves a freebie so why not offer a gift to anyone who spends over a certain amount in your store. Not only will this make those shelling out the most on your products feel valued but also incentivise other people to part with more cash.

❄ Promote your best sellers.

Whether you have a market stall, web store or retail outlet your most popular products should be displayed in a prominent place and easily accessible. There more hoops people have to jump through to get to what they’re looking for the more time they have to change their mind or be distracted by another item. 

❄ Carry stock across a wide range of price points.

This is the perfect time make small additions to your store. You want to be be able to appeal to various budgets so if the bulk of your stock is t-shirts and hoodies why not branch out into tote bags, zip cases (pictured) or tea towels (we can supply various styles and colours for screen printing). Equally if the bulk of of your stock is screen prints create smaller more affordable variations of your most popular pieces or a range of printed notebooks or Christmas cards.

❄ Get involved with holiday promotions.

Plan which items you’re going to discount for Black Friday and Cyber Monday and create social media ready graphics. If you have a mailing list let your customers know a day in advance so their debit cards are at the ready.

❄ Anticipate demand.

This might seem like a super obvious one but you want to make sure that you’re fully stocked on all sizes. Our current turnaround time is 15 working days so if there’s anything you’re running low on place your order today so you’ll have it in time for the busy period. Remember there’s no screen set-up fee for reprints so depending on your design this shouldn’t be too costly.

❄ Offer seasonal extras.

How good are your gift wrapping skills? Is there any way that you can offer personalisation of your products? These are all little things which will not only give the customer a better experience but it’s also create a new range of services you can charge for.

❄ For more info about the services mentioned in this post email sales@3rdrailclothing.co.uk ❄