Customers love the summer because it’s the best time to shop. However, things aren’t quite so cut and dried for shops and vendors. Customers’ spending on recreational pursuits and service-based enterprises annually contribute to a nationwide sales slump in the summer in the USA.
It’s not uncommon for things like sporting events, festivals, outdoor dining, concerts, vacations, travel arrangements, and picnics to take precedence over shopping. A summer season, however, need not translate into a summer profit. You may easily keep or even increase your summer earnings by employing a few tried-and-true sales methods.
The effectiveness of your summer advertising initiatives is highly dependent on getting started one to two months in advance. There will be plenty of time to prepare for setbacks, devise cash-flow-conscious methods, and publicize impending discounts to early birds.
The summertime may be a slower time for some people’s buying habits, but that doesn’t mean they stop posting on social media. Customers posting images of their vacations, graduations, and holidays contribute significantly to the volume of activity.
Develop a comprehensive posting schedule for your social media accounts in order to raise your visibility. When people are looking through the postings that their friends have made, they will notice yours and be persuaded to make a purchase.
Make summertime-specific variants of your merchandise.
The release of a limited edition product can generate excitement in your shop. For example, Starbucks has specialized coffee blends and snack products that are only available during the summertime. In 2017, they formed a collaboration with fashion designer Lilly Pulitzer to produce a limited edition water bottle that was an instant hit with customers.
Host summer contests
Everyone enjoys the feeling of having won something, so consider holding a contest that will encourage word-of-mouth advertising.
People who visit your store should be offered the chance to win a free reward by participating in a raffle. Hold a photo contest on your Facebook or Instagram page and invite users to submit pictures from their trips, as well as pictures of their children, dogs, and other family members. Give a prize to the photo that receives the most likes on the social media platform. You might even organize a contest or giveaway on your website in the hope of luring customers into your actual business.
Increase the discounts you’re offering on products that aren’t moving.
The summer months are famed for their abundance of bargains, and with good reason: these sales bring in people who are looking for deals. Create a promotion calendar for your brand if doing so is something that makes sense for your business. This calendar should include discounts, special offers, coupons, gifts, and/or bundles.
Create a customer loyalty program if you don’t already have one, and think about rewarding customers with double points on specific days of the week.
Provide summer coupons
A well-planned coupon distribution campaign can result in increased sales and strengthen consumer loyalty. Make sure that you remind your consumers about the coupon offers you have available, whether you provide them on a weekly or monthly basis or provide them all during the summer.
Here are some ideas to consider:
- Coupons for first-time purchasers
- Promotions based on referrals
- Minimum purchase coupons
- Coupons in return for social media following or evaluations of a product or service
Make deals based on themes.
Consider generating limited-time offers with a certain theme that are only available on certain days, similar to how New Year’s Eve features a countdown. This is the part of the theme where your creativity may really shine, and it all depends on the things that you sell.
For instance, an outdoor gear store may choose to base each sale day’s theme on the type of outdoor personas to which they cater, such as rock climbers, cyclists, bikers, or cave divers. Your ability to come up with inventive daily themes and interesting items to put on sale will directly correlate to how well your promotions will attract customers’ attention.
Pro Tip:
A countdown timer is a great way to drive more sales. It’s simple, but it works! Create your sales page and add the countdown timer. KILATECH Apps provides one of the most popular Shopify countdown timers out there. Installing the Countdown Timer Ultimate on your Shopify store will allow your customers to complete their purchases more quickly while also increasing your overall number of sales. There is a Vast Selection from Which to Pick!
Provide goods bundles for purchase.
The bundling of products is a clever approach that may be used throughout the year to bring in more revenue. If you want to make sure that your products are flying off the shelves this summer, you might think about putting together product bundles that include both your most and lowest-selling items. Try your hand at designing a buy-one-get-one deal or a bundle option where customers can choose the components they want.