• Survey of Rural Challenges
  • Small Town Speaker Becky McCray
  • Shop Local video
  • SaveYour.Town

Small Biz Survival

The small town and rural business resource

A row of small town shops
  • Front Page
  • Latest stories
  • About
  • Guided Tour
  • Subscribe
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
  • RSS

5 Retail Holiday Tips for 2014

By Becky McCray

A display of wines for Thanksgiving dinner.

Now’s the time to start planning your holiday displays. Don’t forget that Thanksgiving and Halloween will be here soon. Photo by Becky McCray.

 

In any retail business, the last quarter of the year may beat the entire rest of the year for sales. That’s enough reason to to pay extra attention to getting ready to make the most of it. Here are five of my ideas on how to get more people through your doors in the holidays.

1. Make sure you have what your customers want. All the promotion in the world won’t drive customers to a business that doesn’t offer what people want. Spend time now talking to customers about what they want and then updating your selection.

2. Open your doors at more of the right times. Extend your hours to more evenings and weekends. They can’t get through the doors if the doors are closed.

These two won’t be easy, so I have some suggestions on extending your hours and updating your product selection.

3. Clean up your store, especially outside. If you want more people to come through the door, don’t let a dirty outside space turn them off. You are so used to what your store looks like that you never see the bad things that customers notice. Before it gets really cold (or really hot in the southern hemisphere) give your parking area, sidewalk, windows, door and awnings a thorough cleaning. Touch up your paint and trim.

4. Make an actual plan for your marketing. Too many of us reuse old decoration and old ads because it’s easy. I’ve done it, but I won’t this year. Find a retail-minded friend, sit down and brainstorm some new ideas, new decorations and new ads.

5. Participate in or organize local shopping events. Be part of Small Business Saturday and any local events your chamber or merchants organize to promote local shopping. Don’t have any? Knock on the door of five other local retailers and start one together. You can sign up to lead a Small Business Saturday event and get lots of ideas from them.

Getting ready for the holidays series:

  • 5 Retail Holiday Tips for 2014
  • How service businesses can get ready for the holidays
  • 5 ways to get your business ready for the holidays, especially if you’re not a retail store

New to SmallBizSurvival.com? Take the Guided Tour. Like what you see? Get our updates.

 

  • About the Author
  • Latest Posts

About Becky McCray

Becky started Small Biz Survival in 2006 to share rural business and community building stories and ideas with other small town business people. She and her husband have a small cattle ranch and are lifelong entrepreneurs. Becky is an international speaker on small business and rural topics.
  • Rural tourism trends say small towns are still cool - March 27, 2023
  • Move Your Money and Bank Local - March 22, 2023
  • Using a building as a warehouse or storage in a small town? Put up a sign - March 13, 2023
  • How to get customers in the door of small town and rural retail stores - February 19, 2023
  • Check your small business website for outdated pandemic changes, missing info - January 31, 2023
  • Rural Tourism Trend: electric vehicle chargers can drive visitors - January 15, 2023
  • 2023 trends for rural and small town businesses - December 26, 2022
  • Local reviews on Google Maps drive enduring value - December 17, 2022
  • Extra agritourism revenue from camping, cabins and RVs with HipCamp - December 12, 2022
  • Harvest Hosts attract vanlifers and RV tourists, Boondockers Welcome - December 2, 2022

September 15, 2014 Filed Under: entrepreneurship, marketing, Small Biz 100 Tagged With: retail

Wondering what is and is not allowed in the comments?
Or how to get a nifty photo beside your name?
Check our commenting policy.
Use your real name, not a business name.


Don't see the comment form?
Comments are automatically closed on older posts, but you can send me your comment via this contact form and I'll add it manually for you. Thanks!

Howdy!

Glad you dropped in to the rural and small town business blog, established in 2006.

We want you to feel at home, so please take our guided tour.

Meet our authors on the About page.

Have something to say? You can give us a holler on the contact form.

If you would like permission to re-use an article you've read here, please make a Reprint Request.

Want to search our past articles? Catch up with the latest stories? Browse through the categories? All the good stuff is on the Front Page.

Partners

We partner with campaigns and organizations that we think best benefit rural small businesses. Logo with "Shop Indie Local" Move Your Money, bank local, invest local Multicolor logo with text that says "Global Entrepreneurship Week" Save Your Town logotype

Best of Small Biz Survival

A shopkeeper and a customer share a laugh in a small store packed full of interesting home wares.

How to get customers in the door of small town and rural retail stores

Rural Tourism Trend: electric vehicle chargers can drive visitors

Wide view of a prairie landscape with a walk-through gate in a fence

Tourism: Make the most of scant remains and “not much to see” sites with a look-through sign

Holyoke Hummus Company cart

How one food business keeps adapting, from table to cart to truck, to restaurant and back again

Make extra money from extra workspace: co-working and 3rd workplaces in small towns

Newspaper story headline says, "Made in Dorrigo Markets a bustling success"

Boost your maker economy with a “Made in” day

More of the best of Small Biz Survival

Copyright © 2023 Becky McCray
Front Page · Log in