Square : 4 Ways to Overcome Your Sales Slump

The holiday season is over now. And the surge of customers that once flooded your store for gifts and sales has gone with it. As a retailer, this dip in sales can bring on a strong case of the blues. For the last two months, you watched your sales skyrocket during Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday, Christmas, and then New Year's Eve. Now it's January 2019, and the cash register isn't ringing like it used to.

You're not alone. Many retailers experience a slowdown in sales after the holidays. But there are ways to overcome this challenge. According to a Forbes survey, 64 percent of respondents agreed that sales are better after the holidays. Another 49 percent of respondents said January discounts will lure them back into the stores.

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With that said, there are plenty of opportunities to keep the cash register rolling in the new year. Here are a few tips.

Look at hot buys, and target customers with creative marketing:
Are there certain items that were popular buys during the holiday shopping season? Take a look at the items your customers purchased in November and December, and send out email with sales and coupons to accompany the items they bought. Think sleek headphones for a new phone, or an arched floor lamp for a new couch. You can also do this type of promotional campaign on social media using sponsored posts.

Advertise new products:
Though we just ran through a massive stretch of holiday fever, there are more holidays to come in the new year. There's Valentine's Day, and Black History Month, and St. Patrick's Day. If you time your new products just right, you can tailor your advertising and promotional campaigns to one of these upcoming holidays. Bath and Body does a great job of this with their candles. With each major sale at Bath and Body, there are new seasonal scents to go along with it. That keeps customers coming back for more, as they want to buy new scents to match an upcoming holiday or season.

Free shipping:
Nothing excites a customer more than the word 'free.' According to Retail Dive, more than 80 percent of customers say they shop with Amazon because of free shipping. If you're an online retailer, try offering free shipping to customers for a given period of time. This encourages them to purchase more because they don't have to worry about the additional $7 to $10 they'd have to spend on shipping. When you offer free shipping, though, be sure to advertise that as much as you can on your website, on social media, and in your email marketing campaign.

Remember New Year's resolutions: For the last month, your customers have been writing down their new goals and resolutions for 2019. When launching new products, or thinking of a creative advertising strategy, keep these New Year's resolutions in mind. For instance, fitness is a big one on everyone's goals list. Maybe there's an opportunity for you to create a sale around a fitness tracker app, or a new appliance that cooks up healthy foods for the whole family. There are so many ways to capitalize on the resolutions hype.

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