Although making kids’ wishes come true is where my heart is this time of the year, I wanted to write and let retailers know I hear you, too. It’s a joy to let you know that I’ve made my list, checked it twice, and that you’ll be getting many of the things on your retail holiday wish list this year.
Snow: I know what you’re thinking. Bad weather can keep people at home. But no matter the weather, buying gifts in time for the holidays isn’t optional. AccuWeather predicts normal weather during the retail holiday shopping season — it won’t be too hot nor too cold. And there will be a touch of snow to get people in the spirit but not so much that you need to call out Rudolph to light the way with his nose. Each year, AccuWeather predicts retail holiday spending based on retail projections and the weather, and they’re looking for total retail spending to climb to about $727.9 billion, up 3.8 percent from last year.
Thanksgiving turkey: Families gathered on Thanksgiving to enjoy a feast, count their blessings — and shop. Adobe Analytics keeps an eye on things, especially with a late Thanksgiving and a shorter traditional retail holiday shopping season this year. They reported to the North Pole that online retailers had to make up about $1 billion in potential loss. But it’s looking up. Every day from November 1 on, retail sales have totaled more than $1 billion and 12 days were higher than $2 billion. Thanksgiving? Online sales totaled more than $4 billion, and Black Friday sales added up to a whopping $7.4 billion, 19.6 percent year-over-year growth.
Inspiration: It looks like all the retailers are giving my elves a run for their money in the creativity department, coming up with novel promotions to help people get the gifts they want — and find even more in stores once the promotion gets them in or online to shop. An example of a retailer that asked for inspiration for promotions last year is Best Buy. They offered “Nick of Time Deals” from December 1 through 20, which multiplied their traffic by a factor of five and doubled conversion rate.
Free delivery by sleigh, or other services: My elves and I have known this for years. People love free delivery. I can’t do it all by delivering down the chimney, but retailers can use other services to get merchandise where it needs to be on time. In 2018, Target offered free, two-day delivery on holiday online orders with no minimum purchase. It’s one of the things that contributed to a 146 percent increase in online conversions, and it didn’t take away from store sales. Target also offered curbside pickup in some stores, so retail holiday shoppers wouldn’t have to leave their cars to fetch click-and-collect orders.
Smartphones: Don’t get too excited — I’m not bringing retailers their own, new smartphones. I’m bringing them to shoppers. Since more than half of all consumers are buying holiday gifts on smartphones (even more millennials, 57 percent, shop on their phones), getting more smartphones into consumers’ hands can be a big gift for retailers.
Gift cards: I’ve been giving gifts for centuries, and I know some people just don’t know what to put on their lists. That’s the reason I’m making sure you have plenty of gift cards. After all, they’re the most requested gift. An NRF survey found that 59 percent of people put gift cards at the top of their wish lists.
And I Heard Him Exclaim…
With a strong economy and low unemployment, it looks like consumers are padding their holiday budgets. Everything on retailers’ holiday wish list is already delivered. Make the most of it, and have a Happy New Year!
Ho, Ho, Ho, and Merry Christmas!
Santa Claus
p.s.
If you need some help from a point of sale system (POS system) provider on the nice list, visit my friends at PlazSales.
To help pizzeria owners, pizza point of sale (pizza pos) is more than just a cash register or adding machine — it’s a hub where you can manage your entire business.
Pizza shops have long managed their business in the traditional, manual manner. Much like pizza itself, why stray too far from what has worked? This may mean using pen and paper to order ingredients, taking down orders over the phone. You may be using a non-integrated payment system to swipe credit cards. But that means workflows that take extra time through a shift and at the end of the day. Modern customers want the convenience of online ordering and payment. And like customers always have, they still expect prompt service and their food served warm and tasty as ever.
With Pizza POS, you can streamline your operations to reduce waste. It’s a win for everyone: The more efficiency you can build into your business, the more successful you will be at keeping your customers and employees happier.
Pizza POS Features
Point of sale systems for pizzerias are unique among those for other restaurants and businesses because pizzerias are a different kind of operation. Pizzas are almost endlessly customizable in a way that other restaurants are not expected to deal with. How big of a pie does a customer want? Which certain toppings only go on which certain halves? It’s easy for a mix-up or misunderstanding to occur when relaying these orders verbally and recording them manually. Better to have a system that is designed and optimized for these specific kinds of orders.
Pizza POS systems need to give your business these capabilities:
- Modify options for size and toppings on pizzas. When the menu changes, the system can easily adapt as well.
- Inventory management that lets you know exactly what you have, how much you use, so you never run out of ingredients while reducing food waste.
- Online ordering to suit busy customers’ schedules and for added convenience.
- Delivery management to provide your delivery drivers with directions and constant traffic updates to get them where they need to be on time. You can also let your customers know when their delivery is dispatched so they aren’t left guessing.
- Loyalty program features to keep your customers coming back by rewarding them for doing so. The right pizza POS system will allow you to digitally manage your customer accounts and rewards with ease.
- Customer relationship management (CRM) that allows you to optimize your sales and marketing campaigns, forecast future sales, and automate simple digital features to leave your staff more time for complex tasks.
- Integrated payments — no longer take that extra time at the end of the day to do your payment reports.
- Offline mode for business continuity, even if your network connection is interrupted
- Reporting that provides you with visibility into what your customers are ordering, their preferred methods of payment, the times the rush comes in, and track labor hours and employee performance.
Just What You Ordered
In this day and age, pizzerias face steep competition and small profit margins. To keep operating while making a profit, you need the ability to operate efficiently and build a base of loyal customers. When it comes to optimizing your business, in all specifics unique to pizzerias, pizza POS can help.
To learn more about point of sale systems that help pizzerias run efficiently and profitably, contact PlazSales.
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