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By the 26th of December, the festivities of Christmas Day may well be behind us but Boxing Day is still big news for retailers. In fact, 2022 saw a 50% rise in Boxing Day shoppers seeking out the sales compared to the year before – and many predict we’ll see similar numbers again this year.
Boxing Day is therefore a great opportunity for stores to liquidate their Christmas inventory and clear the shelves to make way for the new season’s products. Below, we’ll take you through some tips for increasing footfall this end of December, from Boxing Day marketing strategies to enticing shoppers with bright visuals.
7 Boxing Day tips for maximising sales
1. Keep your marketing message clear
Around Christmas, customers are inundated with marketing emails, flyers, and social media campaigns. And this all comes when most are more concerned with their holiday plans than plotting what Boxing Day bargains they’re going to go for. For this reason, retailers will see much more engagement with their marketing if it’s kept simple and to the point.
While your Christmas campaign can have more sparkle and fun, your Boxing Day sales pitch push should be a direct communication of the discounts you’re offering, with important information about the sales duration and your opening times.
2. Add extra incentives for bargain hunters
For most people, it takes a lot of motivation to get out onto the high street right after a full day of festivities. This means that even the keenest of bargain hunters are often tempted to do their Boxing Day shopping online rather than in-store.
To get customers flocking to your door, you therefore need to give them a little push. This could come in the form of an extra discount on in-store purchases or a free gift for the first 50 shoppers to make a purchase that day.
3. Online Marketing
Astute shoppers will plan their Boxing Day sales trips in advance and hit the high street with a mission. To catch these shrewd customers and beat out the competition, make sure you make your offering visible on your social media channels and promote them so that they appear in people’s feeds while scrolling. Having an online marketing presence will also attract customers to your online stores – and with 4 in 5 UK shoppers making online purchases, this is a share of the market you don’t want to miss out on.
4. Email marketing
Sending out marketing emails is another great way to ensure customers are in the loop about your various Boxing Day discounts and offers.
As stated above, keep your message in these emails clear and to the point, as most people will be bombarded with these types of marketing messages during the festive period. To facilitate your email campaign, consider signing up for Square’s marketing email software which allows you to pick from a range of templates to create, send and track email marketing campaigns in minutes.
5. Make sure your retail inventory system is robust
When it comes to staying on top of your stock during a busy sales period, having a retail inventory system that can track sales and alert you when stock is low is essential. With Square’s free Inventory Management, you can handle your inventory from anywhere, access stock reports, and receive daily insights into which items of stock are running low, or have run out and need to be reordered.
6. Leverage your Christmas campaign traffic
If you’ve had a successful run this Christmas, capitalise on that success to keep customers engaged for your Boxing Day sales too. You can do this by notifying loyal customers ahead of time what your sale will have in-store. You could also run a themed competition, such as asking customers to share photos of the gifts they received from your shop on social media – and offer an extra discount on the most creative ones. This will give your online presence a boost and get more customers to notice your products too.
7. Draw attention to sale items with signs and labels
When roaming the high street, shoppers will take immediate notice of stores with discounts showcased on their shop windows. Whatever your pricing strategy, make sure you’ve got your ‘Sale’ and discount signs up to attract customers to your deals. Inside, you should also ensure sale items and shelves are clearly demarcated as this will quickly draw the customers’ eye. Consider using bold colours and images to provide extra visual cues too.
Don’t miss out on reaping the rewards of a post-Christmas sale. Implement some – or all – of the above Boxing Day sales tips and see your old inventory shrink while your bottom line grows.
