Practitioners, if you are waiting until after Thanksgiving to get your office ready for the holiday shopping season (e.g., packaging up and promoting your gift certificates and retail products), you will be too late. According to From Spending to Celebrating: The 2015 Holiday Season in 25 Stats, an article analyzing National Retail Federation survey data, most consumers do their holiday shopping in October and November.
One of the charts in the article shows that 85% of women and 77% of men start their holiday shopping way before December, with most shopping going on in October and November. Since it’s the middle of November already, you are close to missing out on those gift-giving sales opportunities.
Your Practice Uniquely Fulfills Shopper Needs
According to the article, most people (66% of women and 51% of men) say they prefer receiving gift cards. Having gift certificates available makes the shopping experience easy for the consumer, and provides the recipient with a similar experience to receiving a gift card.
Start today by including a special banner on your website, in your newsletter, and on any email blasts that you send to your clients, promoting holiday gift certificates for your services and your products.
To meet the needs of those who prefer to receive actual gifts, you can easily provide holiday packages of wellness products along with your gift certificates. If you are new to selling products, or maybe you are only just now considering it, I encourage you to watch the recent webinar that I did with Massage Magazine: Retail Mastery for the Holidays and Throughout the Year. It includes simple instructions and creative ideas to get you started.
Another statistic from that article says 77% of shoppers take advantage of promotions for themselves! If you create promotions encouraging clients to purchase gifts for their loved ones and for themselves, they are likely to take advantage of them.
Remember, you should be reminding shoppers that they need your services too, especially during the holiday season.
~ Cherie
p.s. I have instructed my staff to offer 25% off our digital Gift Certificate templates and Web Banners, this week only, to encourage you to get started today! Go to our online store and use this promo code when you check out: CSMBLOG