For many retailers, the holiday season is the busiest time of the year—and that means all hands on deck! Try these simple tips and tricks to prepare your store for the influx of customers. With a little planning, you can take advantage of the increased traffic to expand your business and multiply your profits!

1. Determine Your Holiday Store Hours

Did most of your customers buy in the evenings and on weekends last December? Dig into the reporting features of your point of sale (POS) to gain insight into when most of your sales were made in previous seasons. If you typically close at 6:00 in the evening, but a majority of your sales occurred after 5:30, consider extending your hours for the holidays. Knowing which days and times it makes sense to stay open later can give you a significant lift in sales.

2. Hire the Right Number of Seasonal Employees

With more customers in your store, you’ll need extra employees to answer questions and ring up sales. Pull staffing reports from prior holidays. Did you have enough team members on your busiest sales days? Make the most of your resources by understanding the times you need to staff up and when you can get by with a leaner team.

3. Offer Gift Cards

As one of the most popular items on holiday wish lists year after year, gift cards are the perfect way to boost profits. A program like eGiftSolutions® has free and fast options that enable small businesses to offer gift cards just like the big box retailers! Many customers spend more than the value of their gift cards and according to the National Retail Federation, consumers will purchase an average of 4 gift cards over the holidays¹. Why not have them spend that money in your store? Be sure to place your gift cards at the register to let everyone know they’re available. Plus, they’ll serve as ideal add-ons to up your sales!

Discover more about how gift cards can boost your business—especially at the holidays! →

¹ NRF’s Annual November Holiday Consumer Survey, conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics (2018)

4. Manage Inventory with Ease

Inventory is an all-important consideration when it comes to increasing holiday sales. While you want to have enough product on hand to minimize out of stock items—which can translate to lost sales, you don’t want to have excess inventory you can’t sell piling up and eating into your profits. With Exatouch® Point of Sale, you can differentiate best-selling items from ones that aren’t moving to make informed purchasing decisions. This smart POS even enables you to manage purchase orders, vendors, and reconcile deliveries quickly.

Merchant Success Story: See how Exatouch inventory reports made this retail store even more successful! →

5. Entice Customers with a Festive Atmosphere

The holidays are your time to shine! Host an open house in your store and offer visitors seasonal snacks. Be sure to let your customers know about everything you’re planning. Use the customer database in Exatouch to send out festive promotional emails and invitations to your most frequent buyers. Decorate for the season and feature your most popular products in attractive vignettes that are easy to shop. Don’t forget to create and display gift guides around your store to give customers ideas for those hard-to-shop-for people on their list.