The BIG Push: Christmas and New Year’s both are almost here.

Calendar quirks can significantly impact holiday sales. This year, both Christmas and New Year’s fall on a Wednesday. Mid-week major holidays can provide specific challenges for businesses, shoppers, staff, and outbound communication. It is vitally important for businesses to understand how to adjust to the calendar to maximize traffic and sales. Here are a few things to remember:

• Clearly communicate your shopping hours- Customers want to know what is available and when items from businesses are available. Clearly communicating what you do and when you are open during the final holiday push can make consumer shopping more convenient. Look at your website, social media, and your internal/external signage: what do they communicate to the customer about hours of operation and products/services offered?
• Push for late night sales Thursday, and “countdown” shoppers leading to Christmas- A Wednesday Christmas can create weird dynamics for local businesses. Thanksgiving was late, and a “1st and 15th” pay cycle for a lot of businesses compresses prime shopping times. This Thursday provides your business with an opportunity to press for shopping during a beautiful evening, and your business will need to continue to press for top-of-mind awareness as Christmas approaches.
• Highlight “after Christmas” hours and spending opportunities- A bag stuffer or internal signage can help you communicate with customers about “After-Christmas” plans. A mid-week Christmas means that you have two additional “post-Christmas” week days to push for gift certificate usage, a place to drop that Christmas cash, or the preferred spot for after Christmas deals. Using timed ads and in house communication can help you press for additional spending.
• Become the “third space” for visitors- College is out of session and people are planning on extended visits. Marketing your business as a place to “meet-up” or “hang-out” can lead to extra traffic and sales.
• Develop a communications plan for New Year’s activities- Whether you are offering a space, food, party supplies, or something else that caters to the New Year’s crowd, you need to have an effective outreach plan. Media outreach can drop off significantly immediately after Christmas, and some targeted effort can help you capture some additional traffic and sales before the end of the year.

The next few days are going to come at you quickly. Saturday through Tuesday will be critical for retail success, and as people get to town to visit family or for college winter break, people will seek places to be and things to do. Active and clear communication, extended hours, marketing outreach, and providing a compelling case to visit your business is important.