Wednesday Musings: Maximizing Downtime, !!!!, and Other Holiday Stuff

Every Wednesday I share some assorted musings with my Daily Retail Experience subscribers. This week I thought I would share them with you too. Enjoy!

Successful retailers know they have to maximize both busy and slow times during the holiday season.  Many store staffs do a great job when they're busy but waste the slow time by standing around waiting to get busy again.  This year more than ever, stores need to be productive on the slower weekdays.  I say all hands on deck calling customers and anything else that can be done to drive additional traffic.

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Speaking of all hands on deck, a reader whose business was struggling told me how he used their downtime during the holiday to rearrange the store. I never heard back when I asked why he didn't use it to generate additional sales and traffic. Then again it might have been that comparison to the furniture on the deck of the Titanic.  I'll say it again, use your down time wisely. It could be the difference this holiday.

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I'm fascinated by how people use exclamation mark on signs.  I was recently in a toy store that felt it necessary to add four exclamation points to an "employees only" sign. Think about it.  A respectful sign is "Employees Only, Please" or "Employees Only."  Those four exclamation points are like using all capital letters in an email; it looks like they're shouting at customers. The same store also had a sign warning "Display Only!!!!"  My advice is to reserve the exclamation marks for anything that is important to the customer.

The same holds true for memos. Ending a memo with "We can do it!!" is fine but "Pick up after yourself!!!!" is obnoxious.  Use your exclamation marks to motivate people, or at the very least keep it a single mark.

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I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the tragedy that occurred at the Long Island Walmart on Black Friday.  It was totally avoidable and Walmart clearly has to change their Black Friday approach. I like the Best Buy approach.  Their system of handing out tickets for the most in-demand products to those waiting in line is a sensible and workable way to maintain an orderly line.  A writer from the Philadelphia Daily Times I spoke with wrote a good article about it here.

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A Daily reader tells me that one way she's been successful is by creating a tax-free area within her store.  She says, "The Tax Free Zone is a great talking point and is effective in closing a sale and easy add-ons.  Almost all customers commented on how nice it was not to pay tax."  She points out if she did a sale rack with 7.25% off it wouldn't create much interest or sales.  I love it! (Note the single exclamation mark.)  This retailer is thinking up new ways to engage her customers and differentiate her store this holiday.

So let me ask, what are you doing to create a successful holiday season?

Have a very successful week.