Opportunity knocks with the Back to School season
School’s out, it’s the midst of summer and, for many retailers, that can mean there’s two priorities:
- Making your store enticing for all the parents trying to fill a few hours with the kids.
- Preparing for what is commonly known as the second highest spending timeframe of the year – the Back to School (BTS) season.
If you think cashing in on this market is just for big retailers with massive budgets, think again. From school supplies to fashion accessories, gadgets to sportswear, there’s loads of ways the smaller or independent retailer can appeal to the school’s out crowd. And, if you’ve got a smart POS system in place, you can be quids-in with minimum effort.
Bring in the school supplies – So, if you’re running a stationery store then none of this is news to you. But, these days it’s just as normal to see a fashion outlet stock pens, notebooks or sweets as it is for a book shop to be selling a line of key rings or trendy water bottles! So, get sourcing some school basics or novelties, find a match for your brand and make sure to promote it well in your windows, at till points and through social media channels. The intuitive set up features in your smart till makes it easy to add new seasonal items to your product list and you can use the inventory management modules to keep an eye on stock levels and avoid empty shelves.
Cross-buys or discounts – With so much choice around, today’s BTS shoppers are a savvy bunch that will happily switch their buying habits if the right offer is made. So, make sure you’re the one with the enticing offer – e.g. a cross-buy promotion on stationery or a week-long special on backpacks. If you’ve got a Good Till in place, use your POS data on what sells and what doesn’t to inform your discount strategy, then simply implement it through our advanced promotions features.
Make it enjoyable – Shopping with kids in tow can be stressful so make things easy for your customers with clear shop layouts so that items can be found quickly and use your smart POS system’s quick payment integrations to avoid any tiring long queues at checkout. You might also consider a giveaway for kids such as a lucky dip bag with purchases over a certain amount (again using the advanced promotion module to set it up). Or you could offer an experience like a colouring/design competition with a pack of all your best school products as the prize. This is also a great way to show off any stationery items you sell in context!
Hit that trend – Every year seems to bring a new trend that dominates the lives of schoolchildren (and their parents). We’ve had loom bands, fidget spinners, a Pokémon revival and more. Going forward, it looks like the stress buster style pocket money toy trend is set to continue with items like stress balls, fidget rollers and cube twists all still doing well at the tills. Another item you could easily add to your POS product list with a smart till.
Research shows that, in a similar vein to the Christmas period, while mobile and internet shopping takes some away from the physical shopping experience, a high proportion of this market still hits the high street at the last minute! So, if you haven’t yet organised the BTS experience in your store, it’s not too late!
To find out how a Good Till POS system can help you fulfil your sales and marketing strategies this season as well as support your long-term business planning, give us a call.