Retailers - plan ahead for the next Bank Holiday weekend

Retailers large and small do well over the bank holiday weekend. This weekend in my part of the world, the weather wasn't typical of a bank holiday and the crowds flocked to the shops for beer, barbecue items and all the other reasons people like to spend! Town and city centres were very busy with people spending their wages on the three-day weekend. It only happened a few times a year and any retailer that was caught on the hop this weekend needs to think about getting ready for the next one at the end of May. To add to this, it will be payday weekend where people will have just been paid. It is the ideal time to boost your sales early in the financial year.

Retailers need to look at these mini-events through fresh eyes because it really makes a difference to their trade. Nor being prepared means losing out on potential sales. Many of the small retailers that read my blog will benefit from a few extra thousand pounds in sales. So you need to think about what the next bank holiday weekend will mean to you.

Opening hours

If you are a small retailer then it can be difficult to alter the opening hours of your business. Your team deserve the bank holiday weekend to relax but you want to make the most of that extra passing trade. Opening on the Bank Holiday Monday can feel like a pain but if the other stores around you are doing it too then you can get a big uplift in sales.

Think about when you are open over the weekend and plan ahead, which leads to...

Staffing

You and your team need to be ready for the trade on that weekend whether you are opening longer hours or not. If you have access to extra staff then it may help to get them involved that weekend. People like to shop somewhere that ha staff on hand to help and can control their queues even in the busy times. So look at your staffing schedule now to see if you can draft in extras. It will be important at the busier times of the day.

Stock

A quick visit to my local Tesco this weekend showed that even the biggest companies can get it wrong with stock. A rush on certain items meant that they lost out on sales. the bigger stores can more easily divert customer to alterative items, but smaller stores don't always have this luxury. Think about what you will need, keep a close eye on the weather and decide where you need to keep extra stocks.

Promotions

If you are going to the extra trouble of staging an event or opening on the Monday, then you need to let as many people as possible know. With social media and websites, we can more easily let customers know that we are ready and available for trade on those days. Get your team to speak to your customers in the weeks before so they know you are open for them at that busy weekend.

As a retailer you need to remember the little details that make a difference. The big events such as Christmas are always planned in advance, but it is easy to overlook the smaller events that can add up to more sales. Get ready for the next one!

Payday weekend bonanza with Bank Holiday thrown in as well!

Is bonanza time for most retailers this weekend as we have the weekend, it's a payday weekend and it's a bank holiday weekend. And I can see many times and retailers making the most of it. There are offers, events, fairs and all sorts of things happening all over the country as retailers try to compete with other attractions for people's time and money this weekend.

The national chains seem to have set themselves up for a big weekend, so it's time for the small independent retailers  that make up much of my audience to up their game.

As I've said many times before in my blog, the first step on the road to payday weekend success of planning your staffing. With me being away for three weeks and forcing myself to stay off the internet I haven't blogged this early enough but there are always lessons to be learnt and this will stand you in good stead for all payday weekends, bank holiday weekends and other events throughout the year. Once you have your staffing sorted, it's time to look at how you can offer something different and special at this time. I've already stated that you will not just be competing with other retailers but other attractions on a weekend like this. Giving families a reason to visit you rather than a park, a museum, a theme park or the seaside is part of ensuring success. So I'd say having something exciting for the children is a great idea for this weekend. What you do may well depend on what type of retailer you are, but be imaginative and think about what can keep families in your store for longer.

It's also a god idea to ensure that any offers you run coincide with a weekend such as this. If you are planning a sale, a but one get one free or other promotion them starting it this weekend is a great idea. It gets people through your door that may not normally shop with you and give you a chance to convert then into loyal customers. It will also give you a chance to cement your relationship with your existing customers who may need a little push to spend more with you.

The final piece in the jigsaw as far as I'm concerned is to make sure that your team are motivated and enthused about the weekend trade and any event you are hosting. Get them involved in the ideas process and you will get their buy-in for the event itself. If it's fun for staff and for customers then you've probably got a winning formula.

Keep this blog entry and re-read every time there's an event coming up - you'll be amazed at how useful it can be!

NOT EVERYTHING CAN BE BOUGHT ON THE HIGH STREET

It's payday weekend - what does it mean to me?

Its payday weekend again - either this weekend or next weekend for your customers, with the last day of June on Tuesday. I've often posted payday weekend notices on my blog here (http://mytimeinretail.blogspot.com/2014/03/it-payday-weekend-again.html & http://mytimeinretail.blogspot.com/2014/02/payday-weekend.html) but without too many mentions of what that actually means. So I'll go back to the basics.

What is payday weekend?

In basic terms, it's the weekend straight after the majority of your customers get paid. This is when they are feeling the most flush with money and traditionally when they spend more of this money. The last week or so of the month before payday has often been where people have cut back and only dorms on essentials. They then break over that threshold and have their monthly salary in their account and are ready to treat themselves again. This is when the pursestrings are loosened.

What is different?

In actuality nothing is different - even more so in these days of ready credit but psychologically people feel that they have more money. And this applies to your team as well. And the difference to the town you operate in is that there are more people out shopping for more items at more money. And you have to prepare differently. Depending on your retail business, you will probably need more staff, more stock and your shop needs to be as ready as it can be in time for the expected footfall. So all non-customer tasks should be completed and out if the way long before the weekend trade really kicks in. Replenishnemt needs to be spot on and targeted in the right areas - as effective as possible and not disruptive to the flow of customers.

To some of you, this may seem like the basics but it's important to ensure that you have a plan and a routine to ready yourself and your team for these occasions, a they can make the difference in gaining new customers and retaining existing customers.

Customers

How you are set up for payday weekends and how your customers experience you at this time sets the time for their future visits. If you are more likely to see customers at this time, then you will have a larger pool of customers to make an impression on than normal. Each customer's experience with you this weekend can determine whether they see you as a delight to shop in (for those of you prepared for the extra trade) or a hassle (for those playing catch-up) and you need to ask yourself what you want to be here. The "delights" will see new customers converted and existing customers retained. The "hassles" will see a slow erosion of their trade.

It's time to step forward!

Not everything can be bought on the High Street-