Improving January Sales

January is especially hard for small business, especially due to heavy Christmas spending. Fortunately, offering after-Christmas specials may boost revenue, reduce inventory, and make for happy customers.

The Christmas buying frenzy will have mostly subsided by December 27. A week or two later when credit card bills and the first payment of installment plans come due, customers will be all spent out — at least for while. As a result, first quarter revenue can be pretty hard going sometimes.
Also, many stock-holding businesses probably have capital tied up in leftover inventory, so freeing up cash flow could create additional opportunities, like paying down interest bearing debt, allowing for the purchase of new equipment or stock, or fund improvements to the store's site or systems.

So what's the best way to make sales in January? Here are three ideas to boost after-Christmas sales.

Strategy 1: 'Buy to Give' Offers
Although the season of giving is over, some shoppers will still be enticed to buy for a good cause. Consider offering a "buy one, give one" special that delivers a pair of shoes, article of clothing, household item or similar to a known local charity for every "target" item that a shopper purchases.

From a purely business perspective the sale is an opportunity to reduce inventory, gain tax benefits through donations, and possibly co-market with a local not-for-profit.

Strategy 2: Buy Now, Pay Later
Some shoppers may find there is simply no room in the January budget. Offering a "Buy Now, Pay Later" sale can help produce full-margin sales by putting off when customers have to pay. Better to have capital in lay buy or payment plans than in slow moving inventory. Just make sure that you have a good structured payment plan in place and don't allow customers to miss scheduled repayments.

Strategy 3: Free Item with Purchase
Consider offering a free product — think t-shirt, upgrade, accessory, hat, gift card, or similar — with every order in January.
The item can be an overstocked product or a custom item that you ordered back in the beginning of December. The idea is to give the shopper just a little something extra.

Two caveats with these strategies:

Firstly, make sure you do some analysis on what you are giving away. This is all about maintaining cash flow, improving turnover and reducing inflated Christmas stock levels. You still want to be making money on every single sale. Make sure that what you are giving away is not more than the margin you are making on the sale. Also, don't include stock that you know will sell easily and well during the year.

Secondly, these offers should be seen as an opportunity to generate customers only. They should not be seen as the only sale you can make during this period. Once you have the customer, offer them other products and services. Put your best sellers, or the things you sell best nice and close to the shop counter.

And make sure that you use this customer interaction to gather some data - an email address or cell phone number so you can let them know about future offers. It would also be useful to know how they heard about you so you can better target your future marketing.

What do think of these strategies and has anything else worked well for you to generate the January sale?

Best of luck with your holiday trading and Merry Christmas to you all.