Using technology and starting early can give retailers an edge

The pandemic changed the holiday retail environment last year, with many New Hampshire businesses shifting their business to adjust to new safety protocols, contactless payments and deliveries, and virtual service. While the future remains uncertain, many of these trends could continue during the 2021 holiday season.

Online purchases during the 2020 holiday season increased 32.2 percent from 2019, for a record $188.2 billion in the U.S., as people shopped from home amid the Covid-19 pandemic. E-commerce sales in November 2020, including Black Friday and Cyber Monday, reached $100 billion for the first time, and online spending exceeded $1 billion daily.

Here are some tips on how local businesses can boost sales — and safety — during the 2021 holiday shopping season:

• Automate your inventory: Inventory management solutions like DoForms allow businesses in New Hampshire to quickly and accurately track inventory conveniently from a smartphone app. An ideal solution is one that provides real-time inventory numbers, allowing business owners to save money, reorder automatically, email customer receipts and interact with QuickBooks and other accounting programs.

• Offer safe, easy curbside pickup: Many people are still gravitating toward stores that offer curbside pickup, especially as Covid-19 cases spike again.

An iPad Pro can enhance checkout and provide a positive, socially distanced customer experience outside a store location.

• Stay connected: Many stores use tech tools to track inventory, take payments and post to social media. Ensuring the business’s internet connection doesn’t go down during the busiest selling season of the year is crucial. Products like Simplifi offer internet connectivity along with a failover cellular built-in backup if Wi-Fi goes down.

• Take it home: Allow customers to call in their order or shop online and have their products delivered. Hire runners to deliver items within a certain geographic radius or consider collaborating with other nearby businesses to share runners and split the costs. Using a tablet or smartphone will allow runners to take payments at delivery.

• Offer Black Friday deals early and more often: Consumers know to look for deals on highly anticipated annual shopping days. But offering discounts outside of these national deal days can help a business stand out from big-box retailers. Using social media and email blasts can help alert customers about specific sale dates.

• Go social: At least 72 percent of adults in the U.S. regularly use social media. Use social media platforms to drive sales by including links to a website, highlighting delivery options and promoting upcoming sales. Apps such as Buffer allow you to schedule and plan social media campaigns in advance so you can concentrate on in-store activities during the holiday season. These preplanned posts can be an effective channel to showcase merchandise, share news, engage consumers and gain new followers. Boost online exposure by offering exclusive discounts to customers who check in on Facebook, post pictures of products to Instagram, share content or leave a positive review.

• Conduct an effective email campaign: Nearly half (49 percent) of people said they look forward to receiving emails from their favorite stores. This is another smart way to reach customers and prospects to alert them about products, deals and exclusive offers. Use powerful, attention-grabbing subject lines to increase open rates. Increase urgency — a proven sales tactic — by using language like “oneday sale,” “for a limited time only,” and “extra discount for the first 100 shoppers.” Offer an exclusive code in emails to track how many sales came from this effort.

Tabatha McKay is area vice president/general manager at UScellular in New England.