Are you planning an End of Financial Year Sale? According to research by Gumtree, Australians are gearing up to spend big in upcoming EOFY sales with 19% of respondents claiming they will spend $1000 or more. Forty-one percent of those surveyed are holding out to buy big-ticket items in the sales such as furniture and appliances, while fashion is always popular during mid-year sales.
Your business is stocked up ready to handle a sales blitz, but have you thought about the other things that make the sales experience a good one for your customers? How does your website perform under pressure? Do you have enough stock of eco-friendly carry bags or brown paper bags? What about your delivery service - do you have enough postal satchels or mailing boxes?
You want potential customers to enjoy the shopping experience to ensure they return to your store long after the sales are finished. So, before you slash prices, there are a few checks and balances you can do to make the sale period run smoothly.
Check out these five tips to make sure your business is EOFY-Sale ready…
1. Review your online presence
When was the last time you had a good look at your website - not from a business perspective, but from a customer’s viewpoint?
Are your products easy to find? Is the checkout process straightforward? Hard-to-navigate websites and slow loading pages can send potential customers to your competitors.
Try this simple test. Log onto your website as if you were a new customer and have an objective look around your store. Or better yet, ask a friend or family member to test your site for you. Get their objective feedback and ask for their views on where you could make improvements.
Review each of your product descriptions to ensure they’re accurate and appealing to a customer. Are your images high quality and show off your product from every angle?
Click on everything to ensure your pages load quickly, there are no pesky little bugs in the system, and your checkout process is seamless and easy for the user.
According to a 2021 study by Canstar, 70% of Australian consumers will abandon their online shopping cart. While some shoppers may be ‘just browsing’, there may be others who give up due to clunky checkout functionality. Don’t give your customers a reason to click away from your site because your checkout is too complicated.
Also look at giving your customers a variety of options to pay for their goods, such as credit card, Paypal, and Afterpay and double check that your checkout process is secure and safe.
Lastly, check it all again from a mobile phone. Even the most beautiful website can be undermined by not optimising for all devices.
2. Do you have enough bags?
For the bricks and mortar stores, check your supply of carry bags to ensure you have enough to cope with a surge in foot traffic, or for your click and collect customers. Simple brown paper bags may suit your needs or consider a laminated glossy bag for a more luxurious high quality look.
If you’re managing an online store, you will need a good supply of ecommerce packaging to send your goods as soon as they are sold.
Smartbag has a range of ecommerce mailers, both postage satchels and boxes, to help you package up your products and get them out the door.
Depending on your product, a simple ecommerce satchel may be perfect. Resealable ecommerce postal satchels are a great idea if you’re selling goods that may need to be returned such as clothing or footwear. These lightweight, flexible, waterproof, and tear-resistant bags have two adhesive strips which are ideal for customers to reuse the bags for returns.
If your products are fragile you may want more protection in the form of a tough, durable mailing box. These boxes are made from strong, high quality corrugated board which protect your goods during transit.
3. Enhance the Unboxing Experience
We all know the spark of joy you get when you open a gift. Even if we buy a product and are expecting it to be delivered to our door, we still love the process of unwrapping the package.
Adding tissue paper to your products give that extra ‘ahh’ moment in the unboxing. Add a colourful customised sticker with your brand name, or even a ‘thank you’ label to enhance the overall experience and leave your customer with a feeling of delight.
4. Be realistic with delivery times
Leading up to the end of the financial year many businesses are offering discounts and consumers will be spoilt for choice. So, it makes sense there will be a huge number of packages and parcels moving across the nation.
Check with your courier company for realistic delivery times during the sale season. You can’t be responsible for delays due to freight congestion but be prepared to patiently deal with customers as they follow up delays in delivery of their purchases. The carriers gear up for the sales periods but there will always be strain on their systems and unforeseen freight issues during such high demand.
5. Promote Your Brand
Smartbag supplies paper bags, glossy laminated bags or eco-friendly bags in all colours and sizes, and these will leave a lasting impression on your customers if they carry your brand.
Custom printing your bags is a simple and cost-effective way to promote your brand.
Need bags in a hurry? Our Fast Print options are available, delivered direct from our Sydney warehouse. In quantities as low as 50, you can have your paper bags printed in full colour with your business name, logo or tagline.
Benjamin Franklin once said, “By failing to prepare, you a preparing to fail,” so before you slash prices on every product in your store, do a quick audit on your business to make sure it’s ready for the EOFY sales.
Proudly Australian-owned, Smartbag supplies carry bags, tissue paper and Ecommerce packaging to retail, salons, clinics, fashion labels and the food and beverage industry.Owned and operating from our Sydney warehouse, we take pride in serving Australian businesses, large and small, for almost 20 years.