The holidays are synonymous with retail sales. Customers are searching for the perfect gift to give coffee-loving friends, family, and coworkers—and your café and roastery have everything they need!
In Part 1, we showed you how to prepare your inventory for the holiday rush.
In Part 2, you learned how to increase sales from existing wholesale accounts.
Today, we’ll walk you through maximizing retail sales so you can enjoy a profitable holiday season.
Between managing inventory and fulfilling wholesale orders, you may find it tempting to keep your retail strategy at the status quo during the holiday months. After all, you’ve already got a ton of work on your plate and customers will spend more during the holiday season, right?
Don’t fall for this trap! Thinking about the winter months as “any old month” only leads to more stress, bigger headaches, and ultimately, less retail sales. Instead, planning ahead is the best way to get the most out of your retail sales this holiday season.
In today’s article, you’ll learn:
With these tips, you’ll be prepared to tackle retail sales with confidence all holiday season long!
Generating more retail sales begins by identifying exactly what you plan to sell.
Throughout the year, you sell specific coffee products and merchandise at your roastery and online. While these products should still be available during the winter months, you’ll need to decide which new products you want to sell exclusively for the holidays.
Ask yourself, “What products can I add to my retail shelf that will attract customers and drive sales?”
A few examples of high-performing retail products include:
However, if you own a café, keep in mind that your holiday retail product plan extends to the bar too. Capitalize on the holiday season by offering an array of creative holiday-inspired drinks, bakery items, or other treats.
This can be as simple as serving your holiday blend as a drip coffee, espresso, or pour over option. Or, work with your baristas to launch holiday drinks using seasonal flavors like:
No matter if you plan on offering holiday retail products, seasonal beverages, or both, it’s important to devise a product plan ahead of time. As we discussed in Part 1, this gives you ample time to acquire the necessary inventory and ingredients to execute your strategy.
We understand the hesitation most coffee roasters have about merchandise and other seasonal products. If you order a bunch of mugs, hats, and coffee grinders, what happens if they don’t sell during the holidays?
Rather than letting merchandise sit idly on the shelf and collect dust, use holiday gift bundles to your advantage and move inventory faster!
Holiday gift baskets leverage the “bundling” pricing strategy. Instead of buying each item individually, a customer can “bundle” the products for a lower total sales price.
For example, a customer could purchase a coffee mug ($15), a branded t-shirt ($20), and a bag of the holiday coffee blend ($20) for a total price of $55. Or, you can bundle these options into a “Coffee Lover’s” gift basket that costs $50. The customer is more likely to purchase the gift bundle because of the lower pricing and convenience.
The best part about offering gift bundles is the variety of options you can create for customers! When you combine your coffee product offerings, gift cards, and retail merchandise, there are endless gift basket options.
🎁Pro Tip: Collaborate with area businesses to create a holiday gift basket filled with holiday gifts, including your coffee products. Every time a customer purchases a gift basket, it’s a win-win for everyone!
Customers approach holiday shopping with two things in mind: product availability and value.
The first question they have is, “Can I get what I want at this store?” Followed by, “Is it available for a good price?”
This means your customers are on the hunt for holiday promotions. There are several ways you can offer exciting promotional offers without diminishing your profitability:
The trick to successful promotions isn’t the deal itself, but rather the time and effort you put into executing it. Your customers can’t take advantage of a deal if they don’t know about it!
Early on in the fall, take time to plan out everything you’ll need to implement these promotions including:
The better prepared you are, the better your holiday promotions will perform.
👉Discover how to create holiday promotions that drive significant revenue in our eBook!
Thanks to shopping holidays like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, many customers prefer to complete their holiday shopping online these days. And why not? It’s convenient, ships directly to your house or the recipient’s, and you can get all of your holiday shopping done from the comfort of your home.
So, what does this mean for coffee roasters? That your online store is just as important as your retail store.
Before the holidays begin, make sure your online store is ready to accommodate the increase in online shopping traffic. This includes:
Once your online store is ready for the holidays, let customers know it’s time to shop! Put together a series of social media posts, email newsletters, in-store graphics, and information for your team and get the word out. The more you drive people to your website, the greater your chances of increasing online sales during the holidays.
You can’t rely on the holidays alone to generate more sales for your roastery. But, the power of suggestion can go a long way at the end of the year.
With this in mind, give your baristas and retail staff a quick lesson on upselling and cross-selling opportunities.
Upselling refers to increasing the complete value of a sale, typically focusing on one product. This can look like suggesting a customer purchase the two-pound bag of coffee instead of the 12-ounce.
Cross-selling tactics work to increase the total number of items purchased in a single sale. For example, if a customer is buying a bag of coffee, staff can suggest they also purchase a mug or coffee grinder to go with their coffee.
While there are ways to encourage upselling and cross-selling through pricing strategies and promotional activities, remind staff to look for these opportunities during their conversations with customers throughout the day.
⭐Pro Tip: You can encourage both up and cross-selling on your online store, too. Sell gift bundles to cross-sell aligned products. Upsell larger bags of coffee or coffee brewing equipment by offering shipping incentives. The possibilities are endless!
It’s no secret that the end-of-year holidays are hectic for coffee roasters. Between finding new ways to maximize retail sales to fulfilling wholesale orders, there’s a lot on your plate.
We’ve been there too! That’s why we’ve compiled all our holiday season knowledge into our eBook, “The Coffee Roaster's Guide to Profitable Holidays: 5 Strategies for Increased Sales.”
In this guide, you’ll discover:
Download the eBook today and start planning your upcoming holiday sales strategies.
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