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4 Quick Tips for Happy Holidays

Lady paying for pastry

The festive season is one of the busiest times of the year, especially for small businesses in retail and hospitality. Preparing for the increase in foot traffic can feel a little daunting sometimes, so we have a few tips to help you through the holiday season.

1. Be one step ahead

This time of year can be stressful – for you and your employees! There’s nothing worse than having problems arise when things are becoming busy and chaotic – especially when this could be avoided with careful planning!

Take time to sit down and assess how you can prepare and make sure you’ve got the essentials covered. Your payment systems should be top of this list. If you don’t have Paywave enabled on your EFTPOS, consider asking your bank to enable it for the busy season – although there are extra costs in accepting paywave payments, it will help reduce queues in-store and improve the experience of your customers and staff.

Do you need additional EFTPOS terminals to cope with the extra customer load? If so, you may want to consider a Short Term Rental for the duration to help reduce lines and keep your store from overcrowding. Lastly, if you have a mobile EFTPOS terminal, make sure you keep it well charged! If you have an S920 from Smartpay and you need your terminal to last longer, give us a call on 0800 476 278 and we can turn on a screensaver so the screen turns off when not in use.

2. Get your employees ready

Make sure your employees are well prepared and setup for success; sit down for an informal meeting during the quiet times, or outside of opening hours, to go over any concerns you or the team may have. The health and happiness of your staff is vital and being able to work well as a team will alleviate stress.

You may also want to think about getting some extra hands on deck and adding a team member or two if needed. Seasonal workers are a great way to manage the workload and there are sure to be a lot of people looking for part-time or temp work around this time.

If you do hire seasonal workers, make sure they are thoroughly trained before throwing them in the deep-end! Take special care training them on your EFTPOS or Point of Sale system (POS). Don’t forget to cover transactions which come up less frequently, like refunds and split payments, to ensure the store continues running as smoothly as possible, even during the busiest of times.

3. Offer Promotions

Summer sales and promotional offers are a great way to draw in customers. You could host special events or offer Christmas specials on certain products or services – you could even offer gift-wrapping in-store! A great way to create and manage promotions is via a POS. If you don’t have a POS system, you should consider getting one as it reduces human error, tracks your stock and can help you manage your promotions and sales.

Our terminals integrate with a wide range of POS systems. See our integrations list here

4. Boost your marketing

Platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram can be cheap and effective ways to market your business and keep customers updated on any season sales, special offers or events you have on.

With summer in full swing it’s an ideal time to cover fun seasonal content, upcoming events, deals you may have, or even showing off the day-to-day activities of the business!

If you have loyalty cards or programs, now is the time to remind people, especially if there are item specific rewards – this a great way of drawing customers in.

Need support over the holiday period?

Just a reminder that Smartpay is here for you 24/7,

if you need help with EFTPOS please call us anytime on 0800 476 278.

Speak with one of our Kiwi payment specialists today!

Every year our payment specialists help hundreds of businesses in all sorts of industries to get the right payment solution. Talk to us about your business today.