Shop VS holidays. How to make the New Year not put the retailer on the shoulder

Any major holiday - a serious test for the store. On the one hand, sales are growing, on the other - an increased flow of customers can significantly complicate the life and work of the outlet. Therefore, the preparation for the holidays includes a number of activities relating to all the nodes of the store: the trading floor, the warehouse and the cash zone. We tell how it affects the cash register and cash register software.

According to the influence they have on retail sales, all major holidays can be divided into two categories:
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• holidays for grocery retail (New Year and May holidays, Defender of the Fatherland Day, International Women's Day);

• Holidays for the non-food segment - clothing stores, cosmetics and perfumes, jewelry, children's stores (New Year and seasonal sales, Knowledge Day, Defender of the Fatherland Day, International Women's Day).

Major holidays in numbers

We give a small statistic that we have on the basis of experience in retail. By the May holidays for grocery retail, the growth in the number of buyers, on average, is 7-10%. The main peak is in the evening hours and weekends. By the New Year holidays, the Shopping Index turns out to be even more significant: 10-15%, and the increase in consumer traffic also falls on evening hours and on weekends. That is why some stores before the New Year change the mode of operation: they open an hour earlier and close later, or even switch to the 24-hour format.

Perfumery and cosmetics shops and other representatives of the drogerie segment also observe an increase in customers by the holidays. On average, it is 20%.

By September 1, in the children's stores, the Shopping Index rises to 30%, and by the New Year holidays - up to 50%.

However, speaking of consumer traffic, it should be borne in mind that the numbers change from year to year (this is influenced by many factors, ranging from the general economic situation in the country to even weather conditions). In December 2016, during the pre-New Year sales in Moscow, the Shopping Index was 4% lower compared to 2015. But since the large shopping centers with entertainment component recorded an increase of 7.5%, this contributed to a general increase in attendance for the year by 3%, writes New Retail .

“Kommersant” notes that in the periods before February 23 and March 8 of this year, Moscow shopping centers faced a drop in traffic. On pre-holiday days, it fell by almost 10% compared with the 2016 figures. Although usually the situation looks different: in 2016, in the period before March 8 and February 23, the Shopping Index increased by 10% (to 644.3) and 7% (to 575.3), respectively, to the level of 2015. Even in relation to 2014, the index was up by almost 2%.

But the cold weather in June of this year attracted buyers to the malls. According to Kommersant , attendance at metropolitan shopping centers increased by 4%. The growth of the Shopping Index was also observed by September 1: for example, from August 7 to 13, shopping center visitors increased by 2.4% compared to the same period of 2016, the Moscow news agency wrote.

And what shops do

So, provided that, most often, for large holidays (depending on the segment), the flow of customers in stores is increasing, retailers have to make sure that the influx of customers does not complicate business processes. If we talk about the store's shop floor, then everything is simple: it is enough to bring out additional employees. Things are much hotter at the checkout - the retailer needs to serve the increased flow of customers as quickly as possible and without a hitch.

Open unused cash registers. The easiest option (in the event that the store has enough cash desks) is also to bring additional staff. At this step can go big stores - super-and hypermarkets. However, it is not always effective: the retailer should have a clear idea of ​​the exact period of time to resort to additional cashiers. To display them for the whole day is not always rational, if, for example, the main flow of visitors is noticeable only in the morning and evening hours. By the way, the exception here are the days on the eve of the New Year, Defender of the Fatherland Day and International Women's Day. During these periods, people actively visit stores throughout the day, trying to prepare as productively as possible for the upcoming holidays.

Introduce self-service. Another possibility is the introduction of self-service in the store. However, you need to understand that the installation of the classic SCO (express cash registers for small purchases) does not particularly affect the situation. Of course, with these devices in the store will be more cash registers. But compared to sellers, buyers scan products more slowly, and they take a lot of time to pay for them, especially if we talk about cash or mixed payments. But in this case, Scan & Pay technology fully justifies itself. In this case, the goods are scanned by the cashier, and the client pays for them himself at the self-service station. In this way, the flow of customers through cash units, speed of service and satisfaction of store visitors increase.


The cashier scans the goods buyers


Buyers for received checks with a QR code pay for goods

By the way, for a long time the most popular solution on the market was Kubaster, the so-called Queue Killer . You could have run into him in fast food: an employee of the store approached a person standing in line, using the data collection terminal to scan goods, pack up purchases and send data to the cashier. This slightly accelerated the passage of the queue. However, today we can say that the technology is outdated and has not been properly distributed in our country.

Organization of additional cash places. The third opportunity that will help save the retailer's business during major holidays is the withdrawal of additional cash places. For example, stores using our Profi-T cash register program can quite easily create additional cash space thanks to a monoblock or even a regular system block. This is especially true for fashion retail. However, you need to understand that in order to implement this plan, you need to have additional equipment available and the ability to move it from store to store if we are talking about a network retailer. And it became much harder to do after the introduction of the new 54-FZ rules in Russia.

Recently, especially in the non-food segment, the reformatting of the service in the store itself and the care of mobile cash register technology has become popular. The principle of technology is somewhat similar to the Kubaster, but in this case it has stepped further. A store employee with a mobile device can go to the buyer at any point of the sales area, scan selected items and accept payment by wire transfer and print out a fiscal document on the cash register system installed in the sales area. But it is cashless settlement that is extremely popular today - for some of our customers, the volume of cashless sales reaches 80% and higher. To implement such a scheme of work, you will need one or two CCPs, several mobile devices (data collection terminal, tablet computer, or even a regular tablet that can work with bar codes). As a result, as practice shows, retailers can significantly relieve queues and speed up customer service.

Redistribute customer traffic between online and offline stores. Works well and encouraging customers to make orders remotely (in the online store network). In this case, in the sales area install the order and payment of the online store - that is, the buyer can choose your favorite product in the sales area, but not stand in line at the cashier, and arrange the delivery home. This can be easily done using the information kiosk, where the order basket is made, and then it is sent for payment.

All four of our methods, as practice shows, help the retailer to soften the emergency mode and provide high-quality service to customers during major holidays.