It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. If the adverts on TV weren’t a huge giveaway. We’ve already talked about how you can ramp up your festive marketing, but now we want to turn our attention to how your charity shop can make the most of the shopping experience.

This year more than ever, your shop is in a great position to provide a valuable service to people. With some having to tighten the pursestrings, your charity might be the port in the storm they need. A place where they can find unique deals and contribute to a worthy cause. So how do you get those shoppers into your store? Let’s look at three tips for bringing in more Christmas custom this festive season.

Make finding you easy

The first piece of advice is to make sure people actually know what you’re doing. This ties into your marketing, but you also want to make sure people casually walking past your shop know what they can find inside. After all, two-thirds of people would be happy to buy Christmas presents from a charity shop.

Ensure that everything you have planned over the holiday season is well-advertised. Any sales, fundraisers, special events – make sure that’s out in the open. And make sure people know why you’re a great place to buy gifts. What do you have that no one else does? What qualities in your stock might people be into? Which leads us onto our next point.

Make shopping easy, too

When people actually come into your shop, you want their shopping experience to be as calm and stress-free as possible. Especially at this time of year when it can get quite hectic. Make sure your shop has clearly designated areas for any festive-themed items. If you’ve got a special Christmas sale on certain items, make sure that’s clearly marked.

There are also other ways to interpret this. Make shopping easy by doing the hard work for shoppers. Why not create hampers or bundles that are pre-packaged and wrapped? This way, it’s an easy present for someone to buy. Or offer a gift-wrapping service – for a fee, of course. 

If not that, then you could always advertise an alternative gift. Why not promote donations on behalf of others? That’s just one idea; brainstorm and come up with some fresh and innovative ideas.

Keep people engaged

While all of this applies to the average shopper on the high street, you don’t want to forget your regular donors. So make sure your festive emails are set up to get the word out about anything you’re doing. For all of the above, mention that in any emails or newsletters.

And even though times are difficult, you still want these to appeal to readers that aren’t in a position to donate. Thank-you emails for their patronage can go a long way. It’s all about staying in their mind and reminding them what your cause is all about.

There is some great potential there to make this festive period a successful one, even with all of the mitigating circumstances. How you make the most of it will come down to how well you put yourself out there and encourage people to engage with your charity. If you can do that, then you can end 2022 in a fantastic way.

When you need some extra assistance with your charity, turn to CHARiotWeb. It’s an EPoS solution designed for causes like yours, and can help make the retail process simple and straightforward for both volunteers and customers. To find out more, reach out on 01204 706000.