Although they happen every year, holiday sales are always an exciting time of year and can get even the cynical interested in what your store has on display. NPR recently reported on the way that holiday marketing plays off of natural psychology to get consumers excited about buying again.
The source spoke to a behavior economist named Carmelia Kuhnen on the basic reasons why people get so involved with successful holiday marketing, even when it doesn't necessarily center on that store's biggest sale of the year. Following her observations, your business could use special seasonal POP signs to keep enthusiasm up and help shoppers feel genuinely excited to explore sale offerings.
Kuhnen says that well-engineered sales, particularly those centering around Black Friday, trigger the reward center in the brain and get consumers interested in purchasing.
"When that happens, people end up making certain choices that are quite interesting," she said. "So they tend to take on more financial risk, they tend to prefer, much more strongly, immediate rewards rather than delayed rewards. And they tend to be much more interested in purchasing a good that's showed to them."
CNBC cites information from the retail website Polyvore on how early in the year shoppers have specifically searched for Christmas goods online. Just two years ago, the earliest searches were recorded on October 27, but this year they began at the end of September.
All of the pieces in your shop, from the store window graphics to displays that promote the season, should go together and get everyone interested in the store offerings unique to the time of year. Seeing a physical transformation in your store could help spark the shopping spirit in your customer base, no matter when you start.