Whether you sell ice-cream cones on the beach or cater to the clothing preferences of tourists who come to town for their warm-weather vacations, one fact remains the same: Those hot months are fleeting. If you want to turn a healthy profit at your seasonal business, you need to take advantage of every moment. Although streamlining your payment processing might not seem like the most glamorous way to make improvements, it is one of the best and easiest ways to please customers and keep them coming back.
1. Partner with the right company.
Are you happy with your current merchant services provider? This third-party vendor should provide you with everything you need to accept payments from your customers. This collection should include a credit card reader and POS terminal, the software to run them, and peripherals such as a barcode scanner, cash drawer, and receipt printer. Along with this hardware and software come various fees, some of which you can negotiate and some that are beyond your control.
As a seasonal business operator, you should select a provider that has the hardware and software combo you need and helps you to get acquainted with it quickly. That’s because you can’t afford to waste time or potential sales. Furthermore, the nature of your business requires that you get fair prices and are not locked into complex contracts that could become burdensome during less busy months. When you conduct careful research to find the best payment processor, you can make the most of every sale.
2. Take advantage of your POS solution’s features.
Your POS system might not look imposing, but it should be teeming with a rich array of capabilities that can help you to jump-start your seasonal store’s profits. For example, you can harness its power to do the following.
- Launch a contact database.
- Create and promote a loyalty program that encourages frequent visits and entices people to spend more.
- Find out which of your staff is excelling at sales so that you can ask them to demonstrate their techniques to other associates.
- Use your system’s employee management tools to ensure that there are never too many or too few people working during any given shift, thus facilitating optimal customer care.
- Use your POS system’s inventory management capabilities to keep in constant touch with your stock. You can’t afford to run out of sought-after items or squander space on merchandise that isn’t flying off the shelves.
In short, don’t just use your POS system to simply accept payments. Take advantage of all it has to offer!
3. Use your POS solution to spearhead marketing campaigns with short turnaround times.
Your seasonal store’s success is compressed into a few precious months, so encourage buyers to become members of your special club right away. Entice them with targeted discounts based on their buying histories, and reward them for referrals, repeat business, and social media shout-outs. Everything you need to get and stay in touch with these key human assets can be gleaned from your POS system and the payments you have processed.
Before you know it, August will slide into September, the leaves will begin to change color, and your brief season of summer sales will be a distant memory. So, for now, do everything you can to leverage the many features contained in your payments processing system. Planning and hard work now will lead to healthy profits by Labor Day.
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