8 Tips for a Profitable Black Friday

Black Friday isn’t just for the big box stores. With the volume of shoppers expected to be the highest in eight years, your Black Friday retail mall kiosk is also likely to see some serious action. Will you be able to take full advantage, to make this a profitable kickoff to the 2014 holiday shopping season? These eight tips should help.

1. Virtually every mall does Black Friday advertising and mall-wide promotions. Participate in those opportunities as much as you can – it’s free in many cases, and it’s sure to draw more attention to your kiosk.
2. Your checkout line could be the land of opportunity. Longer than usual lines make a larger than usual opportunity to increase last-minute purchases. This article describes several ways to make the most of your retail checkout line. Your Black Friday mall kiosk has special needs and limitations, but you can easily adapt many of these ideas. We’ve hit on some of the highlights below.
3. Enlarge your checkout area. This is tougher for a kiosk than for a traditional store, but check with your mall management about how and where you may be able to set up displays or barriers that keep waiting customers neatly lined-up.
4. Even if you normally have more than one cash register within your kiosk, consider using only one on Black Friday. That may seem backward, but it can actually be an advantage for managing your customers.
5. Add a digital display to your Black Friday retail mall kiosk, strategically positioned for those waiting in line to pay. You can amuse them with short entertaining videos (to psychologically shorten the wait time), or better yet, show promotional photos or videos that suggest additional items they might want to purchase. Put those items within easy reach, so shoppers can snag them without getting out of line.
6. Even without a digital display, arrange your waiting line so that impulse items will be in front of customers as they’re waiting to pay.
7. Try to capture every customer’s email address, to build your list for year-round marketing.
8. Generate more traffic by handing out coupons right now that offer Black Friday discounts. Then give your Black Friday shoppers “come back” discounts for December shopping.

Work on your own and with your mall to maximize marketing that builds excitement about your Black Friday retail mall kiosk. Do whatever you can to turn long checkout lines into additional marketing opportunities, to boost last-minute purchases in an effective and customer-friendly way.

But in between attracting attention and ringing up the sale, you want to sell as much product as possible. Remember that tried-and-true suggestive selling techniques are just as useful in up-selling your kiosk customers as they are in traditional retail stores.

Palmer Retail Solutions strives to offer our clients the absolute best combination of innovation, quality, service, and value for our diversified custom store fixtures and merchandising displays. For more information about our designs, retail fixtures, cash wraps, kiosks, or point of purchase displays, visit our website at: http://www.palmerretailsolutions.com.