Christmas Countdown! – How To Prepare For The Festive Frenzy

Christmas is almost here, which means you’re probably thinking about what you need to do to prepare your shopping centre for the festivities! From decorating shop fronts to taking on extra staff, we’ve got a handy list of tips to help you get started with your shopping centre Christmas marketing strategy. Let’s dive in!

1) Start Everything Early

Ideally, you’ll want to start preparations as soon as necessary, allowing for extra budgeting and giving your staff time to build up to the big day. Making decisions early on about decorations, promotions, themed events and other marketing strategies can save you time and money when things get busy around Christmas.

2) Feel-Good Festivities

Make your shopping centre stand out with decorations that put your customers in the festive mood! Go the extra mile to make your stores feel Christmassy with wreaths, tinsel and fairy lights. To complete your decorations and really wow your shoppers, why not include an impressive Christmas tree as a statement piece, complete with presents and baubles?

Of course, your shops aren’t the only thing you can decorate – fill your social media and website with Christmas-themed posts and festive imagery to let people know you’re celebrating! Once you’ve successfully decorated your stores, post some pictures to entice people to visit.

3) Advantageous Events

Most people who visit your stores will be planning on buying something in the holiday sales, but you can increase your foot traffic further by putting on Christmas events for your guests. Ice skating and Christmas arts and crafts are popular with younger visitors, whilst Santa’s Grotto events are perfect for guests of all ages hoping to get on the Nice List this year!

3) Promote Promotions

Your retailers will be pushing all kinds of offers throughout the festive period, so keeping track of when each of your sales are on is key to successful shopping. If you know when brands and product ranges are starting their discounts, you can plan your marketing campaigns around them to give each of your stores the best chance of being visited.

4) Gift Guides & Holiday Shopping Tips

For those shoppers who don’t have a lot of time on their hands, gift guides can be a lifesaver. Advertising certain products for certain groups of people (e.g., students, parents, children, etc.) helps customers find what they’re looking for quickly, without having to wander aimlessly around stores for hours to try and find the perfect gift. You can integrate these gift guides into your existing marketing strategy too, sending them out to customers as emails or posting them on social media.

5) Extend Your Opening Hours

Christmas can get busy, which is why giving your shoppers more time to get everything done is a great way to boost your sales. Later opening times can help to accommodate larger volumes of foot traffic, giving your stores the opportunity to bring in some extra revenue.

6) Boost Your Staff Numbers

To make sure that everything goes off without a hitch, you need to have enough staff to balance out the workload. Christmas can be a great time to take on extra employees, either temporarily or permanently, as a way of coping with the increased visitor numbers. If you’re worried about getting everyone trained up in time for the holiday shopping spree, consider taking on your staff a little earlier in the year to allow them to get plenty of experience.

Master Christmas Marketing With Us!

If you’re still unsure about how to implement a robust Christmas marketing plan for your shopping centre, our experts at Shoppertainment can help. Managing over 100 clients across the UK, our shopping centre commercialisation and marketing opportunities can boost your footfall and generate more sales for you this holiday season. Contact us today to find out more!