How to stand out as a small business this festive season

This festive season, UK consumers are feeling the pinch of the cost-of-living crisis. Research shows that people are more conscious of where their pennies are going, with 65% of UK shoppers planning to decrease their gift spending relative to 2022.

Despite dampened economic conditions, shoppers aren’t letting this dull their festive spirit. Specifically, retail spending in the UK during the holiday season is projected to increase to £84.92 billion in 2023. However, recent data points to consumers prioritising value over volume (more to come on this). Furthermore, there’s an opportunity for retailers to tap into new consumer preferences and behaviours.

With Santa on his merry way, it’s time to prance into all the ways your business can stand out this festive season.

How to spread festive cheer that’s good for business this year

Have your elves accept more payments

As your elves spread the festive cheer around your store, it’s important that they have the right tools to take payments quickly and easily. Consumers are also increasingly adopting new digital payment methods like eWallets. It was found that around one third of British adults registered for at least one mobile payment service in 2022. Among this group, it was found that younger people were more likely than older age groups to use Apple Pay, Google Pay™ or Samsung Pay. Over the next few years, older people are expected to increase their uptake of mobile payments.

Great news for you! We have several in-store and online payment options that can be tailored to suit your business’ and customers’ needs. Plus, they can even be set up to accept global payment methods like Apple Pay and Google Pay™. Here are a few different solutions to help you accept more payments over the silly season:

• Card terminals: We’ve got a card terminal for every occasion, whether you’re after a stationary or portable solution. Our Bluetooth, WiFi or 3G and 4G enabled options are perfect for accepting payments on the go. Depending on how you’re planning on operating, having a wireless card terminal (with or without a charging dock included) can speed up and streamline your payment experiences.
• eCommerce solutions: Whether you’re setting up your website now or use a shopping cart solution, we’ve got you covered with our range of checkout integration options and plugins for leading eCommerce platforms. Plus, we can process payments in over 150 currencies and settle funds in over 25 currencies.
• Virtual terminals: Mix up your payments strategy by accepting payments remotely with the help of our user-friendly virtual terminals. Send payment links and take mail order or phone order transactions easily on any desktop, tablet or mobile device. This is also a great solution for merchants without a storefront.

Ensuring you have a mix of preferred online and point of sale payment options is key to serving every customer this festive season. By adding to your digital payments mix and offering seamless payments, you’ll enable more customers to purchase from your brand and share the gift of giving.

Offer Santastic deals and promotions

To appeal to changing budgets, merchants can adapt their efforts by introducing special discounts, promotions and flash sales. Research shows that 77% of consumers in the UK plan to spend more time scoping out deals and promotions to save a few pounds. For example, 12 Days of M&S and Boots' Star Gifts are some brands who have done this well.

Leveraging perishable ‘festive’ discounts can help drive sales as well as reel in new customers. You can also boost this by introducing personalised post-sales email journeys, allowing you to strengthen your customer relationships and help you turn a one-off transaction into multiple purchases.

Get your payment service provider to check your naughty or nice list

If you’re thinking of allowing customers to place orders now with a deposit or hold an amount and pay in full later when the order is fulfilled, it would be a great time to optimise your card authorisation and capture rules.

In short, authorisation is when the acquirer verifies with the cardholder’s bank whether a transaction is valid by performing risk checks and making sure the cardholder’s account has sufficient funds (among other things). If they pass, customers are put onto the ‘nice’ list and as a business you know they’re going to be able to make their order payment. If not, they make the ‘naughty’ list and a request is sent by the acquirer to the card schemes and issuer to reject the transaction, meaning you won’t be wasting your resources! You won’t even need to send them coal; just a message saying the transaction has been declined.

Card capture happens after authorisation and is when the merchant’s acquirer sends a request to move funds from the customer’s issuing bank to the acquirer’s account, in order for settlement to take place. Your capture and settlement terms will vary based on your agreement with your payment service provider.

Optimising these rules and workflows in the back-end gives you peace of mind that the extra special service you’re offering this festive season is going to help reduce the risk of declined payments.

Focus on gifts that keep on giving

‘Tis the season for green gifts or so the data shows, with 19% of UK shoppers saying they’re more conscious of sustainability and the environmental impact of their gifts. This represents a jump from last year, where only 10% of consumers were concerned about this.

Despite shoppers tightening their purse strings, 60% of locals are willing to splurge for more eco-friendly products. Furthermore, there’s an opportunity for retailers to diversify sales avenues by introducing and showcasing green products. For example, your business may look at selling products that use sustainable or recycled materials like John Lewis’ Eco Friendly Christmas Gifts. Another idea is donating a percentage of sales to a charitable cause, such as what TOMS and BLK and Bold do.

By focusing on Green Retailing, you’re not only benefitting the environment but can also grow your sales by appealing to the increasing number of eco-conscious shoppers.

Sleigh your delivery options

As the digital age continues to introduce new technological advancements, consumers are becoming more impatient when it comes to receiving deliveries for gifts. Metapack research shows most UK consumers (56%) expect packages to arrive within two days during the holiday season without paying extra for shipping. In fact, shoppers have revealed their biggest delivery grievance is late deliveries or deliveries arriving when they’re unavailable to accept it.

While consumers are more price-conscious this festive season, they’re willing to push the boat out for same-day or next-day delivery to ensure their gifts arrive before the ‘big day’. Despite this, less than one third of merchants offer their customers standard delivery that’s two days or less. Therefore, it’s paramount for retailers to offer customers an express delivery option to stay competitive during the festive season.

Give the gift of seamless payments

At emerchantpay, we want to make sure every purchase initiated by a customer converts to a successful sale for your business. Furthermore, it’s essential to make sure the final stage of the purchasing journey – your payments – is optimised and not overlooked this festive season.

Some things that can cause a shopper to abandon a payment include:

• Their preferred payment method, such as PayPal or Apple Pay, isn’t offered by an online shop.
• When contactless isn’t available for quick and convenient in-store payments.
• The online payment page doesn’t load correctly or is disjointed to the rest of your online store.
• There are too many unnecessary fields to fill in on the online payment form.

On top of these, security is also vital when accepting payments online. According to UK Finance, contactless payments remained a popular payment choice in 2022, accounting for 37% of all payments made in the UK. In turn, fraud continues to climb with payment card fraud costing businesses around £258.9 million in the first half of 2023. emerchantpay offers robust fraud tools to help mitigate the risk of fraudsters taking advantage of your business this festive season.

How can emerchantpay help?

With more than 20 years of experience in the payments industry, emerchantpay can offer a range of payment solutions to help you stand out over the holiday period. If you’re expecting sales from tourists during the festive season, we can ensure you accept major card brands at your point of sale. If you’re currently using a major shopping cart integration (or eCommerce platforms like WooCommerce and PrestaShop) for your online store, we can also help expand your cross-border reach and accept payments from further abroad. Our team of payments experts are here to help you build a payment mix that suits your business, your elves and your customers for 2023 and beyond.