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Retail Christmas Promotions: 7 Ways to Drive Sales Without Discounting Everything · The Resilient Retail Game Plan - retail insights, retail trends and best practices

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If your Christmas promotional strategy is simply 20% off everything,
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then you probably haven't got a Christmas promotional strategy.
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What we're gonna talk about today is how you put together a plan for promotions
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in the fourth quarter that protects your brand and drives your sales.
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Welcome to the Resilient Retail Game Plan.
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I'm Catherine Erdly, and this podcast is here to share retail industry
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trends, insights, and best practices for you, the retailer who's serious
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about building something that lasts.
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This is episode four in a series of podcasts all about
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getting ready for Christmas.
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So the previous three weeks, episodes 316,
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317, 318 have been all about planning your Christmas and planning your Christmas
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range and managing your cash flow.
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You can give those a listen.
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You can also head to resilientretailclub.com/christmas
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and get a free PDF downloadable Christmas planner to help make
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Christmas 2026 the best one yet.
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But what we're gonna talk about today is all about how do you plan out your
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Christmas promotions and your Christmas messaging throughout this time of year,
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because right now is the perfect time for you to be working on your Christmas
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marketing, planning it all out so that when those busy months come, you can
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focus just on selling and delighting your customers and not on trying to
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work out what is going on and what you actually want to talk about week on week.
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The first thing I wanna say as well is that when I use the phrase
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promotions, for me, a promotion is just an opportunity for you to start
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a conversation with your customer.
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It does not have to relate to being a discount.
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So for example, new stock coming in, that is also a promotion.
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That's just a conversation you get to start with your customer.
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And it can be a really noisy time of year, the fourth quarter.
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It has become reputationally very promotionally driven,
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especially around Black Friday.
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But what I wanna talk about is how you can come up with a blend of promotions,
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a blend of messages throughout the fourth quarter that will allow you to hit your
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sales goals, delight your customers, but not leave yourself broke at the end
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of it or have you damage your brand.
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One of my favourite phrases is saying discounts are like spices.
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A small amount of them makes things interesting, but too
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much of them ruins the whole dish.
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So it's not that discounts are bad.
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It's just that they're overused.
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And another misconception is that people think that
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discounts are for the customers.
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The customers are getting 20% off this or 20% off that.
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But actually, discounts are for you as a business owner.
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The discount should only ever be used to achieve something that you want to
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achieve, whether that is an overall sales uplift with a blanket discount,
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in other words, money off everything, or whether that is for you to clear
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a particular patch of sticky stock that you would love to get rid of.
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The discount is really for you.
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It's for you to achieve your business results.
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It's not for the customer. You want to use them deliberately.
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So for example, to clear stock, to reward loyalty, or to create urgency.
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And you don't wanna just do them just because everybody else is discounting.
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You also want to be really careful and make sure that you have a nice mix of
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discount messages across the fourth quarter, as opposed to repeatedly
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using one of the hard-hitting ones like money off everything. What I'd
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love to talk you through is seven different types of promotions.
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The reason I want to bring this up is because I believe that your job as
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a business owner is to come up with a lovely mix, just like in a recipe.
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You want the perfect blend of lots of different elements to help you make
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this promotional calendar that works for you and works for your business.
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And different business owners will have a different tolerance.
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Some people will want to do more discounting, some people will
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want to go through the Christmas season with zero discounting.
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That is completely up to you.
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But what I'm gonna walk you through now are seven different types of promotions
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that you can consider at Christmas that you can then choose from and work
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out what ones you want to slot into your calendar so that you've got a
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nice mix of lots of different things, as opposed to just hammering the same
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kind of message over and over again.
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I always think about promotions on a continuum.
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So they go from the most premium, something like a giveaway or a
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competition, which is something that doesn't feel distressed at all, it
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just feels like something nice for the customer, all the way up to the other
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end of the spectrum, which is what we call red sale or stock clearance sale,
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where it's 50, 60, 70% off everything and it feels quite distressed.
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If a brand that you loved was constantly doing 50% off everything,
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you'd be a bit concerned about their future, whereas if they were always
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doing competitions and giveaways, you wouldn't have any concerns at all.
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You'd think that was quite nice.
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They also, that same continuum, it runs from the most premium or the least
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distressed to the most distressed.
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That also tends to run from the biggest impact on sales.
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So for example, if you do a competition, it might raise a bit of profile
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for your business, but it's not necessarily gonna be a sales driver.
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Whereas in fact, if you did something like, for example, 50%
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off everything, you absolutely would see an uplift in your sales.
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Now, the only caveat I'd put on that is that the more that you do a distressed
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promotion, the less impact it has.
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So I'm not saying that, "Oh, if you wanna drive sales, just
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discount a load of stuff," because it doesn't really work like that.
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But it's just to give you an idea.
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I'm gonna talk you through these seven promotions, and I'm gonna
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run them up this continuum.
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I'm gonna start with the least distressed and move to the most, but just in
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the back of your mind, remember that typically we're also moving up the
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effectiveness in terms of driving sales.
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As I said, it's good to know about these different types of promotions so
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that you can create yourself a calendar in the fourth quarter, which has a
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nice mix of all of these all together.
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So the first type of promotion that I want to talk about is
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the competition or giveaway.
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So this is not so much about being a sales driver as it is about getting sign-ups.
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You might want to really push for email sign-ups, for example, as
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opposed to social media follows.
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It can also work really well as a collaboration.
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So for example, you might want to do a giveaway with another brand or
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business, or combine with other people in your local area to do a competition
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across multiple different businesses.
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It's a really good feel-good way of giving back to your customers.
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I've also seen people do it, for example, we often forget that Black Friday, which
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we'll talk more about later, is based around the US holiday of Thanksgiving,
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which happens on the Thursday, and then Black Friday's on the Friday.
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And I've seen, particularly American brands, for example, do a whole
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week of giveaways as being thankful and giving back to their customer.
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So there are nice ways of doing it that can combine well with the
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general message of the holiday season.
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But typically, we're not talking here about something that is
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gonna be driving a lot of sales.
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But it can be really good and a great way to build your
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relationship with your customer.
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It is premium, and it is also what I would say almost kind of a bit of a padding.
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So for example, if you look at your entire fourth quarter week by week,
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which I definitely recommend, and try and slot in for each one what
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it is that you're actually going to be talking about each week.
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If you feel like there are a whole load of weeks where you don't really have anything
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to talk about, that's when you can put in your competitions or your giveaways.
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Also, just to say, when we're talking about the super premium ones, this isn't
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actually even one of the seven, but even before you get into doing something
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like a competition or a giveaway, don't forget, as I mentioned earlier
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in this episode, that your newness, new products in, that is also something
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that is well worth you talking about.
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That is a promotional message in itself, a conversation you
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get to have with your customers.
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The second type of promotion that can work really well at
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this time of year is a perk.
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So a perk is a little extra that you're giving to your customers.
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It's things like free gift wrapping, upgraded shipping, a gift
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with purchase, or free shipping.
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And it depends on the brand, some people will see a really good
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uplift, especially if they normally charge for shipping, for example,
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and they now are doing it for free.
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But it is not necessarily guaranteed.
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Some people also, if they get a really great gift with purchase that
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people really love, then that can help drive sales too, especially if
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it's something exclusive or unique that people can't get otherwise.
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So it's a really good feel-good one, and it can be done
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obviously themed to the season.
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You also wanna think about how you extend it for your VIPs.
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Now, this is true for all of the different promotions.
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When I worked in the big corporates, what I would do is I would put together
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a plan for the fourth quarter in terms of promotions, but for each
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one, I would also have to say how we were going to make it better for
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our email subscribers or our VIPs.
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So your VIPs/email subscribers/most loyal customers, they should always get some
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kind of upside for being on your list.
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And so, for example, if you're giving away upgraded shipping, then could
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they get an extra day to access that?
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If they're getting a gift with purchase, could they get, again,
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an extended time period where they get this gift with purchase?
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What can you do for them that makes it just that little bit better?
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Or first dibs on exclusive products for a gift with purchase.
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What can you do to make it just that little bit better for the people who have
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emailed, who've signed up to your emails?
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The third type of promotion is what we call a bounce back.
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This is where you give somebody a voucher or money off a future transaction.
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So this weekend only, get a free £5 gift voucher to put towards your next
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purchase every time you spend £20.
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It can help drive purchases into the new year.
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If you're somebody who really struggles with capacity, this could
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be a good way of trying to shift some demand into the new year.
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But again, these have fairly mixed results.
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I've done quite a few of these over the years, and sometimes
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we see a bit of a bump.
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It's still a good feel-good message, and it's still a good
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reason to talk to your customers.
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Promotion number four is a spend more, get more.
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So this would be something like £5 off when you spend up to £50
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or £10 when you spend up to £100.
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It can feel more premium than, say, just 10% off everything because it's
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tied to higher levels of spending rather than just a blanket discount.
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But effectively, it is a blanket discount, but it just only
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kicks in after a certain price.
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Another type of promotion you'll see a lot this time of year, especially
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in bigger retailers, is a multi-buy.
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So that could be either something like a small discount.
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So this is a really effective technique for driving your average transaction
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value, and it's one that you see over and over again in people like L'Occitane
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or Neal's Yard Remedies or Lush.
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You'll see them over and over again putting together
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bundles of products in a box.
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Makes it super simple for a customer to walk in and pick them up.
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They also give a little bit of a discount to the customer.
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It might be, you know, £35 worth of product and they pay £30 for it.
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You could do something similar.
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You could even not necessarily show a discount for the bundle, just put them
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all together and maybe instead they get something like it's gift-wrapped
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or it's in a gift basket or something like that, which is the upgrade that
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they're getting for buying the bundle.
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But it's a great way to drive your average transaction value,
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and it feels very premium.
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There's nothing distressed feeling about these kinds of bundles.
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You also have things like buy one get one free, which is effectively the same as 50%
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discount, so it's quite a deep discount.
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Buy one get one half price, which is the same as 25% off, or three for two, which
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is the same as around a 33% discount.
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Three for two is very, very common messaging.
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You'll see it on the Boots sets that they sell, Boots gift sets.
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You see it on decorations.
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You'll see it on Christmas wrap, Christmas cards.
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Lots and lots of the big categories that are sold at Christmas will
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have these three for two offers.
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It can be tricky.
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I mean, it is still a pretty big discount, 33% off.
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Most big retailers will have built this into their margin already
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when they bought it in, so it might not be achievable for you.
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But do have a think about are there lower cost products or lower price products that
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people buy regularly that you could offer some kind of bundle discount in order
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to push your average transaction value?
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You could also do it for limited time only if you want to add
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that extra urgency as well.
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Promotion number six is your discounts.
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So these can be different types.
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You can have a blanket discount, for example, 20% off everything.
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You can have targeted, so 20% off selected items, or you can have a
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staggered, so up to 30% off everything, which would be some things are 30%
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off, some things are 20, some are 10, for example. These are the ones that
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you really want to minimise their usage, especially the blanket discount.
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Now, I know operationally it's much easier to turn on a blanket discount than to
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do some of these other things, but in my mind, this is something that you should
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only ever use, if you use it at all, you should use it once or twice a year.
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So I do know people who have very successfully built up their
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business because they do a blanket discount Black Friday, and they
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also do, for example, a blanket discount on their business birthday.
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So they're only doing it a couple of times a year, and that therefore helps
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them show to the customers that when they get this 20% off everything or
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this blanket discount, that it's a really big deal and they need to act.
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If you do it too often, if you repeat this too many times, it
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loses its impact, and people will just expect 20% off.
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Think about some of the biggest businesses like Boden or White Stuff.
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They seem to be running these kind of discounts over and over again to the point
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at which people will start to question if it's ever worth paying full price.
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You don't want people to be thinking that about your business.
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So if you are gonna be doing a discount at Christmas, then you definitely,
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definitely want to maybe do one in the entirety of the fourth quarter.
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The final promotion type is your red sale.
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This is your stock clearance.
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Most people will be doing one of these, but probably this is gonna
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be your post-Christmas, either Boxing Day, depending on how
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ambitious you're feeling, or maybe in the new year if you have some
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stock that you want to clear out.
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So now that you've got all of these different ideas for your Christmas
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promotions, what should you be doing now?
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Well, in terms of Christmas marketing, a great timeline is spending some
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time in the summer on planning.
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Go through week by week, identify what kind of message you could have each week.
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As I said, it could absolutely be that each week you're talking about
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the new products that you've got in or maybe some of your hero products.
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But you might also want to work out and slot in what it is you're
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gonna be talking about each week.
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You also may wanna make a decision about Black Friday.
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Now, Black Friday is a bit of a controversial topic.
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Some people absolutely hate it and don't want to participate,
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and that's absolutely fine.
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Some people will participate instead on an alternative, for example,
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Small Business Saturday, which feels more aligned with their business.
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Other people will be taking part in some other kind of online event or
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market or something where they're offering a discount, and that's
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the only thing they're gonna do.
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They're not gonna do something else as well in their own
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business for Black Friday.
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And some people want to do a Black Friday offer, whether
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that is targeted or blanket.
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And I'm a big believer that everyone needs to do what they want to do for
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their business, what they believe is the right thing to do, but I also don't feel
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like you should be pressured into it.
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I think it's fine to do it if you want to, and I think if you don't want
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to, then that's absolutely fine, too.
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I would say if you're not taking part in Black Friday, it makes a lot of sense
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for you to actually tell your customers that so that they don't sit around and
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wait for you to come up with an offer when there's no offer that's gonna be
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forthcoming. So this time of year is great for planning, for content creation,
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for photography, and for making sure that you've got the stock ready to go
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to support your Christmas marketing.
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In September, you really want to be building your excitement,
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growing your email list, and start to talk about Christmas.
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You might want to showcase your hero products in October and start thinking
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about increasing your email frequency.
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In November, you might be doing Black Friday if that's appropriate for
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you, for your business, and you're certainly gonna be moving into the
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bulk of your Christmas promotion.
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Most people launch their Christmas pretty much as soon as Bonfire Night is done.
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They have that over and then Christmas promotion can start.
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And then December is all about executing on your marketing plan, pushing those
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sales, making sure you're aligned on your last order dates so that you know
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exactly when you're gonna be cutting off and making sure if you're e-commerce,
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that you're aligned on your last order dates and that you're planning
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all of your marketing around those.
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They haven't announced them yet, I believe, for this year, but they
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will be doing fairly soon, so just make sure that's built into your plan.
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So there's lots that you can do for Christmas.
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I definitely feel that the best approach is to start this early.
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Start looking at it now.
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Start putting together a plan.
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Lots of ideas in this episode of different promotions that you can do.
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So what do you want it to be?
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Think about your week by week.
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If you head over to resilientretailclub.com/christmas,
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you can get the free downloadable planner, which will also have
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a format for you to follow to plan out your marketing week on week.
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Because just remember that Christmas isn't won by one brilliant weekend.
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It's won by lots of good decisions over the next several months, and also
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by not being a knee-jerk reactionary when other people start doing discounts
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that you think, "Oh my goodness, I should be doing something," and pull
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something together really quickly, when actually, if you'd thought about
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it, if you'd taken the time now to sit and plan out your Christmas marketing,
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that you would've been able to see that you didn't need to do those discounts.
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There's a whole host of other things that you could do instead.
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More interesting messages, more interesting ways of engaging your
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customer that will ultimately be more profitable.
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So just a quick reminder as well that we have wrapped up our miniseries
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of Christmas planning episodes.
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Don't forget to go back and listen to the other ones about planning your
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Christmas, protecting your cash flow, investing in the right products, and then
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this episode, selling them profitably.
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Each episode has an action for you to take each week, and you can take them bit
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by bit, put them all together, and that will help you get ready for Christmas.
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Because the retailers who have the best Christmas, they aren't the ones who are
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lucky, they're the ones who got prepared.
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Thank you so much for listening.
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As I said, don't forget to head over to resilientretailclub.com/christmas for
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your free download, and don't forget to like, follow, and subscribe, and you'll be
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the first to know about each new episode when it comes out on a Thursday morning.
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See you next week.