How to Make Big Holiday Sales as an Artist, Maker, or Creative Entrepreneur

APPLE | SPOTIFY | YOUTUBE

Hey Beautiful Creative!  

If you’re an artist or maker, you know that the holidays is the time of year when you have the most potential to make huge amounts of money. Money that can help carry you through the slower parts of the next year. If you’re like me, you’re feeling some pressure right now about how set yourself up to really maximize your holiday sales. That’s what we’re talking about today. How do you make the most money possible while people are really spending and buying gifts for everyone they know? What can you do now to set yourself up for the most holiday revenue possible?

I’m going to give you lots of ideas. Don’t feel like you need to try to do them all. I don’t want this to feel overwhelming, I just want to get the juices flowing and give you lots of options for how to increase your holiday sales. Pick the ones that sound like the best fit for you! 

Planning and Inventory Projection

Right now is the time to look at all of your supplies, if you haven’t already, and see what you have and what you might need to order. Think about which products have been your best sellers this year, what is trending right now, and then make your best educated guess as to how many of those products you think you will sell during the holidays. You’ll be kicking yourself if you run out of your best selling items too early and miss out on potential sales. But you also don’t want to have a ton left at the end of the year. I personally prefer to overshoot a little and have a bit left than to run out.

That said, it’s a moving target, and things are always changing so do your best.

Hiring Help

Could you benefit from having some help with production, shipping, administrative tasks, or at markets? You may find that it’s totally worth the cost of paying someone to help you because that increases your output and frees up a bit of your time. Obviously check the labor laws in your state to make sure you’re in compliance, whether you’re hiring a contract laborer or someone who joins your staff.

Website Ready
Make sure your website or Etsy shop is updated with your most current products and good photos. Check that your titles and descriptions are SEO-friendly to help optimize search traffic on Etsy or Google during peak season.

Increasing Sales

How can you get the people who are shopping with you to spend more? 

Have you ever been shopping online and the items in your cart total a certain amount, let’s say $65 and the website is offering free shipping if you spend over $75, so you reason that you’d be spending that extra $10 on shipping anyway, so you might as well pick out some more items? That’s a very effective strategy for increasing average order value. Think about how you can apply that concept, or something similar to your business.

Here are some other ideas for increasing average order value:

• Incentives: buy X, get something free. Spend X amount and get a free gift or free shipping. People love getting things for free or feeling like they’re getting a good deal. You could also offer a coupon for them to use on a future purchase and help get yourself more sales in the slow season - like spend $100 and get a coupon for $10 off your next purchase (good for use after the new year). As I’m typing this out, and I’m not even joking, I just got a text from New Seasons that says, “Hi neighbor! Get “The Cookie” for free when you spend $10!”
  
  
• Make a bundle or a gift set:  put together a selection of items that go well together, or your top sellers, and knock a little bit off of the total price so people get a deal if they buy them all together. (Example: Here are my best selling skin care products. The full retail value of them all together is $155, but if you buy them as a set you save 10%.) Gift sets make amazing holiday gifts. You’re making it so easy for your customer to have the perfect gift for someone. Sephora does an excellent job of making holiday gift sets that sell out early every year, and then drive demand for the next year’s sets through FOMO.
• Examples of a bundle could be a necklace and earring set, or your 5 best selling soaps, or a print, postcard and sticker. Think about products that you can group that people might want to buy all together. Maybe they came to your website or craft market booth to just get a couple soaps, but it’s a better deal if they buy 5, so you’ve just increased your order value.
  
  
• Offer a subscription: This is a fun one because everybody loves getting something in the mail (that isn’t junk mail)! I just ordered my sister a 3 month chocolate box subscription from one of our Crafty Wonderland vendors. Create a soap of the month club, or an earring of the month club, or offer a subscription gift box where customers could give their friend or family member something fun that comes in the mail monthly. You could offer 3, 6, 9, or 12 month options if you’re up for it. Just be sure if you’re doing this that you have a good system in place to keep it all organized. You absolutely have to follow through on this and ship things to everyone as promised and when expected.

Holiday Collections

If you’re releasing a holiday collection or limited edition items that are only available for a certain time, make a big to-do about it! Create some buzz and get people really excited about what is coming. Show them some sneak peeks and behind-the-scenes, do a countdown. Create urgency by letting them know quantities are limited or only available for a certain time. 

Engage Your Current Audience + Customers

People who are already following you and people who have bought from you before are a warm audience. They’re familiar with your work and they are more likely to buy from you than someone who is just meeting your work for the first time. Make the most of these relationships. These people are like gold. Connect with them. Make them feel special.

Plan your email campaigns and social media posts early, so you’re not scrambling. Map out your release dates and any promotions you plan to do and figure out an email and posting schedule that works within that time frame. The more of this you can do in advance, the more time you’ll have to be making things and filling orders later. 

• Send special offers or discounts to your email list, past customers, or social media followers

• Let them know that the offer is just for them so they feel appreciated and recognize that it’s a unique opportunity that you created just for them.

Reach out to Wholesale Accounts

If you sell wholesale or on consignment to boutiques, check in with them now to see if they need to order any additional products for the holidays. (Unless you’ve recently had a holiday order from them, in which case wait a little while until after they’ve received it and then follow up.) Checking in regularly with your wholesale accounts is a really good way to increase your sales. Often, shop owners or buyers are really busy and they might have ordering from you on their to-do list, or maybe they’ve forgotten, and if you ping them it will bump you back up to the top of their mind and make their lives easier. 

Create an Excellent Customer Experience

Turn all of your shoppers into repeat buyers by providing excellent customer service. I always like to include a hand written thank you note with my orders and I make sure they are nicely packaged and will be a treat to open. You could offer gift wrapping for free or as an upsell. Remember that if you create a memorable shopping experience for someone they will be so much more likely to buy from you again and they may even refer you to a friend. 

Set Yourself Up for Success in the Slow Times

• Collect customer email addresses during the holidays, both online and at markets. Then send them an email in January with a thank you for their support and a sneak peek of what’s coming in the new year. 
• Review how your holiday sales went. What promotions worked well and what didn’t. Make notes so you can look back at them for the next year.

With a bit of planning and preparation, you can make this your best holiday season yet! Get out there and sell your work, beautiful creative! And let me know how it goes! After the holidays are over, send me an email or a DM on Instagram (@heybeautifulcreative) and tell me what you tried and what worked well for you! I am wishing you a prosperous holiday season filled with ease.