Like many other industries, mobile accessory sales tie into major events, holidays, and seasons. According to When I Work, “20 to 40 percent of yearly sales for small and mid-sized retailers take place within the last two months of the year” and “55 percent of consumers plan to visit stores on shopping days like Black Friday or Cyber Monday.” Our businesses thrive or wither on the strength of great products and seasonality. According to Business Dictionary, Seasonality is defined as “Periodic, repetitive, and generally regular and predictable pattern in the levels of business activity where most or all sales originate in a particular season, quarter, or month.” In order to take advantage of the various events, holidays, and seasons you need to plan accordingly, and VoiceComm is here to guide you!
In the mobile accessory industry our seasonality tends to be focused around the following:
- Device Launches
Based on our experience, significant sales are generated – understandably – around the launch of a new device. A vast majority of consumers will almost assuredly purchase a case, and chances are these early adopters will be a tad more malleable, so the likelihood of selling additional accessories such as screen protectors, cables, chargers, and Bluetooth speakers is higher than usual.
- Gift Giving Holidays
As illustrated above, Christmas tends to be the most important holiday season for retailers. However, there are other gift giving holidays that consistently help with your bottom line, including May and June graduations, Mother’s Day, and Father’s Day. For Mother’s Day we see a surge in accessories targeted towards females, while more masculine accessories are popular during Father’s Day.
- The Four Seasons
We generally see an uptick in interest for waterproof products during spring and summer, which makes sense since so many people are out and about with the potential to get soaked at a pool party or at the beach. During the fall and winter we see more interest in products for use in the home since it’s more likely the cold is an impediment to going outside.
When it comes to preparation, there’s no one size fits all rule for success. However, there’s plenty of wonderful tips and tricks that can aid in your journey. In a piece entitled “Preparing Your Small Retail Business for the Holidays,” website Intuit provides sensible recommendations including how to “Promote the holiday spirit,” “Introduce special products,” and “Offer incentives.” Website eCommerceLift published a complementary piece where they also recommended how to “Prepare your stock,” Make a Holiday Marketing Plan,” and “Check your resources.” These recommendations can be applied to events and seasons too—not just holidays.
The seasons, holidays, and events we mentioned are by no means a complete list of everything you should prepare for. Take your customers into account, your geography, etc. and realize there’s some sort of holiday or observance every day or week. An understanding of your customers’ wants and needs is an essential component of effective preparation, so be mindful and seek to identify new ways to engage. Christmas doesn’t come in August, but with the right plan you may be able to sell like it is!
We’ll have more about the topic of preparing for wireless retail seasonality in the next blog, so stay tuned, share, sell, and enjoy!