How you could boost profits over Easter

Making the most of seasonal celebrations is a crucial opportunity for businesses to engage with their customers and increase sales and profits – and Easter is no exception.

Here at takepayments, we’re sharing some key spending insights from the Easter period in 2022 to help businesses take advantage of the event this year. We’ve collected data from card machines, online payments, and point of sale (POS) systems from April 10th-17th, and here’s what we found:

• Our small business partners tracked nearly 200,000 transactions throughout the week leading up to and including Easter Sunday
• Finder’s annual Easter spending statistics found that people spent, on average, £26.85 over the Easter weekend in 2022. Combined with our sales figures, we estimate that nearly £1.6m was spent at our partner’s businesses in the UK in that period
• 13,450 purchases were made on Easter Sunday, significantly lower than the week’s daily average
• The total number of sales peaks across all sectors on the Thursday in the run-up to Easter, with transactions falling across the weekend
• Northern Ireland saw the most significant drop in average transactions on Easter Sunday against the days leading up to the holiday
• On Easter Sunday, the industry that recorded the highest number of transactions was restaurants

Where do we spend the most on Easter weekend?

From chocolate eggs to fluffy hot cross buns, Easter is traditionally celebrated with family and by feasting. This is reflected in our data, as across the Easter weekend, customers ate out and completed more sales there than any other industry. In fact, restaurants accounted for a third of overall transactions.

Interestingly, hair and beauty establishments were surprisingly high on the list too. This industry had the second-most transactions in the North and South East, Northern Ireland, and Scotland. Whether they want to take advantage of the bank holiday or are looking to freshen up ahead of Easter Sunday dinner, people are enjoying some hard-earned ‘me’ time.

It’s also worth mentioning that nightclubs were the third-most-popular industry for transactions on Easter Sunday. While nightclubs might sound surprising initially, businesses can’t forget about the bank holiday Monday the day after – restaurants might rule the roost, but nightclubs should expect and prepare for lots of custom too.

If you’re after a little inspiration on how to use our insights to make the most of Easter for your business, then look no further. Our five top tips will help you maximise your sales opportunities, so let’s hop to it.

Tips for how to boost your sales

1. Make sure you’re preparing for the right time

Based on our partners’ transaction data, the Thursday in the run-up to Easter had the highest sales across all industries and areas in the UK. Sales on Easter Sunday fell by 57% in comparison.

Also known as Maundy Thursday, it marks the end of Lent – in other words, that’s a lot of people who could be looking to splurge on the things they’ve given up over the previous 40 days. In addition to the end of Lent, Thursday is traditionally the day before the Good Friday bank holiday and Easter weekend.

Whether people are making up for all the things they gave up, or they’re trying to get their last-minute shopping done before bank holiday opening hours come into play, it’s evident that Thursday marks a surge in sales.

To prepare for this increase, businesses should put preparations in place well ahead of Thursday, when they will probably receive peak footfall or online traffic.

2. Make your in-store experience one to remember

For anyone with a shop window, an Easter display is a great way to catch consumers’ eyes and show you’re making an effort.

Did you know window displays are the first point of contact a consumer has with a business and have been shown to increase sales by as much as 540% if done well?

You could create an Easter scene with bunnies and chicks, hang some beautifully decorated eggs, and even colour-coordinate them to your business. The options are endless.

Here are some more ideas on how you can tailor your store to the holiday:

• Create an Easter cocktail by giving a classic a seasonal twist. For example, your ordinary champagne cocktail could become a ‘Bubbly Bunny’
• Cafe owner? Rustle up some themed biscuits in an Easter shape; children especially will love it
• In the nail business? Offer themed nails with cute stickers and pretty prints
• And if you run a restaurant, put on an Easter-themed menu (lamb and rabbit are popular choices).

3. Create a super-targeted email campaign

There’s no easier way to market yourself than through a targeted email campaign. Put some thought into the content, tie it to Easter in a lighthearted way, and you’ll have successfully linked your business to the event.

Make sure you grab your reader’s attention with a clever subject line, like ‘Check out our Easter eggstravaganza’ or ‘tweet yourself this Easter’! And don’t be afraid to use an emoji or two where relevant – research from ReturnPath has shown that using them during festive seasons can increase email open rates.

Give all the details of whatever you’re doing for Easter, whether it’s an event, promotion, discount or otherwise, and finish off with a clever twist on your call to action. Where you’d normally say ‘shop now’, you could say ‘s-HOP now’ or ‘hop to it’.

4. Leverage social media

There are so many ways you can use social media to benefit your business, but here are our top Easter picks:

Run a competition

Consumers who’re engaged with your business are more likely to hand over their hard-earned cash, it’s been shown time and time again. So, run an Easter-themed competition and you’ll incentivise people to engage with you while boosting the chance they’ll share your posts - widening your marketing efforts further.

Not sure how? Here are a few ideas:

• Guess the name of the chick – Simply post a picture of a cute little Easter chick and ask your followers to guess its name. Be clear that people must follow your page to participate and offer a prize for the winner, such as a free drink, £10 voucher, etc
• Egg-decorating competition – Ask your followers to embrace their inner child and decorate an egg, post a picture on their feed, and tag your business in it. First prize gets a free haircut, second prize a free blow-dry, etc
• How many eggs are in the jar? – Put a bunch of Easter eggs in a jar, take a photo, and ask your followers to guess how many there are. Anyone who gets the right answer wins a free cup of coffee.

Remember: make sure anyone who enters is following your page and, where possible, get them to share it with their friends. By increasing the number of people following your feed, you’ll ensure that a larger audience sees future social media campaigns.

Run a poll

Get consumers to interact with your business by running a poll. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram all offer them and they’re a great, cost-effective way to boost engagement while showcasing your products.

It can be as simple as ‘which of these Easter-themed dishes looks tastiest?’ or ‘which of these scented candles would make you think of Easter?’ but you’ll be highlighting your great offerings while you’re at it.

If you need visuals to accompany your poll, stick to Facebook and Instagram, as Twitter won’t allow you to attach images.

Images and videos

Use your social feeds to share pictures of your Easter displays alongside your products and use the occasion as a springboard to upsell your stock.

By posting a photo of your display with a caption along the lines of ‘We’re so excited for the Easter weekend, are you?’, you’ll be engaging with your followers and building a sense of anticipation while subliminally highlighting your assets.

Another excellent method for up-selling is videos. It could be of your staff doing an Easter egg hunt around your cafe, showcasing your products while having some lighthearted fun. Or, if you’re a hairdresser, you could do an Easter hair tutorial to provide value to consumers while highlighting your skills and expertise.

5. Don’t forget about promotions and events

If you’re the kind of business where a loyalty card makes sense, like a cafe or beauty parlour, consider running a promotional discount which can be achieved by gaining a certain number of stamps in the weeks ahead of Easter. This method means customers will be enticed into making repeat visits to be eligible for your discount.

Don’t forget to decide on your promotion early, so you’ve got enough time to let all your customers know and build anticipation.

For cafes, bars, and restaurants, a colouring competition is a super cheap and effective way to boost engagement and keep parents happy. All you’ll need to do is print some Easter-themed pages, buy some crayons, and you’re set to go.

Ask parents to put their phone number or email address on the back of the sheet so you can let them know the winner, but it’s always a good idea to give a prize to all entrants to keep a smile on everyone’s face.

Top tip: don’t give out prizes on the same day. If you let people know at a later date, they’ll more than likely come back to your business (and potentially spend more money) to collect their prize.

Some other ideas for events include:

• A visit from the Easter bunny
• Story-telling time for children
• How to make your own Easter bouquet workshop
• Basket-making and egg decorating
• Hoppy Hour - 2 for 1 on Easter cocktails

Last but not least, have some fun by hosting a good old-fashioned Easter Egg hunt for your customers. It’ll demonstrate goodwill and generosity, which equals boosted loyalty. All you have to do is hide an abundance of little chocolate eggs around your premises and remember to make sure there’s enough for everyone to find. Then, you’re good to go.

An Easter Egg hunt doesn’t need to cost you much either and you’ll be showcasing your store and products while you’re at it – it’s a win-win.

Did you know that almost half of consumers would abandon a purchase if they couldn’t pay the way they wanted to? Don’t let your payment systems cost you sales over Easter, or any other time of the year.

Whether it’s your in-store POS systems, card machines, or online payments that need sprucing up, our team of experts are on hand to help, so get in touch on 08082 393254.

Jodie Wilkinson

Head of Strategic Partnerships