With the soar in demand for all things Halloween, more and more businesses in the UK are starting to embrace the spooky season by offering limited time discounts and products. Whether it be online or in brick-and-mortar stores, UTP offers numerous types of card machines to best suit your business, from cheap card machines to eCommerce payment solutions.
The celebration of Halloween has become increasingly popular in the UK, with it now being the third largest event, behind Christmas and Easter. The UK spent £687 million during the Halloween season in 2022, which is a drastic increase from the £12 million spent over a decade earlier in 2001.
Physical stores
Halloween is the perfect time for businesses in the food and beverage industry to get creative! This can be done by redesigning some food items to resemble ghouls and monsters, or altering cocktail recipes with food colouring to mimic a gory scene. By implementing this, you may entice existing customers to purchase an additional product in light of the limited edition items on your menu. Decorating the exterior of your business lets the public know that you are celebrating Halloween, which can then lead to heightened footfall and increased sales, as customers may enter your store to see what products your business has to offer.
With the added attention your store might be bringing, it is important to offer payment solutions to suit your customers’ needs. 47% of the public prefer to pay with a debit card, so it’s increasingly important to offer a fast and reliable card machine to customers. UTP offers a range of card machines depending on which one best suits the needs of your business. For businesses within the food and beverage industry, the UTP Pro is voted the best card machine, due to its super long battery life, wide range of connectivity options and portability.
Other businesses can use the Halloween season to create limited-time deals and services, such as beauty salons capitalising on creating spooky looks, and retailers creating exclusive discounts. Allowing employees to dress up for Halloween directly links to customers remembering and revisiting your store, humanizing your business and boosting sales. Reports show that customers are more likely to tip when an establishment puts in an effort to celebrate an occasion. This service can be added on during payment with UTP’s card machines.
Online stores
Incorporating Halloween inspired designs and colour schemes to your website makes it clear that the site is active and leaves a lasting impression on customers. Businesses, whether selling Halloween-related products or not, are known to offer special sales to celebrate the season. This can be done by selecting certain products that perhaps are not selling as well and reducing them in price, or creating a Halloween-themed discount code that can be used on your website.
Consumer eCommerce accounts for 30% of the total retail market in the UK. Therefore, having an online store has the potential to dramatically increase sales. UTP’s eCommerce Payment Gateway is compatible with a large range of off-the-shelf website shopping cart solutions, enabling merchants to accept payment transactions easily and immediately. Having an online payment gateway has the potential to increase sales for businesses due to it being open and able to serve customers 24/7, whilst also removing geographical limitations. 39% of shoppers aged 45 and under shop online for Halloween related products. Therefore, implementing Halloween related sales or colours is a great way to both enlarge your brand’s customer base and entice existing customers to make additional purchases.
Social media
Social media should be at the forefront of marketing your business, with Halloween being a great time to make extra content surrounding the season. Topics surrounding the Halloween season trend online every year, therefore your business can utilise this to see engagement from new users. In the holiday seasons, many businesses create ‘giveaways’ that can be posted to social media sites, usually Instagram. For a user to get entry into the competition, usually the post needs to be liked, other users to be tagged in the comments and the post to be shared to the users story.
Businesses that are able to create a lasting memory for consumers are predicted to have returning customers during the Christmas period. This is often a cost-effective solution to increasing brand awareness. Leveraging the popularity of seasonal events and creating engaging and memorable campaigns can be a huge factor in increasing sales for your business.
Halloween should be a fun time for businesses and customers alike. When using products and services from UTP, you can be assured that you are getting the most competitive transaction rates in the industry, as well as some of the most technically advanced terminals. We take care of the payment side of things… so your business can focus on making the most of the spooky season!