'Tis the season - Ensure you have the festive period all wrapped up with our three golden rules for boosting sales and our retail gifts special

The festive season brings a massive opportunity for your business, in terms of boosting retail revenue and increasing loyalty by giving something back to your clients. We ask three experts – renowned for implementing innovative and successful sales strategies – for their golden rules for making the most of December.

Rule 1 – incentivise The festive season is a highly critical sales period for spas, especially those who rely on local and residential clientele. While December is typically a “soft” month, we find that most activity is centered on the sales of gift cards or vouchers. Gift voucher sales can contribute 30 to 50 per cent of business and bookings from December 25, through to Q1. Therefore, it is imperative to have a strategic plan surrounding the maximisation of these sales. Successful initiatives could involve a team sales target set at levels that exceed the previous year, supported by a team incentive and reward. In addition, it is important to also provide an incentive for the clients. Offer home delivery of gifts (with a certain minimum spend) or additional spa credits and redeemable vouchers for those buying spas vouchers. For example, with every gift card purchased, you could give the guest an additional gift voucher of 180AED.

Paul Hawco, director of spa operations, Jumeirah

Rule 2 – personalise vouchers Our annually-updated Christmas vouchers are a unique selling point for SensAsia, and one that I hope makes us stand out in the market. Clients are always giving us invaluable feedback on our promotions, and they love the anticipation of new designs every year. We personalise the vouchers with bespoke gift tags, bearing a portfolio of fun messages such as “Meet Me Under The Mistletoe”, “You Totally Made Santa’s Nice List”, “Thank You, You’re Spa-tacular” and “Bubba On The Way”. The tags strike a heartwarming, emotional chord with both the sender and recipient. We offer an “early bird sale” each year, very competitive pricing structures and added value for bulk buys, free spa time for the sender, and free delivery! I have to say it’s also, a favourite campaign for me personally. It is so much fun to play outside the box and be able to throw all my creative marketing energy into something so successful. A complete joy of being SensAsia’s owner.

Salina Handa, founder and managing director, SensAsia Urban Spas

Rule 3 – client rewards It has become a tradition in the mariadowling Salon for us to have our very own “Tree of Fortune”, which runs all the way through December. It’s a really effective way of giving something back to our customers through what is traditionally one of our busiest months of the year. Our tree is covered with sealed mariadowling festive cards and every client who comes through the door is invited to pick a card. While some cards simply say, “Season’s Greetings” from mariadowling, others contain a gift from us, which can be anything from our own candles to gorgeous spa products. Our regular clients have come to expect it and often ask when the tree is going up!

Maria Dowling, creative director, mariadowling Salon