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The holidays are good for your ice cream shop!

As a small business owner you should take advantage of the holidays while you can! They do wonders for dessert shops and restaurants across the globe.

While the holidays are shall we say... hectic... They do provide a little boost in sales during months that are typically slow for ice cream, froyo, gelato and other dessert shops.

Not all holidays are created equal and not all shops utilize them to their fullest potential. While we hate to sound like some greedy corporation, we also know the importance of your small business staying profitable year round. For some people, it's make it or break it.

So how can you increase business during the holidays as a frozen dessert distributor!? Well lets talk about it!

The next holiday is Halloween, then we have Thanksgiving, Hanukkah and Christmas (in terms of holidays that increase commerce anyway). So let's just focus on these one at a time. In this blog we will talk about the spooky month of October!

Psychology plays a major roll in landing sales and increasing foot traffic. Any decent marketer studies what causes a persons brain to engage into purchasing mode. And the holidays in general increase purchasing by up to 90%... 

We have giant retail chains and non-stop TV advertising to thank for that. Did you know that as early as October the amount of money people are willing to spend on goods and services doubles? And so does the frequency at which they make purchases.

Q4 is considered the best time for any brand to make sales. For the frozen treat industry it is a little different since we are selling items that are typically out of season during Q4. But with a little creativity and savvy marketing, you can spur some serious sales.

Check this out... Using holiday decorations in your shop, changing the color of your cups and spoons to match the holiday colors, and adding any other festive designs or ideas WILL increase your sales.

The holidays starting at Halloween automatically cause consumers to be "primed" for purchasing. People don't even realize it but due to the absolutely insane amount of ads, subliminal messaging and billions of dollars shelled out by corporations each year to convince people to buy for the "holidays"; has created a metal trigger response in almost every American.

It's quite a strange phenomenon, but as a small business you can use it to keep your store profitable during the cooler months.

Okay... So, holiday themed supplies and decorations are number 1. You will also want to make a holiday promotion (or two). For example, have a special pumpkin themed flavor (pumpkin spice, egg-nog, etc...), that is promotion #1 and make sure to actually promote it! That means letting it be known that it is a LIMITED time flavor and will be gone a the end of the month.

The next thing I would recommend is some type of special discount. Ie: Ghosts & Ghouls get buy 1 get one free on a small ice cream. (For ages up to 11 years old) etc. 

You'll need signage out-front or painted on the windows, signage inside and something located either on your menu or near where people order. Make sure to post all of this on social media and any other promotional outlets.

A good offer makes a world of difference.

We know it's hard to think about the weather cooling off while it is still 100 degrees out side but... That is where we are headed, and it's coming up! With that in mind another business booster during the holidays are heat lamps outside and a nice heated interior where people can sit and enjoy their ice cream cozily.

You can even have a sign out front that lets people know how warm and cozy it is inside!

So get those Orange supplies and start thinking about the holidays! 

Aug 30th 2022 Vincent

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