How to Turn Holiday Parties into More Sales
It’s not called the most wonderful time of the year for nothing.
A holiday party—whether it’s your own or part of a community event—is a terrific way to show your customers you appreciate their business. What’s more, some good old-fashioned face-to-face contact personalizes and strengthens your customer relationships—something you can’t always say about email.
And while parties are a terrific opportunity for your customers to purchase directly from you outside your tasting room or taproom, many craft producers consider this a tricky proposition. Have you ever struggled with processing payments while making sure a party is running smoothly? No thanks.
Never fear, you can host a memorable festive event and boost your holiday sales at the same time. All it takes is a little planning, a website template optimized for mobile, and a craft producer-focused eCommerce solution. We’ve outlined how you can ramp up for more holiday sales below.
Step 1: Give Customers a Reason to Attend
Even if you enjoy a solid reputation in your community, take a cue from event planners and make your holiday party stand out from the dozens of other festivities happening this time of year. Ask yourself: Why would I go to this event?
Of course, a special holiday promotion is essential. But throwing the community’s must-attend event takes some additional creativity. Consider building your sales strategy around one of these popular party ideas:
CUSTOMER APPRECIATION NIGHT
Make your customers feel special with an exclusive event. Promote a preview of new vintages, offer pre-wrapped holiday gifts, and promote personal shoppers who can provide wine recommendations.
Get-Them-in-the-Door Offer: Give gifts to the first 100 people who walk through the door.
SPECIAL GUEST SOCIAL
Entice locals to attend by bringing in an expert, speaker, or entertainment. Plan the party around the special guest, who ideally, should complement your business and appeal to your customer base.
Get-Them-in-the-Door Offer: Hold a talk on how to pair wine with holiday food favorites or showcase a popular band in your area.
COMMUNITY GALA
Sponsor an existing holiday event or team up with your business neighbors to create one of your own. Be sure to pick a date that doesn’t directly compete with other nearby parties.
Get-Them-in-the-Door Offer: Raffle off a gift basket of wine, along with gift cards and items from other local retailers.
CHEERS TO CHARITY CELEBRATION
Choose a local charity and invite your customers and prospects to do some good this season. Have donors, members, and volunteers from the non-profit organization on hand to share stories about their mission—and to thank guests for supporting a worthy cause.
Get-Them-in-the-Door Offer: Donate a percentage of all wine sold during the event to a non-profit organization.
Step 2: Simplify Event Sales with Winery-Focused Solutions
Previously, VineSpring worked with the Sonoma Valley Vintners and Growers Alliance (SVVGA) to implement an eCommerce solution for Signature Sonoma Valley—their premier annual event—to allow attendees an easy and convenient way to purchase the wines they loved.
We’ve outlined how your winery can use this same turnkey approach to sell product at your holiday party below.
CONFIRM YOUR STATE’S LEGALITIES
Before you set up your event “store,” make sure you’re in compliance with your state’s particular sales rules and regulations. Visit Sovos ShipCompliant, Avalara , or your state’s Alcohol Beverage Control (ABC) board to learn more.
USE A WEBSITE TEMPLATE FOR WINERIES
You don’t have to reinvent the wheel and create a website for your holiday party. A hosted store front, like VineSpring’s, makes it easy to create product pages. Failla Wines quickly set up eCommerce site when their tasting room was shutdown by the pandemic. Learn more about VineSpring’s storefront options.
If you need a website in a pinch, Vin—a wine-focused creative agency—creates responsive websites for a reasonable monthly fee. Customers can easily access the website—without logging in—on their phones and place orders before, during and after the party.
Vin also offers a custom Wordpress plugin for VineSpring customers. Check it out.
CHOOSE A WINE-FOCUSED ECOMMERCE SOLUTION
VineSpring includes built-in features that satisfy the unique needs of wineries, such as inventory and allocation tracking that ensure you don’t sell wine you no longer have in stock and only sell wine to event attendees. You can even consolidate orders for a scheduled pickup after the event or ship directly to individual customers.
After your party, wrap up your event marketing push with a follow-up email to attendees reminding them the special party offers are still available for a limited time, say a week or so after your event.
WANT TO PROCESS PAYMENTS ON-SITE? USE THE RIGHT POS SYSTEM
The perfect POS system depends on your party. Is it an intimate event or a widely attended holiday extravaganza?
For an event with a lower volume of transactions, a system like VineSpring POS shines. You need something simple, reliable, and flexible. It offers an easy way to transact credit cards directly in VineSpring while getting access to customer details.
If your transaction volume is large, Square has you covered. Coupling the power of Square POS with VineSpring’s beverage alcohol-focused commerce gives you the most powerful transaction system in the industry. As a world-leading POS system, Square can easily process a huge surge of transactions, fast. Square POS also gives visibility into club member status and customer lifetime value so you can spot your best customers in a crowd.
We hope these ideas and solutions have inspired you to throw a memorable holiday bash that makes selling more wine a snap during this busy time of year. Here’s wishing you a happy—and successful—holiday season!
The holidays are fast approaching, but you still have time to set up your eCommerce solution in time for your seasonal event. Request a VineSpring demo today.
