Signarama

Seasonal signage can play an important role in driving sales during the holidays. Shoppers driven by the traditions and emotions of the holidays are looking to find the perfect gifts for their loved ones and friends at the best prices during this elevated sales season. This month, we will discuss how to align signage to drive sales from looking at types of displays, creative design, and placement of displays for any holiday season.

Holiday Shopping is Key to increasing sales

While many consumers shop online, in-store purchases still prevail during the holidays.  Did you know that almost one third of retail sales for the year occur between Black Friday and Christmas Day? Research shows that 46% of shoppers visit brick-and-mortar shops with their shopping lists, while nearly 70% of shoppers on Black Friday shop in-store and close to half of all holiday shoppers will shop in stores at some point during the holidays. But it’s not just the winter holidays that you should be considering! From Easter to Halloween, holiday signage is a great way to boost your bottom line and attract customers to your storefront! So, what exactly makes for successful holiday signage?

Best Practices for Effective Holiday Signage

When creating your holiday signage, keep these best practices in mind:

• Dressing Up for the Season—Just like decking the halls and breaking out the decorations at home turns your home into a colorful display of lights and greenery, creating a warm and inviting environment with glistening holiday signage can give your store’s appearance a fresh new look. Your branded seasonal signage with up-to-date holiday deals and promotional information enhances your store’s overall appearance.
• Coordinating Your Efforts—One thing you want to avoid is holiday signage that makes your store look cluttered and obscures your products. Designing your seasonal signage with consistency across all your platforms will give your store a more professional look that will draw shoppers and reinforce your brand throughout your store. Include your holiday signage designs on your social media posts, to tie into your store signage.
• Using Simple Yet Powerful Graphics— Capture customer attention, with simple yet powerful graphics. Impactful for foot traffic, as well as people driving by, branded holiday graphics should draw attention and entice interest in your business.
• Incorporating Impactful Text — Your holiday sign designs should implement succinct messages that are easy to read. With everything that’s going on during the holiday shopping season, signage text and images should stand out against the background of your signs, by using simple fonts, contrasting colors, drop shadows and other effects that maximize readability. Clear, concise messaging will get the attention of shoppers.
• Choosing High-visibility Placement— The rule-of-thumb for retail holiday signs involves placing signs in high-traffic areas within clear customer sightlines. This goes for exterior and interior signage, making it as easy as possible for shoppers to notice and read your signs even on the go. Plus, double-sided signs boost your signs’ exposure.
• Including Brand Colors— Using your brand colors in your holiday signage provides a powerful visual trigger for shoppers to remember your business. You can use your brand colors in your holiday signs and draw attention to your unique color scheme.
• Highlighting Your Brand’s Personality— Use holiday signs to reinforce your brand personality with your unique voice. Whether your voice is whimsical and humorous or more formal and authoritative, use your brand’s voice to personalize your holiday signage messages. Next, consider what type of signage will make your sales soar this holiday season.

• Window Graphics —Decked out in your branded motif for the season, vinyl window graphics can announce your seasonal sales and promotions, holiday shopping hours, and other intriguing information or images that catch the attention of passers-by.
•  Window Decals—Give shoppers a peak at your store’s holiday experience with pops of colors, such as oversized tree ornaments or stylized snowflakes to dress your windows up for the season, along with strings of lights and snow frosted borders.  
• Banners—Large format vinyl banners can create a holiday scene with larger-than-life full color photographic images featuring your logo, your holiday message and/or your popular products. Make a splash with vertical banners that create a holiday scene or feature your holiday sales to welcome shoppers to your store.
• Flags—Create a festive and merry mood with vibrant full color feather and teardrop flags that dance in the wind and can’t be missed from the street, the sidewalk, or in a shopping mall.
• Digital Displays—Trending in store windows and entrances, digital displays attract attention with video content and other visuals that can show holiday scenes, your product lines, educational info about your products or services, customer reviews and other content. Easily updated as your sale info changes and as the holiday season progresses, you can count down the shopping days left and provide more entertaining, educational and engaging to entice holiday shoppers.
• Illuminated Signage—Shine an innovative light on your store front with LED backlit signs, lightboxes or 3D lettering. Decorate these with light strands, garland or greenery to accentuate the holiday season! Illuminated signs also work overtime providing higher visibility at night and during inclement weather. Now that shoppers are interested in your store and holiday deals, keep the party going with your interior retail signage.

Engaging Interior Retail Signage

Many of the traditional retail signage types are in play once shoppers are in your store that include:

• Illuminated maps— Wearing your holiday motif direct shoppers to different departments
• Hanging banners— Adding to the glory of your in-store decor, glittering hanging banners direct people to various departments
• Wall murals— Holiday wall murals accentuate the festive mood and lead shoppers to your seasonal sales and deals
• Floor Decals —Use your floor space to direct customers with holiday themed floor graphics 
• Digital Displays—Draw customers to your holiday deals and promotions with digital displays that can also include videos of your products, as well as POP digital displays that advertise specials, such as extra points during the holidays when shoppers join your loyalty program.
• Step and Repeat Banners—Go a little Hollywood for photo opportunities in your holiday displays with a red-carpet backdrop that connects your holiday signage to social media platforms, as giddy shoppers post their holiday experiences with your brand in the background.
• Illuminated Signage—Brighten your store’s interior with backlit signage on counter fronts and tower signage that will thrill holiday shoppers.

The holiday shopping season offers the opportunity for retail businesses to exponentially grow their businesses. To make the most of the holiday shopping season, your store signage must stand out from the competition with holiday signage that creates a festive atmosphere to drive traffic to your store and increase your sales. Contact Signarama to help you with any part of your holiday signage decisions. It’s never too early to start planning for a successful holiday season!