Christmas is a time of joy, presents, dinners, and a time to do all that has to be done before the year ends: Christmas is the best time of the year for children, families… and also for businesses.
Studies prove that in the month of December the revenues in retail are 50% higher than other months. In some specific sub-sectors of retail, such as jewelry, the Christmas revenues in December can make up 30% of annual revenues.
It’s not surprising: in the United States, the average budget for presents is $520. And that is only one slice of the retail pie. At Christmas, other than buying presents, kids are at home for their winter break, people have office parties, and a lot of them are eating out. Industries as a whole see themselves benefitting, from catering to sales more closely related to tourism.
That is why all businesses get ready to absorb and absorb. Every single corner of every single store gets decorated, there are special Christmas offers, and Christmas trees abound. The same happens with music: the jingle invasion is near, or has already begun!
The Christmas Creep
Since the day after Thanksgiving, what experts call the Christmas Creep starts everywhere: suddenly everything is Christmassy. We turn the downtown streets into some magic winter wonderland! Everything reminds you of Christmas, including the music, so you won’t forget to buy the presents! Holiday music puts customers in a festive mood, and retailers know that this stimulates the shopping. Many studies support this, and also, nobody wants to be the Grinch of the neighborhood by not getting involved with the tradition!
However, playing too much Christmas music too soon can be a problem. Apart from reminding customers of happy moments by just listening to it, Christmas music can produce stress with the pressure of buying, spending and the need to be happy.
You can gradually incorporate the Christmas season by using SoundMachine’s mixing feature, and taking two stations –one with Christmas music, and one with your regular music- and putting them together. You can adjust the weight each of the stations over time until you end up with 100% Christmas music near the end of of December! By adjusting the weight of the mixed stations, you can adapt to all kinds of clients: those who enjoy getting in the holiday mood earlier in the year and those who prefer to keep it down until the actual dates are closer.
Taking staff into account
For retail workers, Christmas can be exhausting. With more shifts, and more staff with less experience to train, it’s a stressful time for everyone. That is why we support taking care of staff as much as the clients.
And what do they enjoy the most? There is no perfect formula to find a specific type of music that pleases all, but according to the polls, retail workers tend to enjoy more upbeat songs. The clients enjoy these songs as well, but they don’t seem to mind variation as much as staff does.
Christmas with character
Do you have the feeling that at Christmas you go into one store, you go into another one, and you realize that everyone’s playing the same music? The same holiday songs are playing over and over again everywhere you go. While it is true that All I Want for Christmas Is You is the most beloved song of all, it’s not necessary to stop differentiating yourself because of that!
There are Christmas songs of all styles, which means that there’s no need to play the same things everyone else does. Even the Ramones have their own Merry Christmas song! If your business has a cutting-edge attitude, use it and play Christmas music that goes with it. Your customers will love discovering that the reggae that is playing in the background is actually holiday music!
In SoundMachine we have an ample variety of Christmas music stations if you are out of ideas: classical, smooth jazz, reggae, jazzy, soft piano, indie folk, contemporary, 60s and 70s soul, R&B, pop, latin, vintage classics, vintage country, modern country or rap. Find the one that fits you best!
You can sign up for a thirty day free trial in here, and enjoy some merry merry holidays!
