Visa launches sales promotion guidelines for small businesses

As the holiday shopping season is approaching, Visa launches small business guidelines to maximizing sales for small businesses that are preparing for what is normally the biggest shopping season of the year.

The Visa Back to Business Study, Holiday Edition found that consumers are still ready to shop for the holidays, with 88% of consumers planning to buy and give gifts despite the pandemic. Most small businesses (60%) say they are already taking steps to prepare for the seasonal sales activity, including changing their infrastructure, digitizing their business, and extending their hours.

According to our research, COVID-19 has accelerated these five trends. For small business owners, making the most of these findings could help you reach new customers by taking advantage of the benefits of digital.

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(1) E-commerce “In Real Life”

Nationwide shutdowns not only sparked a coronavirus-driven surge in traditional e-commerce, but the lines between online, mobile, and physical worlds have completely blurred with curbside pick-up, aka “click and collect.”
While the Visa Back to Business Holiday Study found 59% of consumers who have relied more on e-commerce during COVID-19 will shop online for half or more of their holiday shopping, a substantial number of holiday shoppers are still eager to shop in-store or “In Real Life” (IRL, for short). This trend has not been limited to large merchants either. Bars, restaurants, and small merchants of all stripes have quickly embraced this.

Yet, nearly half (48%) of consumers still plan to do most of their shopping in-person.

(2) Social commerce is officially a thing

Social commerce and mini-apps a la WeChat are popular in Asian markets and making their way West fast. These experiences connect social interactions online with convenient shopping experiences, allowing people to buy products without leaving the app. Predictions suggest that more than 10% of mobile orders will happen through social commerce this holiday season [1], with 66% of Gen Z saying that they’ve already purchased on social during the pandemic. According to the Visa Back to the Business report, more than a quarter of small businesses or “SMBs” (28%) have tried targeted advertising on social media, which is an important first step to reaching new customers.

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(3) Contactless has become a key differentiator

In the Visa Back to the Business study, 78% of consumers said they have changed the way they pay, making a shift to digital commerce and technologies like contactless payments as a safety measure in the wake of COVID-19. The growing popularity of contactless payments around the world indicates that the convenience, speed, and safety of tapping to pay are preferred over traditional methods and SMBs should be hyper-focused on prioritizing a user-friendly buying and checkout experience. Nearly two-thirds of global consumers, in fact, would switch to a new business that installed contactless payment options.

(4) Gift cards and kits are growing in popularity

According to the Back to Business Holiday study, consumers expect to give more digital gift cards (32%) compared to previous years, followed by experiences like tickets, activities, or trips (19%), and digital entertainment (18%). Retailers who think “beyond the shop” have the opportunity to be better prepared for more restrictions come winter.

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(5) Be sure you are protected

Before the pandemic, it was easy to assume that fraudsters would try and hack the large merchants and organizations. Unfortunately, they have found that many SMB’s aren’t adequately protecting themselves, making them an easy target for a fraudulent activity like card testing or needing to reevaluate how they manage disputes given the many changes COVID-19 brought on. Retailers need to keep their fraud strategy top of mind and balance it with a smooth customer experience – especially with the anticipated uptick in online holiday sales. The best way to find a solution that works for your business is to use fraud tools that are simple to configure and easy to deploy. Work with your payment provider to figure out how to increase your authorization rates, while minimizing declines and fraudulent transactions.