Last Minute Holiday Sale Checklist for Your Golf Course

With a little more than a week left before Christmas, there’s still time for last minute ideas to help make the most of the holiday sales season.  The 2021 holiday season is predicted to be one of the biggest ones in the past few years. We are living in the post pandemic era and the consumers want to spend a little extra than usual to make up for the time they have been unable to enjoy in-store shopping experiences.  You as an operator can make the most of this by making the shopping experience better for the consumers with just small tweaks. Here is a last-minute holiday sale checklist for your golf course to ensure that the consumers spend more at your store. 

Gifts with Purchase Over a Specified Amount

A little motivation helps the consumer shop more at your pro shop. You can give incentives like-

o             Gift Card Add-ons

o             Free Rounds Add-ons

o             Sleeve of ProV1 Add-ons

o             Free 30 Minute Lesson

o             Mystery Bag with a specified value

Such incentives sweeten the deal and make the consumers come back for more, all while raising the average transaction amounts.

Make Buying as Easy as Possible with One-Click Payments

When you think about your personal buying decisions, how significant is the ease of the buying process to you in determining WHERE you shop?  For me, I tend to use one or two hotel partners where I can store my credit card information and book with the click of one button.  In my case, I have one well known hotel chain and one well known online consolidator for deals within the region I am traveling.  I know it sounds crazy, but I would tell you that I make 99% of my hotel reservations with one of these two locations. 

Do you have a single sign-on (SSO) web or mobile solution with the ability store their payment preferences and have transactions fully integrated within your POS? 

Can your members login ONCE and:

•             Book a round of golf, check-in on their mobile device and pay for their round? 

o             Do they have to pay for their entire foursome and chase their playing partners for cash or PayPal payments? Or can each player make their own payment?

o             Do these customers grow your retail sales by adding essentials like a bag of tees or sleeve of balls to their order?

•             Reserve and pay for an activity class, entertainment, or recreational event?

o             Instruction, Camp or Clinics

•             Shop at your Retail Store

o             Clothes, Hats, Shoes, Outerwear

o             Gift Bags for the Golfer around Father’s Day or Christmas

•             Buy or Renew their membership

o             Fully integrated into their member profile

The ease and convenience of making online purchases with a profile and stored payment information has never been more impactful to buying decisions than it is today

Drive Loyalty and Membership Retention

There are many benefits to being the technology partner to a large base of very sophisticated, highly innovative clients.  One of the benefits I value the most is the insight we have into the commonalities existing within our most successful clients. We find that these clients spend considerable time, money and human resources enhancing and expanding their strategy around membership growth and loyalty. 

A successful loyalty program automatically captures your customer’s spend history and helps your business better target them with exclusive deals and seasonal offers. Loyalty programs that are integrated into your payment processing can also help your business gain analytics into how, when and why your most valuable customers are engaged with your business. We find this kind of information to be incredibly valuable in helping businesses know how to evolve and adapt to their customer’s needs. Today, we help strategize with our clients to deploy strategic loyalty campaigns that shift buying behavior, eliminate the discount focus to move stale inventory, and increase engagement and participation in signature events at the club.

Adapted Business Model

Barcode scanning is a big trend of the post covid era. When I go out to eat, I don’t get a menu in my hand anymore, just a QR code to get the menu, details of the specials etc. So why not adapt it this holiday season as well to make it easier for your customers. Websites like https://www.qr-code-generator.com/ lets you create your own QR code for free! Now make the shopping experience easier for the customers with the QR codes which include, the sale prices, special gift boxes, Christmas specific gift packages etc. The QR codes also let the customers shop in your online store and pickup curbside.  They can even use the QR codes to make purchases when they happen to be standing in-store, and just pick up the items after payment to avoid the holiday rush and long lines at the register!

Let Them Pay the Way They Want

If you are still allowing your members to write checks from their checkbook, don’t worry, we salute you in your efforts as many of these members want to pay this way. But… there isn’t any doubt that each year the number of people using their mobile devices for transactions is growing, and this list of mobile devices includes phones and watches today.  Contactless payments are simply a digital wallet environment where customers make their purchases without ever opening their wallet. Instead, they use their Android or Apple IOS phone or smartwatch to make transactions.  These transactions are called “proximity payments” and they grew substantially in 2019 and 2020 and are on pace to increase significantly in 2021. eMarketer forecasts that mobile proximity payments will reach $1.22 Billion in POS transactions in 2021, with it growing to over $1.35 Billion in 2022.  Your members, guests, and customers are only getting more comfortable with mobile proximity payments, and it will not be long before they demand that convenience from your property.  In fact, if you are located near a large urban population, it is likely you are already getting this request daily.

Mobile Friendly Ecommerce Website/ App

Like it or not but the shopping landscape is changing. Most of my online shopping happens on the go, and if I come across a website which doesn’t fit my cell phone or asks me to login via a desktop/laptop, they are going to lose my business. Mobile retails sales are predicted to reach $3.56 billion in 2021 which means that mobile ecommerce will take over desktop ecommerce. A fast responsive mobile website is the only way you can profit during this time. Mobile recognition can automate messages to your customers that are visiting your online store with messages exclusive to them, and links to exclusive inventory items for them to purchase. 

Want to know how our tools can help you grow your golf club? Send us an email today. 

For more information, please contact:

Lance Merrihew
707-779-2592

707-779-2592

Lance@totaleintegrated.com

About Total e Integrated

Total e Integrated is a leading provider of end-to-end business management solutions for recreation, retail, hospitality and community organizations. For over 20 years Total e Integrated has helped organizations to integrate departments, automate marketing, streamline operations and boost revenues with our innovative solutions and expert consulting services team.