Increasing Sales In A Down Economy

In an economy where demand is trending down and inflation is up, your clients are making hard decisions to trim expenses to protect the bottom line. However, you don’t have to let it impact your prosperity. In a more stable economy, there are three general options for growing your business: find new customers, expand your business, or increase the value to existing customers. In a down market, the last option is the best path to growing a business.

We’ve seen our partners thrive during economic uncertainty by selling deeper into accounts, building on and strengthening existing client relationships.

How to Increase Value to Existing Customers

Your customers are looking for ways to operate more efficiently and streamline processes in order to keep costs down while enhancing customer service. Before you approach them, audit the solutions they currently use and look for complementary solutions with the potential to produce fast ROI, such as:

Gift Cards

The gift card market in the United States is booming. Valued at $185,406.3 million at the end of 2022, the market is expected to reach $247,990.1 million by 2027¹. Market drivers are the growth of e-commerce, companies choosing gift cards as promotions and employee incentives and increasing consumer demand for digital gift options.

Furthermore, once merchants sell gift cards, they can expect more revenue later. Blackhawk Network research found that, on average, consumers spend $51 more² than the value of a $10 gift card and up to $106 more than a $500 gift card.

Adding or upgrading gift card solutions is a near-guaranteed way to help your clients drive traffic and increase revenues.

Online Ordering

An effective strategy for growing a business in 2023 is optimizing online ordering. The e-commerce market is growing; 70 percent of the U.S. population shops online³. Implementing online ordering helps merchants remain competitive and provide the convenience consumers demand, like in-store or curbside pickup.  Additionally, in the food and beverage industry, online ordering has grown 300 percent faster⁴ than dine-in since 2014. Some restaurants may have launched online ordering by working with third-party order and delivery apps and paying fees to use them. By providing your clients with the right online ordering solution, they can expand their reach and gain more market share without increasing costs by working with a third-party ordering platform or adding resources.

Incorporate Line Busting or Pay-at-the-Table Terminals

Competition for consumers’ wallet share will increase in a down market, so your clients will need to focus on providing the best experiences – and that includes prompt service with minimal waiting.

Merchants can incorporate solutions like mobile checkout, self-service kiosks, and automated checkout to keep lines short and customers happy. Help your clients determine what solution best complements the unique way they do business.

For your restaurant clients, offer pay-at-the-table technology, which eliminates the wait to settle a check at the end of the dining experience.

Consider New Pricing Models

Another way to increase value is to offer your clients new ways to pay for technology. Your clients may need to make hard choices, but as a trusted advisor, you can present options that might mean they don’t need to choose between upgrading technology or struggling with outdated solutions. Offering new pricing models for your solutions and services can be the quick win that builds stickier relationships with merchants.

One option is Software as a Service (SaaS), a payment model that allows you to provide your clients with solutions for a month-to-month subscription payment instead of a yearly license fee. This provides flexibility and affordability to merchants looking to balance out cash flow, particularly during times of uncertainty.

Another option is Hardware as a Service (HaaS), which allows you to offer total solutions, software, hardware, and services, for one price that can work with their budgets. Keep in mind that a bundled offering can help you improve your margin on sales, so it could benefit your business as well as your clients.

The right payments partner can also help you build offerings that can help you provide high-value solutions while selling deeper into your current accounts and benefit from added recurring and residual revenue.

Build Your Business in Any Economy

It’s never time to sit back and wait for circumstances to change. When growing a business in a down market (or at any time), pulling back won’t lead to growing revenues. It’s time to get more aggressive, fill your sales funnel and offer added value.

Learn how partnering with a leading payments company can help you add value to the solutions you provide and grow your business. Contact us.

Sources

1. United States Gift Card and Incentive Card Market Report 2023
2. New Report from Blackhawk Network Examines Latest Consumer Gift Card Preferences and Use Cases in the U.S.
3. Ecommerce Trends for 2023
4. 25 Most Influential Online Ordering Stats To Know In 2023