4 Ways to Have a Successful Winter Season Build a comprehensive sales and marketing plan to set your business up for success even after the holidays.

The last quarter has always been the most important quarter for any retail business. Most stores and companies do about 20-30% of their business for the year in Q4. Regardless of what type of retail business one has, this time of year is crucial to having a successful year or not. Many retailers put a lot of time, effort and money to ensure that November and December attract the most customers and produce record-breaking sales.

While this strategy is very important, it seems many retailers, especially small ones, miss out on one key point — how to drive sales after Christmas shopping is done. The holiday season is only the beginning of the winter selling season. To have a truly successful fourth and first quarter, smart retailers must master the entire winter season.

There are four key ways small retailers can have a winning winter season that goes beyond the holiday season. Let's explore them.

Related: 4 Ways Retailers Can Ride the Post-Holiday Wave to More Sales

1. Perfect your promotions

Having a sound promotion strategy is an important step to ensure success for the winter season. Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Christmas sales are the basis of any holiday strategy. Retailers have to fight for customers' attention through a jungle of competition, all vying for the same pocketbooks. Retailers have to be creative and savvy to win this race.

This time of year, the game of " who can be the cheapest" attracts most shoppers. Small retailers should play this game but strategically. Promotions should still be profitable. Retail owners shouldn't mark inventory down by significant percentages to compete. Markdowns should still have a minimum profit margin in mind, so you are still making money no matter how low you go.

Having the lowest price offer isn't the only route small retailers can go to stay competitive. There are numerous ways to compete while still preserving a healthy profit. Some ideas include:

• Provide free shipping on all purchases
• Free gift wrap in-store on a minimum purchase
• A gift with purchase (GWP)
• A drawing for a spectacular deal on one of your best items
• A giveaway of one of your best-selling or most coveted items

After Christmas, most retailers have huge clearance sales. This is to clear out winter inventory and adjust to the new shopping habits of their customers. This, for many, is a missed opportunity. Yes, shoppers are looking for end-of-the-season deals, but many are coming to you with gift cards and aren't as worried about the price. They simply want a fun shopping experience to treat themselves.

While clearance mode is necessary this time of year, it shouldn't be the only focus. This is a good time of year to have a "Winter" collection or offering that is different from what you showcased during the holiday season. This could be an extension of a collection or series that you already had, or it could be a sneak peek into your Spring collection. Retail owners should offer these items at a discount, but not a clearance one. The discount will pique customers' interest and not being clearance will make the collections feel special, encouraging shoppers to buy.

Related: 3 Ways Visual Merchandising Is a Retailer's Secret Weapon to Win The Holidays

2. Value your visuals

Visual merchandising is one of the most underutilized and misunderstood marketing tools. Small retailers often miss how valuable an adequately merchandised store can mean to their bottom line. This is the time of year where a store's visuals can really help them stand out and speak to their customers. By mastering this tool, stores can create a shopping experience that will engage their customers and keep them coming long after the holiday season is done.

To ensure the best visually appealing store, retailers should:

• Have flawless windows. A store's windows are the "soul" of its business. The windows set the tone for what customers can expect once they are inside. They tell the story of the brand, the brand's focus, what they are selling and the promotions being offered all in seconds.
• Communicate through signage. Clear communication is the key for holiday and winter selling. Signs tell customers what they want and need to know about what is going on in the store. Signs should be bright, bold, large font, and evenly distributed throughout the store.
• Tell stories with color. Colors evoke emotion. This is the season and time of the highest emotion. Retailers should capitalize on that by creating color stories within their stores. People are drawn to colors that they recognize mean something. Traditional colors of the holiday and the fresh newness of Spring colors will attract and engage your customers throughout the winter season.
• Dazzle with engaging displays. This time of year, people have a lot on their plates. They need gift and purchase ideas quickly and easily. This is where great displays come in. Window and in-store displays showing how an item can be used or look on the receiver are priceless. Customers get a visual of what is possible with the item and they get a glimpse of how the end-user will look in or enjoy that item.

3. Enhance their experience

Experience retail is a growing trend that many small retailers can benefit from during the winter selling season. This is one of the sure-fire ways to stay above the competition. Customers don't just want to shop; they want an experience. This can and should look different during the holiday season vs the Winter selling season. Stores should create experiences to fit the needs and wants of their customers.

For the holiday season, stores can create experiences by offering:

• Special VIP discounts to people on their email list or in a loyalty program
• Quick in-store pick-up on all purchases
• A VIP or a personal shopping spree with a purchase of a gift card

For the Winter holiday season, stores can create an experience by:

• Having a raffle for a private shopping experience for the new year
• Inviting VIPs to an exclusive line show or product launch of your upcoming products or collections
• Creating special or unique discount codes or coupons for people on the email list for a unique shopping experience

The ideas are endless, but the main point is for the retailer to use their store to create memorable experiences that put their brand ahead of the competition and instill loyalty within the customer base.

Related: How Brands Can Have an Insanely Successful Holiday Season

4. Satisfy with service

Customer service has been a buzzphrase for many years, especially in the retail industry. Unfortunately, many small retailers fail to truly understand what customer service is and how it can impact the success of their business. Customer service goes way beyond greetings and seeing if "I can help you find anything." Customer service is about who a company is as a brand and what they truly stand for. It's about how a store makes its customers feel while shopping with them. This is especially true during the holiday and winter selling seasons. Excellent customer service will help any retailer stay ahead of their competition and have a loyal customer base to shop their stores through the holidays and beyond.

Keys to ensure top customer service for the holiday selling season and beyond are:

• Clear and consistent communication. Make sure that all prices, policies and expectations are very clear and are communicated in a straightforward fashion. Things like the return policy, hours of operation, pricing and promotions should be communicated to your customers in a way where there is no room for confusion or friction with the brand.
• A knowledgeable and friendly staff. The people that work in a store are the first and sometimes only contact customers have with a brand. Of course, they should be friendly, but they should also be very knowledgeable. A great staff member is a great seller. They know how to assess a customer's needs, which product the store has to fit them, and how to communicate or sell them to the customer.
• Having a shoppable store. The way a shop is set up and its overall appearance can add to or take away from a customer's experience within the store. The store should be clean, organized and easy to shop. All promotions and key items should be indicated. There should be aisles wide enough for customers to shop through with little clutter. All of this determines the customer's experience in a store, which contributes to their overall perception of the brand's service.

Every year small retailers are challenged to have the best fourth quarter and best holiday sales than they ever had. This will be a never-ending cycle. However, the ones that truly win this game are the ones who plan far beyond the holidays. These retailers will create a plan to attract, wow, engage and service their customers with the ultimate shopping experiences that will keep them shopping during the holidays and throughout the winter season.