With the summer raging on and temperatures keeping nice and warm, it’s a great time to manage or own an ice cream shop. Cash flows are easiest at this time of year, but before you get too comfortable, what are you doing to prepare for the off-season?
We’re not trying to be the bearer of bad news here—far from it—but the simple truth remains that selling ice cream during the off-season is a difficult task. And, we’re not too far from it now!
So, how do you manage? We’re not here to tell you to save and how to save, but rather, open the doors to new possible avenues. Here’s how you can keep selling ice cream even when the temperatures cool off.
Build that Online Brand
We’ve talked at length about this before, but it always bears repeating that ice cream shops benefit greatly from an online brand. Because the truth is, customers don’t stop wanting ice cream when things cool off—they simply want it somewhere else.
Ice cream in the summer is about a frozen treat to beat the heat, but during the fall and winter months, ice cream becomes comfort food. Much like chocolate and fast food, selling ice cream in the off-season means finding ways to get your ice cream into the homes of your hungry customers.
Focus on building your online brand and selling your incredible flavors by the pints. It’s critical that you do this even when sales are great—because you’re instilling the idea of online ice cream into your customers with each scoop!
Then, when winter hits and they crave their favorite comfort food, they’ll know who to turn to. And, with powerful eCommerce available to them, they can order ice cream for pickup or delivery whenever they’d like!
Use Smart Technology to Shift Hours
Most store owners set their hours and forget to ever take a look at whether or not those hours are working. During the off-season, any time spent open without sales is eating into those end-of-year profits, so it’s critical to not be scared to change up your hours.
Check your back-end system to see if your store’s busy hours need to extend further into the night—or, you need to open even later during the day.
Especially during fall, it’s advantageous to stay open later in the evenings and open in the afternoons instead of mornings. Chasing your community’s hours will pay off in the long run!
Final Thoughts
If there’s one thing to take from this breakdown, its that you need to be flexible. Stringent thinking may be comfortable, but it also isn’t accounting for a rapidly changing consumer environment. Take these tips to your ice cream shop, and we’re sure you’ll see big results!
And, if you want to learn more about smart technology and how your business can grow, schedule a free demo today and see why hundreds of ice cream shops choose the Franpos solution to grow their business.
