Physical retailers aren't just in competition with one another during sales season; they’re also competing with myriad online stores for customers' attention. Read on to find out how music can help set your business apart during these busy times.

Improve your sales season

From Black Friday to Small Business Saturday in the U.S, and various global iterations like Singles' Day in China and El Buen Fin in Mexico, there is no shortage of quasi-national and international shopping days to celebrate.

When impatient, bargain-craving customers are lining up at the tills during sale season, what can you, the store manager or business owner, do to make life a little easier for your customers and the staff helping them?

1. Remember: Familiarity makes the time pass quickly.

Studies show that recognizable songs can grab our attention and make time pass faster. So if you want to turn tedious queues into a more positive experience for your customers, play music they recognize. And if they happen to like the songs, even better.

2. Read the room.

Good DJs read the floor; retailers should too. Create playlists to match the day’s rhythm: mellow songs for quiet hours, higher-tempo tracks for peak moments — usually early morning at the start of a sale and late afternoon otherwise. Enya suits coffee and nutmeg, less so doorbuster TV deals. Faster music can even nudge shoppers to make quicker, at times more impulsive, decisions.

3. Encourage staff playlists, on their time.

During trading hours, music should reflect the brand, not the personal taste of the staff. But to lift morale without muddying the brand sound, let employees build their own playlists to enjoy before opening and after hours. When the team understands why the playlist matters, it’s a win for everyone.

4. Mind the volume.

Too loud and people leave; too soft and it fades into nothing. The sweet spot is music that’s clearly present without being intrusive — enough to set the mood, not so much that it competes with conversation or hinders sales staff.

5. Make it family-friendly.

Key sales dates tend to fall around holidays, and are often family-friendly affairs — which means people are buying gifts for and with close ones, including young children. Consider whether your particular business could benefit from making the experience more welcoming to families by removing songs with explicit lyrics.

Don't have the time or resources to create an on-brand, feel-good, customer-appropriate playlist for sales season? No problem — Soundtrack has your back. We have 1,800+ playlists spanning genre, mood, business category and decade, updated weekly by our expert music curation team as well as a bespoke AI tool. 

Start a 14-day trial and see how Soundtrack pairs science with taste. No card required.