3 ways Paystack is helping businesses boost sales in the 2019 holiday season

The end of the year holiday shopping season is a big deal for businesses of all sizes. In 2018, for example, eCommerce businesses using Paystack made 56.4% of their entire annual revenue in the last 12 weeks of the year. When you factor in Black Friday, holiday gift-giving, and the hordes of people traveling to new places, this isn't surprising at all.

As we head into another holiday shopping season, the Paystack team is working on various initiatives to help ensure all our merchants have a phenomenal final quarter of the year. Here’re some of the ways we're setting you up to succeed:

• The Paystack Holiday Gift Guide
• Paystack Studio Hours
• The Paystack Holiday Events Calendar

Let’s dive into each one.

🎁 The Paystack Holiday Gift Guide

Paystack’s community of 40,000+ merchants includes some of Africa's finest makers and craftspeople. This holiday shopping season, we’re curating a Holiday Gift Guide to help thousands of customers discover your business.

Get your products listed on the Paystack Holiday Gift Guide

In our first-ever Paystack Holiday Gift Guide, we’ll feature unique, original products sold by businesses in the Paystack network. If you make or sell something that’ll make for a great holiday gift, apply to have your product(s) included in the Guide!

If we select your product, we’ll add it to the Guide (published on a beautiful website) and we'll actively promote your product to help more people discover and purchase from you. Here’s everything you should keep in mind as you submit your product:

• We’re looking for unique products and services, preferably hand-made by your business (bespoke jewellery would be a great addition, for example, while an iPhone 11 would not)
• This opportunity is open only to Paystack merchants in Nigeria and Ghana.
• The application deadline is 11:59 PM on Sunday October 27, 2019.
• You should be willing to offer a small discount if your product is selected for addition in the Holiday Gift Guide.
• You can submit a maximum of 5 products.
• You can expect to get a feedback from us by Sunday, November 3

👉🏾Apply to get featured on the Paystack Holiday Gift Guide →

If you’re not yet a Paystack merchant, but you’d like to get featured in the gift guide, create a free Paystack account in minutes!

📸 Paystack Studio Hours

One of the easiest ways to increase sales of your products is with phenomenal product photography and videography. Too often, however, it can be difficult for business owners to justify the investment in these assets.

We know that it can be expensive to set up proper product shoots, so this holiday season, we’re opening up the Paystack Studio to businesses in the Paystack network.

Paystack's media team will take beautiful, high-resolution photos and videos of your products, for free. You can use these new assets on social media, in ads, or however else you'd like.

To apply, all you have to do is submit your product to the Paystack Holiday Gift Guide.

Even if your product isn't selected for the Gift Guide, you may still get invited for the free photo and video shoots.

Here’re some details you should keep in mind:

• Each shoot will last for about 45 minutes
• You'll receive 10 high quality photos, and a 30 second video in the following style
  • photos of products against a white background
  • photos of product in use photos / lifestyle shots
  • video of product in use / lifestyle video
• The submission deadline is 11:59 PM on Sunday, October 27, 2019
• You can expect to get a feedback from us by Sunday, November 3

👉🏾Apply to the Paystack Holiday Gift Guide →

If you’re not yet a Paystack merchant, but you’d like to get a free photo and video shoot, create a free Paystack account in minutes.

📆 The Paystack Holiday Events Calendar

In 2018, event organisers on Paystack recorded 52% of their entire annual revenue in the last 12 weeks of the year.

We want 2019 to be even more spectacular for event organizers, so we're building the Paystack Holiday Events Calendar, a calendar of the best social events happening in Nigeria and Ghana!

Like the Holiday Gift Guide, we'll drive traffic towards the Calendar, and help you get in front of holiday revelers looking to have fun this season!

Got an exciting event planned out for this holiday? Submit it to the Paystack Holiday Events Calendar.

Here're a few things to keep in mind

• Please note that only event organisers in the Paystack community are eligible to have their events listed on the calendar.
• The Calendar is optimized for social events, so for example, while a concert would be an awesome addition, a business conference would be less appropriate
• You can submit your event all the way through to 11:59 PM on January 5, 2020 but the sooner you submit your event, the better!
• We'll keep reviewing submissions, and giving feedback through January 1, 2020.

👉🏾Apply to get your event listed on the Paystack Holiday Events Calendar →

If you’re not a Paystack merchant, and you’d like to list your event, take a moment to create a free Paystack account here.

💥 Let's close out the year with a bang!

Paystack is a growth engine for businesses. The holiday season is an incredible opportunity for merchants, and we're working hard to ensure that Paystack merchants get a large share of the cake.

If you're selling products that'd make for a good holiday gift, or you're hosting a fun event you think people would love, please share them with us, and let's help you get in front of a bigger audience!

Also, please note there're over 40,000 amazing businesses in the Paystack community, so we can't guarantee that we'll be able to add every single product or event submitted, but we'll do our very best! :)

And this isn't all we're doing! Stay tuned for a few more announcements over the next few weeks 😉