Should Nigerian Retailers Open Stores on Boxing Day?

Boxing Day is a big deal for retailers in Nigeria, especially in the country’s commercial capital Lagos. On this day, you’d find a lot of people in relaxation and shopping spots such as Shoprite, Silverbird Galleria, Bar Beach, and other parks and gardens.

There’s a lot of outing and customers flood the streets. A large number of retail stores are closed at this time and they miss out on this opportunity to make some money. It’s obvious that opening on Boxing Day will be beneficial to retailers but for some reason, a lot of retail stores stay closed.

This could be due to several reasons such as social pressure coming from the belief that it’s irresponsible to open stores a day after Christmas or plain ignorance of the value they can derive.

Whatever the case may be. Here are some key factors that can help you decide whether to open your retail.

Soft costs of being open on Boxing Day

Although Nigerian retailers will be making money by being open for business on Boxing. The soft cost of running the business at this time is a serious factor. According to Prof. Zentop of MIT Sloan, the actual profit retailers make might dwindle when consider operating expenses and the cost of paying holiday or overtime wages.

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While opening during the holiday might work for bigger stores who can easily get contract staffs to fill in the gaps. Small retail stores may need to rethink their urge to take advantage of the pool of customer that come with Boxing Day.

Consider your supply chain

Its a holiday and your supplier may not be available as usual and since you’ll be catering to more customers than usual seeing how most of your competitors will be closed, you might need to restock. You could find yourself in a bad situation where you have to tell customers that you’ve product considered to be your speciality.