How to Increase Ice Cream Sales During Winter

We all know selling ice cream during the cold months can be more difficult. This article will give you some ideas that you can implement in your business to increase ice cream sales during the colder months.

1. Offer Seasonal Flavors

Customers love fall flavors such as pumpkin, apple, maple, cinnamon, and Salted Caramel. After fall comes winter flavors that offer another variety of flavors for your business to select from, whether its gingerbread, peppermint, brown sugar or egg nog. Depending on the season, these flavors go great in ice cream, as toppings or in desserts that you could sell as a combo with a scoop of ice cream. Try having these new flavors that will put your customers in the mood for the holiday season. 

2. Promote Hot Beverages

Try selling hot chocolate, or apple cider with a scoop of ice cream. This would give your customers a greater variety to select from when they stop in. If you need cups for hot beverages, check out our sister company  target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener noreferrer"">Hot Cup Factory.

3. Offer a Greater Variety of Desserts

Another tip is to sell dessert that pairs well with a scoop of ice cream such as cookies, pies, brownies, or cobbler. Select beloved holiday flavors for your dessert options to increase ice cream sales during the colder months. Serve any of these fun desserts with their fitting ice cream flavors. These varieties will have your customers wanting to come in a try a warm treat served with your best scoop of ice cream. 

4. Sell Ice Cream To-Go

Everyone wants to grab a treat for their family events. Make sure they can grab some of your ice cream to have at home. Offer different sizes of your most popular flavors of ice cream in To-Go Containers for any kind of event that your customers will be having. Not only will this help increase your increase your ice cream sales but it will help increase the quality of ice cream sold. If you need To-Go Containers or custom ice cream cups, check out this link for a variety of different sizes.

5. Have Donations Opportunities at your Location

Have donation spots at your location whether it’s canned goods or a toy drive. This will bring in going customers as they want to help out this holiday season. You could even offer a discount for those who bring in items to be donated.

6. Have Employees' Pitch Ideas

Have your employees come up with ideas that will help increase winter ice cream sales. This can create an environment where your employees feel valued. Whether the ideas are voted on or discussed in a meeting, the winning ideas could be incentivized to create hype. As you implement the ideas, your workers will be excited to share the new ideas with their friends and family; bringing in customers.  

Work together as a team to make the colder months more successful for your business. Test out a few of these recommendations and don’t give up experimenting. Even if the idea fails, that means you have just found a way that doesn’t work for your business and you are one idea closer to finding something that works. Best of luck increasing your ice cream sales through the colder months!

About the Author: Tim Porter

Tim is the CEO and people builder of FrozenDessertSupplies.com. In his free time, he enjoys being with his family, collecting watches, and Classic Mini Coopers.