Christmas is one of those times when all of the floral retail stars align. It’s a time for gifting, for home decorating and for corporate events and galas. Although lots of opportunity is great, it can pull resources in various directions. With so many plates spinning, it can be easy to lose focus and, therefore, careful planning is imperative. Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol to illustrate the importance of self-reflection to fully experience the true essence of Christmas. The book’s main character, Ebenezer Scrooge, is a miserly and unhappy man who is visited by the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future to assist the main character in some transformation. As with our old friend Ebenezer, a successful Christmas must begin with taking a bit of stock of where we’ve been, where we’re at presently and what’s ahead.
The Ghost of Retail Christmas Past
Start in September by reviewing your November and December sales from the previous few Christmases. On the corporate side, note when the orders for Christmas parties and corporate gifting started coming in and make a point to warm up those leads by sending an e-newsletter as a reminder. You’ll want to confirm that your contact names are still the same since people do leave companies and you may need to forge a relationship with a new contact. Look at your sales trends (revenue and transactions) to gauge customer order patterns. Christmas Day falls on a Sunday this year, so consider how that may affect your sales. Plan your staffing, decide on your extended hours and set your targets accordingly.
What were your top-selling items last year? Does examining this data provide any insight as to what sorts of items might sell well this year? Take stock of any inventory you may have left over from last year. Can you introduce some of it again this year or are you wisest to liquidate it? When did your advertisements and e-newsletters drop and how did they impact sales? Look at staffing levels and training to determine if there were any areas that need focus this year.
The Ghost of Christmas Present
As this article is being written, the stock market has given up all of its gains made in 2011. This recession continues to lag on, so you may decide to look at those segments that are traditionally bulletproof for you in order to make sure your Christmas strategy relies on areas where you’re strong. Look at where your business is at and how the current competitive landscape around you has changed over the last few years. Perform a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) to evaluate where you’re strong and where you’re weak. What are current supplier lead times and delivery schedules? Is your equipment in good repair or are there things that you could address now to avoid a problem when things get busy? Look at your team to identify any health and safety issues, training needs, vacation conflicts or gaps in staffing levels. You should be recruiting and training now – not during the Christmas rush.
On the trend side of things, what are the current home décor styles and how can you ensure your in-store displays entice and inspire customers? If you sell Christmas trees, assign each member of your team a tree to come up with a theme for and have staff meetings to present plans for decorating the trees. Make sure that there’s something for everyone, from traditional to whimsical.
Your marketing calendar should start with a strategy built around corporate orders in October, shift to home décor in November and finish with consumer gifting in December. You may be executing many corporate arrangements in December but the orders will be placed earlier in the fall.
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come
The past will remind you of what’s possible, a review of the present will ground you in reality, but the future is yours to create. The busy Christmas season gives your business exposure to so many customers and potential customers that, in many ways, it’s your best time for business development. Although just keeping up with the orders may seem daunting enough, you could look at putting in place a strategy to encourage repeat business. Perhaps all Christmas deliveries could include a coupon for a discount on a January order. The National Retail Federation’s 2007 research indicated that one week before Christmas Day almost a full 20 per cent of men had not yet started their shopping. I bet that if you sent a strong offer to a list of male names around the second or third week of December you’d make some inroads.
Set your sales targets and review them with the team prior to the busy season. Decide if and when you’ll initiate a discount strategy prior to Christmas. It used to be that Boxing Day/Week was bargain hunter Mecca, but in recent years consumers have come to expect the sales to start before Christmas Day. How will you advertise Boxing Day and what will you offer as feature specials? If your marketing mix has shifted to include elements like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, the fall is a great time to draft a schedule for these messages and to assign the task of updating the sites to a specific team member. Keep an eye on the long-range weather forecasts. It’s been said that a retailer’s perfect weather scenario includes a mild October followed by a very cold November and a storm-free December. While you can’t control the weather, it may help you to intervene with some extra advertising or in-store events to generate sales if they start to slow.
Depending on your business model, holiday sales can easily represent 30 to 40 per cent of your annual sales total. It’s worth planning for with the precision of a D-Day invasion, so a little reflection mixed in with some innovation and optimism may be just the magic your holiday strategy needs. As Ebenezer said to the Ghost of Things Yet to Come as they approached his headstone, “Tell me . . . are these things that must be or things that might be?” The future is yours to write and the infinite possibilities embedded in that truth might just be the best Christmas gift you could ever give yourself.
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