Welcome to the middle of the fourth quarter! We’ve spent the entire year preparing by attending markets, researching products, negotiating terms and freight with vendors, managing tariffs and delays, receiving inventory, filing damage claims and meticulously organizing our stock. Now, we are ready for the holiday season kickoff!
How will you make the most of this crucial time? Let’s break down some best practices.
By now, your holiday game plan should be fully operational: holiday hours and events planned and promoted, and temporary staff hired and trained. Now, what can be done to finish the year strong? Customer shopping needs evolve rapidly over these eight weeks. To maximize every opportunity, re-merchandising your shop weekly is paramount. Customers typically prioritize decorating first, then hosting and attending parties and then purchasing gifts.
Holiday Décor Focus
During the first few weeks of November, focus on holiday décor. This includes table linens, centerpieces, narrow items for mantels and greens for garlands and sprays. Make it effortless for customers to envision these items in their homes. Create various vignettes using trays, each designed differently with consistent elements like a candle, some greens and two to three ornaments. For instance, design one with natural elements such as pine stems, a birch-wrapped pillar candle and orange pomanders. Another could feature brass candlesticks and taper candles, pepper berry stems and gold ornaments for a classic holiday table. For a fun, creative display, create a homey scene with an LED-lit house, bottle brush trees and deer.
Mix gold and silver elements to encourage customers to integrate them into their existing décor. Keep all these elements lined up nearby for clients to make their own tray.
Themed Displays
Also, arrange your shop into easy-to-navigate, themed groups focusing on holiday decorating, family activities and holiday parties.
Display ideas include:
Hostess with the Mostest: Feature napkin sets, festive dishcloths, trays, scented candles, dip mixes, jams, jellies, mustards, and chip and dip sets — anything a customer might need for a last-minute hostess gift.
Smitten Kitchen: Include items from mixing bowls, cookbooks and wooden spoons to cookie cutters and decorative serving trays for cookie swaps.
Mix Master: Offer more masculine items like large silicone ice cube trays, cocktail glasses, bar tools, and cocktail books.
Fun and Games: Provide puzzles, games and crafts for after-dinner activities.
Deck the Halls: Cater to those who put their tree (or trees!) up by Thanksgiving. Get your display trees up and lit, with dedicated space for ornaments and garlands.
Engaging Holiday Events
We host a few annual events that are simple, inexpensive, fun, unique, drive sales and build community. These events have become so popular that customers inquire about them in September! In fact, our Holiday Open House is so well attended that we distribute timed tickets, and a line forms around the building.
We’ve all heard of, attended, or hosted a “Ladies Sip ‘n Shop” night. A fun twist on this idea is a two-part event:
Ladies Sip ‘n Shop: Offer light festive cocktails, such as cranberry mimosas with frozen cranberries and an orange slice and snacks, using recipes from our cocktail books and our own mixes, jams and mustards. During this event, we hand out Holiday Wish Lists and once they are completed, the ladies leave them with us.
Desperate Dudes: The following night, we invite the dudes. We serve local beer, hard cider, and snacks. We assist the guys in finding items from the wish lists and gift-wrap all their purchases. The dudes encourage their ladies to shop us as we take all the work out of it for them, and they look like heroes. This can also be a “Santa and Elves” family event, where kids enjoy finding gifts for their parents and taking home wrapped surprises. The return on these events is significant, fostering customer loyalty and community.
Our Holiday Open House is a major event, always held on the Friday before Thanksgiving. We start a sign-up sheet in the first or second week of October and promote it extensively. Customers anticipate and expect it, which means they shop with us before they shop our local competition. The first 100 people who sign up receive a goodie bag. We fill the bags with small items we source at Atlanta Market. This year, we have mini birch-wrapped votives, holiday-themed matches and bulk sample chocolates from one of our vendors. Each bag is tied with a festive ribbon, generating curiosity among customers who see others with the bags. This is a great opportunity to encourage sign-ups for your mailing list and social media channels.
On the night of the event, we offer hot mulled cider next to our cider mulling spices. We also have a large, clear three-gallon dispenser for festive adult drinks, garnished with sliced oranges for color and frozen cranberries to keep it cool, with our cocktail mixes displayed nearby. Our snack station is light, focusing on shopping over eating, but it features a variety of bites made with our jams, jellies, mustards and mixes. Of course, a sweet treat is essential, so there’s always a table of candies and nuts with accompanying displays. Finally, our favorite activity of the night is our 12 Gift Bags of Christmas. We hide 12 vintage brass keys with numbered tags around the shop, which correspond to 12 special gift bags. Hiding the keys encourages clients to explore every corner! Keys aren’t hard to find if you’re looking. These bags are filled with samples from our vendors—any candle, lotion, soap, puzzle, book, bottle, vase, socks, dish towel, or trinket we can acquire. This is a significant event.
Once Thanksgiving dinner is done and the dishes are put away, the game heats up. Rotate all the décor to the sidelines and bring in the first-string players: tree trimming and gifts take center stage. These are a critical few days, including Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday. From here on, we are open seven days a week, offering snacks and drinks on weekends. If you’ve been to market, you know the advantage of fueling your customers. Keep them energized for buying.
Enjoy the festive season! Blast the music, wear your favorite holiday sweater, bake cookies, tie a ribbon on everything, and connect with your customers. Wishing everyone Happy Holidays, filled with peace, love, health and prosperity!
Christina Van Blake is the founder of HOME Design Furnishings and Décor as well as House and HOME in Dover, N.H.
