We’re sure you’re all aware by now; Christmas is coming. In fact, it’s practically already here, what with the light shows and threats of snow and Lynx/Dove gift sets clearing the shelves.
At C-Talk, we love to know what retailers are doing; whether that be daily or charity work, or even what decorations you might have up in store.
Not only does this help us stay in the loop within the sector, but by sharing it, we’re also helping retailers inspire other retailers through the great work that they do.
After asking around and trying to get some information on trading week preparations, we’ve compiled a short list of ways different retailers are tackling the weeks ahead and we hope they’ll be a source of inspiration for you, too!
“We get extra staff in,” starts Trudy Davies, retailer at Woosnam & Davies, “ so then customers get served quicker and we can up-sell suggested items.
We do lots in store; the displays are festive, we have a raffle, we give away small kindness gifts to impromptu customers- it sure does put a smile on their face when leaving our store!”
As well as making sure that her customers are taken care of, Trudy also takes part in charity work for her local community around this time of year, “We give to food pantries and food banks in town. We have a scheme at the moment where we give hot water bottles to the community!
We also sponsor the Santa trail 10k walk or run in the town, with approximately 100 entrances. We give out 50 HWB to a dementia and alzhemers group. It’s all very tiring, but my staff are amazing and I wouldn’t want to be in any other job- I think that if you can get paid for doing something you enjoy, it’s such a fulfilling job!”
In regards to helping with the hustle and bustle of the trading week, Trudy notes that, “We close Christmas Day, and we do a half day on Boxing Day, and we put mince pies out for everyone during the last few days.”
In addition to this, Aman Uppal from One Stop Mount Nod gives us his take on what he does to prepare for the busy festive trading period.
“We have always prepared well in advance for seasonal periods, and Christmas is no different,” Aman tells us, “We pre-ordered Christmas confectionary and non food products 3-6 months ago and the last of these deliveries are arriving this week.
Ordering in advance via One Stop has a lot of benefits,” he adds, “It helps secure limited edition stock, locks in special pricing offers and allows us to plan in advance what we will be doing in terms of advertising and displaying the stock in store. Ordering in advance also helps with cash flow as we can prepared for the additional spend in advance.”
One Stop Mount Nod also hosted a Christmas event on Sunday 3rd December, where Santa came to visit and the store helped raise money for charity.
“The Christmas event went well,” Aman says, “Despite the rain, we had over 50 people waiting outside the store for Santa. Over £1200 was raised locally in the area on that day!”
Londis Solo Convenience retailer Natalie Lightfoot has also been prepared for the trading week, giving us her perspective from a retailer using SnappyShoper.
“We make hampers every day throughout December,” Natalie notes, showing us pictures of intricately put-together Gordon’s Gin RTD & bottle hampers, “Some to order, some generic to sell on Snappy or in store to replace if sold.”
“Tomorrow, we have a 99p deal to ramp up people’s habit with Snappy Shopper and remind them of this great service. We also reached out to Monster to use for some activation of their new Original Zero.
We are giving a few new original zero cans with the 4pk for 99p. So, 5 cans of Monster for 99p! That’s exciting!”
All in all, we wish retailers the very best during these next couple of weeks; up until the New Year, you can bet it’ll be pretty hectic in every store you go to!
So long as you keep stocked up, plan things in advance (where possible) and keep customer focused at the best of times, we have no doubt that although busy, this Christmas will go by smoothly!
