Christmas Tips For Retailers

Christmas Quiz for the family?

Keep family members of all ages occupied over the festive period with Rick Turner’s annual Christmas Quiz.  He always comes up with plenty that get me stumped and yet other family members do far better.  It’s great fun and will get the conversation going.

To download click on Christmas Quiz.

ou will find the answers at www.thebigsheep.co.uk after Boxing Day.  Good luck!

 

M&S get it wrong this Christmas

The 2009 series of Christmas TV ads from Marks & Spencer were outstanding.  They created an emotional attachment for their shoppers and boosted sales. Here’s a sample and you’ll find others at YouTube. Well worth a look. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fbwS9kNboM

This year’s, ‘Don’t put a foot wrong’ commercial just doesn’t get near it. Check it out at: http://www.marksandspencer.com/Christmas-TV-Advert/b/526976031

Whereas John Lewis 2010 Christmas ad’ gets to me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpV-xagkTDU .  It’s the best I’ve seen so far this year. How about you?

 

Do you have the Christmas spirit?

If so are you dishing it out to your staff and are they poring it out plentifully to your customers?

The reason this question is so important is because we know that the 'science' of shopping is dwarfed by the 'emotion' of the buying experience.  Imagine being a customer out shopping for gifts, dreading the expenditure and search, only to be confronted by store staff who are bored or tired of the whole 'go wait on another customer' thing.  How likely is it that you would want to buy something in that store?

Sure, this 'Christmas spirit' thing might sound a little too warm and fuzzy, but the truth is that if you have plentiful supplies of it, you're more likely to be able to share it with those around you.

If you manage others, it is a wonderful gift to give them.  If you sell to customers, you can brighten their day and reduce their frazzle factor.  What a wonderful gift!

Source: Inspired by a great piece from Canadian retail specialist Kevin Graff www.graffretail.com 

 

Snooping on Santa

As retailers across the land gear up for the busiest time of the year, one UK company is also experiencing an unusual boom in business with a festive twist.

Mystery shopping and customer service experts Shopper Anonymous UK have seen a huge jump in demand from shops and tourist attractions to have their Father Christmas, grotto and festive offering mystery shopped. Whole families are going ‘under cover’ to report on their experience, with their feedback used by retailers to ensure their Father Christmas delivers good customer service as well as much-wanted presents.

Shopper Anonymous have been asked to mystery shop every aspect of visiting Father Christmas in his grotto, from price and queuing time to the friendliness of the elves, the ‘Ho Ho Ho’ of Father Christmas, the quality of the presents and the magical qualities of the whole experience.

Congratulations to Shopper Anonymous UK’s Jonathan Winchester for coming up with this great initiative.  Read all about it and listen to a couple of the great radio interviews at  http://www.shopperanonymous.co.uk/ 

 

Freezing weather a dream come true for high street retailers

RETAIL experts have urged shoppers to hit the high street to secure their Christmas presents, after a host of leading UK retailers suspended online orders as they struggle to cope with a delivery backlog from last week's weather chaos.  

Major shopping centres said the problems facing their online competitors was a "dream come true", and they expected "unprecedented" levels of trade this weekend. 

Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's and Marks & Spencer were the most high-profile chains to cancel new orders or halt deliveries of non-food items earlier this week in Scotland, as courier firms try to move tens of thousands of parcels that piled up due to the disruption caused to the transport network by heavy snow and icy roads.

Source: http://www.scotsman.com/ 

 

Big ticket items bolster UK Christmas retail sales

Consumers buying "big ticket" items like fridges and coffee machines to beat next month's VAT rise are bolstering store sales in the run-up to Christmas.

John Lewis, the department store chain, said it had enjoyed a record week because of large purchases of high quality recognised brands. The store took £121m in sales - the most ever for a seven day period. Beauty products, toys, coffee machines, iPads, sounddocks, jewellery, lingerie, handbags were the biggest sellers.

Sarah Cordey, an analyst at the British Retail Consortium, said: "People are treating themselves over Christmas and are determined to enjoy the festive season before what we expect to be a particularly difficult start to the new year.

As purchases are moved forward ahead of the Jan 4 increase of VAT to 20 per cent, stores are likely to enjoy their best Christmas since 2007, according to retail consultancy Verdict.

Source: www.telegraph.co.uk 

 

Early December retail trade is slow in Australia

The Australian Retailers Association’s week-by-week tracking of retail trade during the Christmas period has found that last week over 64 percent of retailers were trading on par or below the same time in 2009.

Retailers comparing trading from 5 to 11 December 2010 to the same time last year said:

• Over 35 percent were trading above;
• Over 43 percent were trading below;
• Over 21 percent were trading the same as last year.

ARA Executive Director Russell Zimmerman said most retailers were anticipating this soft trade and last week’s trading met the expectations of almost one third of retailers.

“Sales are expecting to ramp up this week with almost a quarter of shoppers only just starting their Christmas shopping on Thursday 16 December and half of them finalising their last purchases between now and Christmas Eve. Consumers are extremely price sensitive this year with retailers reporting that higher priced items are being overlooked in favour of less expensive presents.”

Source: http://www.retail.org.au