Gift Focus inc Attire Accessories - November/December 2020

41 BUSINESS ADVICE FESTIVE PLANNING Christmas is the biggest season of the year in retail. As retailers we want to make the most out of the last quarter, which is why it’s vital to plan, plan, plan. We, like others, have no idea of what the next year may hold, so it’s important that we put things in place and think outside of the box. Natasha Necati from CraftyArts gives her advice. Plan, Plan, Plan Writing down your ideas of concepts and plans for the coming months will help. Ask yourself the question: what is it that you want to achieve? If you don’t set a goal, you won’t know how far you’ve come and what still needs to be done. It also means that you’re unable to measure and plan correctly for the next year. Knowing your data and measuring it is an important part of understanding your business. Once you start writing your thoughts down, you’ll find that many ideas and concepts will start to form. The great thing about all these ideas, is that you don’t have to use all of them at once, you can set them aside and use to them to plan for another season. In doing this, you’re setting yourself up to win. I have created a road map of things that I’d like to do within the business. I have then broken it down into sections; things that are urgent and need to be done now; things that I’d like to do within a couple of months; within the next year and what needs to be put on the three to five-year plan. This breakdown ranges from smaller projects all the way up to big birthdays and changes that could take months to complete. Putting something like this in place is helping you move your business in the direction of your choosing. When it comes to Q4, you can never plan too early. At Crafty Arts we start talking about Christmas in January! We use that time to review what we did the previous year; what areas we did well in and more importantly, what we could have done better. For us, January is the start of the trade show season and as such, is the start of our process of sourcing new products for the year. Throughout the year we continue discussions with our suppliers, ensuring that we’re ordering the right stock, the right quantities and know what products will be pushed for TV advertisment. Product Offering This year, sourcing the right products will be harder due to being unable to attend trade shows. Most trade shows will not be available to attend physically until 2021, so look out for virtual shows and forums. Even without the physical trade shows, this doesn’t change the fact that customers will still want to be able to purchase new products, especially in peak season. This is why it’s important to stay connected with your suppliers and be sure to find out what new products and promotions that they’ll be running and when. I’ve made sure that I have signed up to multiple industry magazines and newspapers like Craft Focus , to make sure I’m ahead of the game this year. I feel that industry magazines and newspapers are a valuable source of information, especially in the current climate, so make sure to keep yourself up to date. Promotion &Marketing When preparing for Christmas, we must take into consideration that there could be a second wave of Covid-19, which means that we must think outside of the box and prepare for online-only events and promotions. We’re now seeing Christmas earlier and earlier in the shops, so it’s essential that your shop feels festive. We aim to have the shop decorated by the first week of October so our customer experiences that festive feeling as soon as they walk through the door. The role that we have as retailers is to fix a problem. Customers come through your doors, or visit your website because they’re in need of something. Either for them or for someone else, our job is to make that process as easy as possible. You can do this 