The holiday season brings in customers beyond the everyday shopper, which is an exciting opportunity to connect and encourage repeat business from these “non-regulars” throughout the year. In reality, it is also the season where empowering customers to help themselves will keep sale opportunities moving through your retail space in a healthy flow. Early October is a great time to set-up a a semi-permanent featured items table or end-cap up in store to rotate through Halloween, Thanksgiving, and the December holidays. Your regular customers may notice something new – and your new customers will see fun products at great prices.
October
Ah, Halloween, the season where a customer could ask for literally anything under the sun to create the perfect costume… The obvious requests for essentials like masks and face paint and glitter arise – but for creatives wanting to explore more advanced costume making techniques, consider featuring any of the following:
- Mold making tools and supplies
- Plastercraft
- Styrofoam
- Carving tools
- Armature wire
- Glues that adhere to multiple surfaces
- Fabric paint and glue
- Oven-bake clay
- Beads and ANY craft supplies (buttons, sequins, rhinestones, findings, etc.)
- Economy acrylic paints
- Googly eyes
- Tissue paper
Provide project ideas, images of how the products can be used, and share relevant YouTube videos on your social media pages. This a great time of year to educate curious customers on new materials and inspire them to try something out of their comfort zone at a great price.
Click here to revisit featured Halloween items on www.MacPhersonArt.com!
November
Holiday shopping begins! You can leave a lot of your craft items from October on your features table here. In preparing for the holiday rush, start showing your customers how to make their own wrapping paper or placemats using a block printing techniques, how to create a handmade “hostess” gift, fold easy origami ornaments and the classic – homemade holiday cards. Consider featuring the following:
- Craft supplies
- Block printing tools and materials for printing on paper and fabric.
- Craft paper rolls or white paper rolls
- Hemp/twine/ribbon
- Candle or soap making supplies (easy hostess gifts!)
- Origami paper and other paper crafts
- Card making supplies (see project ideas from Strathmore here)
This is also a good time to get store staff involved by writing notes about supplies they are “thankful for” and prominently posting them on displays. Start to set out some holiday sets as a preview for what’s to come.
December
Holiday Bonanza! It’s time to feature all those sets you brought in at great discounts for the holidays. Create signage to educate your customers on the differences between sets. Physically separate them into categories for “Child/Beginner,” “Hobbyist,” “Student” and “Professional.” Don’t forget to have a few sets open and ready to try with appropriate surfaces. Focus trending products under a sign: “Your Grandkids will LOVE….{Insert: marbling, alcohol markers, slime kits, or glitter gel pens}”. Put together a house kit for a trend like bullet journaling, with a creative staff-made examples! Other products to consider:
- Fine paper/wrapping paper
- Ribbons/twine/hemp (for wrapping and gift tags)
- Gold and silver writing pens
- Scrapbooking appliques and stickers
- Blank cards (see top selling Strathmore cards on Page 25 in the Buyers guide)
- Knives and blades
- Tape (double sided and regular)
- Glitter/glitter glue
- How-to-calligraphy and hand lettering books
- Paper mache figures
- Origami paper
- Ready made frames
