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Retail Christmas Strategy: Why August Decides December · The Resilient Retail Game Plan - retail insights, retail trends and best practices

• 0:00
  Christmas selling doesn't start in November, it starts now.
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  Before we get into this episode, I want to let you know there is
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  a free resource, which is your Get Set for Christmas planner. You can head
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  over to resilientretailclub.com/christmas and download it today.
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  Welcome to the Resilient Retail Game Plan.
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  I'm Catherine Erdly, and this podcast is here to share retail industry trends,
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  insights, and best practices for you, the retailer who's serious about building
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  something that lasts.
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  The retailers who have a great Christmas aren't necessarily the ones
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  who work the hardest in December.
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  They're the ones who make better decisions.
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  In August, September, October, November, and December.
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  Today we're going to talk about how to lay the foundations.
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  This is number one in a series of four podcast episodes that I'm gonna be
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  talking to you about over the next month, all about getting ready for Christmas.
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  And what I want to talk to you about today is how you even start the process.
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  Let's assume you haven't done so already, because after all, we are in the middle
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  of August, but I really want to stress the importance of getting ready early.
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  You may be planning to visit shows in September, and you definitely want to
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  have done some prep work before that so you know what's on your shopping list.
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  The first place that I would suggest that you start is with last Christmas.
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  In my membership group, Resilient Retail Club,
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  we do this exercise every January.
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  If you didn't do it yourself in January, this is a great time to do it now, and
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  that is to sit down and look at what actually happened in Christmas 2025.
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  In the big retail businesses that I've worked in, we always
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  used to do this exercise.
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  It was called Lessons Learned and Strategy.
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  We would do it as soon as everyone was back after their Christmas break, and
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  we would use it to build the basis of the following year's Christmas strategy.
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  And it's really, really beneficial because your sales data tells you
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  so much more than your memory.
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  You may think to yourself, actually, I think everything was fine last
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  Christmas, but it's well worth sitting down, going through the data and
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  really going through notes, information that you have, and looking at what
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  it was actually like day to day in the run up to Christmas last year.
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  We maybe have blocked out some of the most stressful bits.
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  So we wanna make sure that we are not working ourselves up over what's
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  gonna happen this year, but we're keeping our eyes open and we're
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  putting together a really solid plan.
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  What I suggest that you do is you take some time, maybe half an
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  hour or an hour, and you sit down and go back over last Christmas.
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  If you've done this exercise, you can be smug right now and you can just
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  go pull it out of the archive that you've put it in and look through this
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  information to refresh your memory.
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  But if you haven't done this exercise already, then here's
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  where I recommend that you start.
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  I want you to go through everything that you sold last year in
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  terms of your best sellers.
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  So what were the products that generated most of your sales for
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  you throughout the Christmas period?
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  You may find it useful to break this down between October, November, and December,
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  or you may just find it easier to look at the entire fourth quarter in one go.
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  But make sure you go through and you look at what actually was driving the
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  sales, and how many did you sell of them?
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  How much cash were they taking?
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  What percentage of your Christmas sales came from your best sellers? Work out:
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  if you looked at the products that were generating 80% of your sales
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  over Christmas, what were they?
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  Make sure you've got that really clear in your mind.
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  Also, ask yourself, were there any products that surprised you?
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  Things that you had picked up that you thought for sure were going to
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  fly off the shelves, which did not.
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  And equally things that you maybe were a little bit timid
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  on that really sold out quickly.
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  You wanna make sure that you really delve into those slow sellers
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  to not only just understand what happened, but also why it happened.
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  Why do you think it didn't work?
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  Was it just that you picked the wrong one and it was a good idea?
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  You just need to look for a different supplier this year.
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  Was it that the price point wasn't right?
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  Did you get the wrong colour?
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  Well, what was it about this item that people didn't like?
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  Not again, to beat yourself up about, but just so that you can
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  really understand and make sure you don't make the same mistake again.
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  And in terms of the sellouts, looking at those, what worked really, really well?
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  What did you not have enough of?
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  What do you wish that you could have bought twice or three times
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  as many of, and again, why?
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  Why were they so good?
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  What was it that people really responded to?
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  Do you think that's still relevant this year?
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  Was it just a trend item that nobody's gonna be interested in this year?
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  Or was it something that your customer just really loves?
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  You also want to have a think about what did you do in terms of your marketing
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  last year, to be honest with yourself.
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  Were you happy with how it went?
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  What could you have done more of?
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  What could you have done less of?
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  And what were the marketing campaigns that drove sales?
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  What were the activities that you did which were really worthwhile?
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  And what were the ones that you could actually probably leave?
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  If you did in-store events,
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  did they work really well for you? If you reached out to your best customers,
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  did that work?
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  Or were there things that you did that were a huge amount of effort
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  and maybe nice for a couple of posts on social media, but you don't think
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  they're gonna be needed this year?
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  Ask yourself, if someone asked me my top 10 Christmas products, could I answer?
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  If somebody asked me what the three things were that I did in
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  my marketing last Christmas that really drove results, could I answer?
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  Spend a bit of time with your data.
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  Spend a bit of time with your notes.
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  Spend a bit of time looking back, you know, scroll back
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  through your Instagram account.
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  What were you posting on there?
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  Look in your email marketing software.
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  What did you actually send out over Christmas last year?
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  Just really re-familiarise yourself with what you did and what you were
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  happy with and what you would change.
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  Once you've done that exercise, it will really start shifting everything into
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  focus to help you understand what it is that you need to do in Christmas 2026.
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  You don't want to try and improve everything all at once.
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  You need to pick one goal.
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  What, what do you want to really aim for this Christmas?
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  And it's totally up to you what that goal is.
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  It could be a sales number.
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  You could say to yourself, I really want to hit X amount of
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  money in the fourth quarter.
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  It could be that you really want to push your average transaction
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  value and really aim to grow that.
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  That's also another great stat for you to check from last year to really understand
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  what your average transaction value was.
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  Maybe it's not about sales, maybe based on, as we talked about in last
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  week's episode, it's not about turnover, it's about profits.
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  So maybe you want to make sure that you're more profitable.
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  Maybe you want to sell through old stock.
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  Maybe you realise you've got a few boxes of Christmas stuff that you
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  just really need to get out there.
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  Maybe you just want January to be a little bit cleaner in terms of not having
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  so much stock left over in January.
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  You could have a lot of different elements in terms of what you
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  actually want to achieve, but make sure you are clear on it.
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  You might also just want to get through the months of October, November, and
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  December without succumbing to the flu at the end of it, because you're so
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  exhausted and burnt out and you can't even enjoy the Christmas season because
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  you just have had so much going on.
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  So everything that you do then from this point, should support that goal.
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  The other thing that I would say is really helpful is if you actually set yourself
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  those sales goals, it means that you can have a think about your capacity planning,
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  The other thing that I would say is really helpful is if you actually set
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  yourself those sales goals, it means that you can have a think about your capacity
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  planning, because Christmas isn't just about hitting a particular sales number.
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  It is about can your business actually cope?
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  Again, so many people run themselves into the ground during the fourth
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  quarter and they just have to start the new year by saying, I
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  just can't go through that again.
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  I want it to be better this time.
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  So if you are actually planning at this point and looking in the middle of August
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  at what you're expecting to sell all the way through October, November, December,
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  this is particularly important by the way.
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  If your business has been growing and you are on a growth trajectory, you wanna
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  make sure, well, what's that actually going to look like this Christmas?
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  What numbers do I think I'm gonna be taking and can I cope with it?
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  So if you've been trading all year up 50%, likelihood is that may well continue
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  into the fourth quarter, and are you ready and prepared to be 50% up on the year?
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  You need to look through and have an idea of your staffing.
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  Do you have enough people to physically serve these customers
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  or send out these orders?
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  Do you have enough supplies?
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  Do you have enough packaging, enough bags, enough wrapping?
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  Do you feel like your website is equipped to hold this amount of traffic?
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  Do you feel like you've got some holiday cover?
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  Because we all know that when one person on the team gets sick, it's like
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  everyone gets sick at the same time.
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  So do you have anybody who you could train up to be a floating extra pair of hands?
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  This is a great time of year to be looking for that person.
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  Are you really clear on how much you're gonna be needing to buy?
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  What does your cash flow look like?
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  We're gonna talk about that more next week.
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  But these are all things that you can start thinking about once
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  you start with a sales plan, an actual sales plan for Christmas.
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  Do you have enough storage space?
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  Do you have enough room to actually store all of the stock that you're going
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  to need in order to do these sales?
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  So demand is great.
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  Sales are great.
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  It's all really important to grow that top line, but demand that you
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  can't fill is expensive and stressful.
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  So it is well worth getting clear on that right now.
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  So before the next episode where we're gonna be talking more about the
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  cash flow pinch, this is what I would love for you to do, take a few moments
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  to review last Christmas, go over all of the key elements that we talked
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  about, understand what your sales were, also, what your sales pattern was.
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  Because for example, a lot of people see we talk about Christmas, but really it's
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  gonna be after Black Friday, that last week of November into Christmas
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  that people really see their sales spike.
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  So you wanna get clear on that so you're not stressing out in October,
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  if sales are always typically low in that month. Make sure you set yourself
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  one really clear Christmas goal, whether that's turnover related or
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  whether that is to do with how you want the Christmas season to feel.
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  Make sure that you set some sales, clear sales goals as well so that you can
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  actually put together a plan and identify any bottlenecks that you can foresee.
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  Do you have the capacity, the space, the products, the supplies, and
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  the people to actually achieve what you want to achieve at Christmas?
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  So now we've decided where you're heading.
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  We are gonna be talking in the next episode about making sure that you've
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  got the cash flow to get you there.
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  And as I said at the beginning of this episode, if you head to
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  resilientretailclub.com/christmas, you can get your hands on your free
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  downloadable planner that will help you have the best Christmas yet in 2026.
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  Thanks so much for listening, and I'll see you next week.