Our Holiday Merchandising Timelines for Retailers
Enjoying your summer? Good, now let's talk Christmas. Believe it or not, it's time to start thinking about your fall and holiday set-ups and displays if you plan on featuring seasonal items in your spaces and shops.
Harvest Merchandising
At Belleville Market, some of our merchants have already started adding fall items to their spaces, and we have already seen sell-through on some of these items. If you haven't already started adding fall items, we'd recommend that you have this started by mid August. Most shops and markets will begin hosing Harvest Open Houses in early September, if not before, so you certainly want to be ready for that. In fact, at Belleville Market, we'll host our Harvest Open House on Thursday, September 5th.
Christmas Merchandising
And then comes Christmas. At Belleville Market, our Holiday Open House will be on Thursday, November 7th, so we're strongly encouraging our market merchants to definitely have their set ups complete before that date. We suspect most markets and boutiques will also be holding their Open Houses around this time, too.
Don't Worry About Being Too Early
- The longer lead time will help you sell through more products at a maximum profit.
- Customers begin decorating for these holidays at least several weeks ahead of time. Meaning they need to purchase their decor several weeks ahead of time. If you wait to put your seasonal items out just a few weeks before the holiday, then you've missed your selling window with everyone but the procrastinators.
- The closer you get to the holiday, the less likely a customer is to pay full price . . . meaning a loss of potential profit for you.
Yes, we will always hear a complaint or two from someone claiming it's too early for this or that, but the majority of customers will appreciate having a variety of options early on. There's a reason you see the big box retailers putting out their seasonal items so early. There's no reason independent retail shouldn't follow that same example too.
If you need help sourcing holiday products, let us know. Many suppliers may already be sold out of some of their best-sellers, but you do still have time if you act quickly. We would be happy to work with you on planning out a merchandise assortment that will compliment your brand.
