Plan Merchandising Now for Christmas and New Year’s

It’s hard to believe that summer has passed, and we are already seeing Christmas decorations and merchandise in the stores. That should be a signal to start planning produce programs for the big holiday shopping season now.

Christmas and New Year’s holidays come fast, so it’s already time to get organized and ready to set your merchandising strategies in place.

This year’s planning should include your customers and how their buying habits will influence produce sales. Start motivating customer confidence to spend more on fresh produce during the Christmas and New Year’s holidays. Ideal planning and display merchandising could boost your sales over the top if coordinated properly.

Expert planning for the upcoming holidays will make an immense difference in product quantities, labor requirements, advertising promotions, merchandising displays, delivery schedules, and sales goals. The most important key in planning is being ready for shoppers as early as possible. The earlier, the better.

Here are some holiday guidelines to assist in making your planning easier:

Christmas holiday sales trend — Sales increases about 20% the week “before” Christmas and increases up to 35% the week “of” Christmas. Sales decreases approximately 15% the week “after” Christmas. People then make light purchases for the New Year’s holiday.  

Merchandising displays  — Your plan should consist of prime locations that specific holiday items are to be displayed. Make sure to place the most popular items in several strategic spots in order to entice customers into shopping the entire department. Visual impact will play a vital role and the “art of display” is very influential to draw purchases at the department entrance. This will launch an instant impact on customers and trigger a holiday shopping mood in them. Remember, you only have a split second to capture their attention and grab that initial sale.

Product availability  — During the holidays, customers do not want to spot-shop all around town. They usually prefer to buy all their items in one store for the entire holiday dinner. Make sure to have sufficient quantities of product to maintain fully stocked displays. Produce out-of-stocks can lose up to 15% of sales. Customers do not shop twice when produce items are unavailable. It’s as simple as that.

Manage your inventory — It’s one rule to ensure you have enough product to keep displays fully stocked. On the other hand, it is also wise to aim for good after-holiday cleanup as well. Every produce item is on borrowed time and will not hold its freshness forever. Keep a sharp eye on inventory every single day. Prevent carrying over and getting stuck with massive amounts of items, especially those that are advertised features. This will only lead to high shrink and lower profit in the end.  Remember, sales decreases approximately 15% the week after Christmas.

Focus on upselling — Consumers generally spend more during holidays, especially the Christmas period. There’s no reason to sell cheap. Concentrate on being unique with product and displays. Be a bit fancier by offering extra jumbo size apples, pears, navel oranges, etc. Tie in upscale items on wing displays alongside your prime holiday item locations. Don’t be shy to get a premium price for top quality product and larger sizes.

Fruit baskets — Shoppers normally buy fruit baskets for gift giving. They don’t want a small cheap basket. People will upgrade when buying special occasion gifts and are even willing to pay more for such items as fruit baskets. Let go of the old thinking that advertising a low-priced fruit basket will have customers rushing to your store. Fatten up those baskets and upgrade the pricing. Also, consider pre-made fruit baskets from suppliers to save time and labor. Outsourcing can accommodate the labor needs of every store and ensure full displays at all times to prevent missed sales.

There is a short window of time to plan your holiday strategy. Don’t sit back and put this critical sales period aside for later. If you want to beat last year’s sales and achieve the budgeted gross profit, it’s up to you to plan it in advance. Then make it all happen.