Okay, I know you must be thinking: Christmas in August? Doesn’t she mean Christmas in July?
Actually, no, I really mean Christmas in August.
When I was an active road rep, I usually took the month (or part of the month) of August off to regroup and prepare for Christmas sales.
August was a time of year where most stores I worked with were winding down from the tourist season. Customers slowed their buying as they were getting ready for school to start. Typically, they were not looking at reordering product at that time.
I spend a large part of August contacting my vendors. First, to see what new products they were creating for the holiday season and second if there were any price changes going into the 4th quarter. Often, my contact would kick-start their creative juices to finish their holiday line-up. I would spend most of the rest of the month of August updating line sheets and preparing to announce the new products to my store buyers.
Many buyers start looking for products for 4th quarter sales when the weather is still 90 to 100 degrees!! (Having trouble getting into the holiday spirit during the hottest time of the year? Try putting on Christmas music!)
Obviously, this year is different. But despite the questionable economy, August is still the best time of the year to get your business and products ready for 4th quarter sales.
So, we are looking at Christmas in August!
In order to find the most updated information on the changes coming up this holiday season (due to COVID19), I did some research and here are a few things I found:
- E-Commerce is still booming and probably will through the holiday season! Time to get your website updated and if you don’t have a website, this may be the year to develop one.
- Studies show that shoppers will be searching online this year looking for products early as October. This means you need to contact your store buyers asap in order to get your products in their shop (online and physically).
In the meantime, here is an article I shared last year on getting ready for holiday sales.