When it’s the hottest time of the year, it is often hard to think about the holiday season or even the fall buying season.  But according to the National Retail Federation, more than half of consumers start their holiday purchasing before Halloween. Fall, Halloween, and Thanksgiving buying starts before school starts! According to Bankrate, many  large retailers start selling seasonal holiday goods in July and have been doing so with continued success for more than twenty years!   

So, the answer is no! If you haven’t got a plan in place already, now is the time to start. Get out your calendar. 

You can use ours for free, if you don’t have one. Get your plan together on paper and then fill in what you need               on the decided upon date.

Check out last year’s decorations, do they look good enough to use again this year? Make sure you have adequate seasonal lights. If you don’t include them already, add some fall lights. We all know about Christmas lights but fall colored lights will help sell your Halloween and Thanksgiving themed items. If you need to change your walk flow to make sure your customers go by your seasonal displays, do it before creating your beautiful displays. Changing your traffic flow also gives you the opportunity to do a seasonal cleaning. Create a seasonal display for your front window. Get people thinking about the holidays as they pass your store. Make sure you capture the signature aromas of the season as well. Cinnamon, Apple and Pumpkin as soon as your fall products are in stock and Pine and Gingerbread for the December holidays puts a consumer in the seasonal mood as soon as they walk in the store, and a bonus, they will know how that candle will smell in their house. We can help with the Pine Tree scented candle, and it will remove any bad odors at the same time. Check out our Pet Odor Reducing Candle!  

Order and preorder seasonal items. Check back to see what sold well last year and make sure you order plenty of those items. Try to have at least a couple of special seasonal items for each category you sell. For your pet department we have had great success with our Fall and Holiday Prepacks. A super easy addition to any seasonal purchases, they come ready to buy right out of the box. You know those categories are successful for you, it only makes sense that these categories will be successful with the addition of special seasonal items.

With a bit of planning and set up, your fall and holiday seasonal sales will be something to celebrate!