With the holiday season approaching, shoppers will come to your store in search of the perfect gifts. To enhance their shopping experience and boost your sales, consider optimizing your point of sale (POS) strategy. A simple yet effective tactic is to offer small, enticing items right at the checkout counter.

 

A sleeve of beautifully decorated chocolate-covered sandwich cookies or a charming little bag of foil-wrapped chocolates can easily be added to a customer's purchase. Presenting small, eye-catching treats by the register, perhaps tied with a festive bow or ribbon, creates a visually appealing display that encourages impulse buys. This not only enhances the shopping experience but also prompts customers to treat themselves or grab a quick gift.

Positioning and Pricing for Success

To make this strategy effective, consider the placement and pricing of your POS items. Items should be easily visible and within arm's reach of customers as they wait in line. Keep the price reasonable—around $3 to $5—so customers feel comfortable adding these small extras to their purchase.

Highlight Seasonal Favorites

Offering seasonal items can add to the holiday spirit and draw customers in. For instance, a pair of holiday-themed chocolate truffles or a square of peppermint bark can create a festive atmosphere and resonate with customers looking for something special.

Encourage Shoppers to Treat Themselves

A small sign saying something like, “You deserve a treat!” can remind shoppers to enjoy a little pick-me-up. After a long day of holiday shopping, many people appreciate a small indulgence.

Before the holiday rush, take a look at your checkout area. Make sure it’s stocked with fun, affordable items that make great little gifts or quick treats. By adding these festive extras, you can increase sales and make your customers’ holiday shopping experience more enjoyable.

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A thoughtful housewarming gift can help commemorate the special occasion and make new homeowners feel more at home. Offering great housewarming gifts could also open up sales opportunities with local real estate agents looking to thank clients. What better way to welcome someone to the neighborhood than with a delicious and thoughtful gift? This week we’re sharing inspiration for crafting your own special housewarming gifts that make a lasting impression to both the recipient and the gift giver.

 

 

Candy House Box
This cute wooden box is the perfect container to house a sampling of your signature treats. Similar house-shaped wooden boxes, like this, can be found at your local craft store or online. As another option, RCI supplier member, Nashville Wraps, has a few styles of housewarming basket boxes, like the one pictured below.

 

 

 

 

 

Big Hug Care Package
This gift is sure to make anyone smile! We especially love the custom tote bag that reads “big Colorado hug,” which could be reimagined for your state or hometown. With the addition of your company name or logo, the reusable bag will remind the recipient of your brand every time it's used. This could also be repurposed as a back-to-school send off for college students—“send them to school with their favorite treats!”

 

Best in State
Welcome new homeowners to the “neighborhood” with a state-shaped basket filled with your signature treats and perhaps some unique-to-your-state flavors. RCI member Buffett’s Candies sources baskets shaped like their home state of New Mexico from  WeaveCrafters. This Texas-based company makes handmade baskets in the shape of all 50 states and are highly recommended by many members.  They also make a house-shaped basket. Click here for a past RCI blog post with more ideas for creating custom gift baskets for your state.

 

People are always buying and selling homes. This could be your opportunity to introduce your business to out-of-towners and be part of a special milestone for locals who may have just moved across town. Once you find out which presentation works best for your business, it’s important to get the word out! Post photos of your housewarming gifts on social media, ask around if you have a friend who works in the real estate industry or make a memorable introduction at some nearby real estate offices with a sample housewarming gift in hand.

We hope this inspires you to go put the sweet in "home sweet home" with your housewarming gifts!

Crave more?Click here  to subscribe and start receiving weekly tips, like this, delivered straight to your email inbox. RCI's blog is just one of the many resources we offer to help candy makers refine their craft and build upon their business and marketing practices.  Follow us on Facebook for even more sweet inspiration.

Not a member? Click here to learn how RCI can help you build your sweet business .

 

With gentle nudging, you can help ensure stockings (and your bottom line) overflow with sweetness this holiday season! Stockings stuffers are the ultimate impulse purchase, representing the opportunity to add a few extra dollars to in-store and online purchases. In this week’s post, we’re exploring two key components that make for great stocking stuffers and how to increase sales with effective marketing and merchandising.

Price
In a report by  Field Agent, 51% of survey respondents spent between $10-25 per stocking, while 24% spend between $26-50 each. This emphasizes the importance of identifying more inexpensive gifts. We recommend identifying gift ideas in 3 pricing tiers to appeal to different budgets, ranging from low, middle range to high. Select a range that best fits your prices, but an example would be $5 and under, $6-$10 and $10 and up.

While stocking stuffers are typically small and inexpensive, don’t shy away from items with a higher price point. As the saying goes “the best things come in small packages.” Consumers may be more willing to spend more for gifts that will create more of an impact. While you don’t want all your stocking stuffer options to be pushing the price threshold, identifying a few items that are small, but mighty can create a real impact for both the gift giver and recipient.

 

 

Packaging
While sticking to a general price range is important when identifying stocking stuffers, the packaging ( or size) of a product is pretty much non-negotiable. Standard-size Christmas stockings range in length from 18 to 28 inches. With that said, by getting creative with your packaging you could encourage customers to spend more. For example, you could sell a single individually wrapped item ($) or you could sell multiple items packaged in a long, slender box (like pictured above) or small bag ($$$). Take notes from major candy brands like M&Ms that sell candy cane-shaped tubes for Christmas or Lindt's small bag of truffles.

 

 

Merchandising
While scavenger hunts are fun and all, impulse purchases happen when shoppers aren’t actually shopping for that product. Creating a well-marked display of stocking stuffers near the front of the store or near check out will make it easier for shoppers to find these products and increase the likelihood of them making a purchase. As for online merchandising, consider creating a themed web-page with a grouping of stocking stuffers, as well as social media posts to promote gift ideas. You may have all the best stocking stuffers, but if you don’t help these items stand out through marketing and merchandising efforts you will sadly miss many sales opportunities during the holidays.

Even if shoppers didn’t come to your store or website looking for stocking stuffers, showcasing your stocking stuffers will increase the sale of these products. Additional communication on social media, emails and on your website will also increase sales. Stay tuned for next week's post when we share quick and easy ideas for stocking stuffers.

Crave more?C lick here to subscribe and start receiving weekly tips, like this, delivered straight to your email inbox. RCI's blog is just one of the many resources we offer to help candy makers refine their craft and build upon their business and marketing practices.  Follow us on Facebook for even more sweet inspiration.

Not a member? Click here to learn how RCI can help you build your sweet business .

 

In this five-week series, retail strategists and instructors at RCI’s Merchandising Boot Camp, Rich Kizer and Georganne Bender, of KIZER & BENDER, share important areas of your retail space that can either set your business up for sales success or failure. As the last part of this series, we’re sharing how slowing shoppers down can increase sales.

In a previous post, we learned about the “decompression zone,” which is the space within a five-foot radius of the entrance. Just beyond this space, front and center on your sales floor, is where you should position your “speed bump” displays. Speed bumps are used to slow customers down and refocus them on shopping. These displays can also be used to set the stage for what shoppers can expect to see while browsing the rest of the store.

Use a single, small table or cluster a few together for a bigger impact. Add product from different departments to create fun-to-shop, “I have to have that!” displays. Change your speed bumps once a week, whether they need it or not. Remember, this display is a BIG part of your store’s ambiance.

Overall, it is important to keep your sales floor fresh. Get a blank calendar and preplan your merchandising moves. Check your 10-second impression daily, again, change your speed bumps at least once a week, tweak your lake-front property frequently and change your window displays on a monthly basis. Refresh your entire sales floor at least once every quarter, making changes to customer flow as necessary. And have fun!

Crave more?Click here to subscribe and start receiving weekly tips, like this, delivered straight to your email inbox. RCI's blog is just one of the many resources we offer to help candy makers refine their craft and build upon their business and marketing practices. Follow us on Facebook for even more sweet inspiration.

Not a member? Click here to learn how RCI can help you build your sweet business.

 

In this five-week series, retail strategists and instructors at RCI’s Merchandising Boot Camp, Rich Kizer and Georganne Bender, of KIZER & BENDER, share important areas of your retail space that can either set your business up for sales success or failure. This week we’re covering an important consideration for maximizing the free-flow store layout.

Once shoppers are on your sales floor, where they go is up to you. If you are like most independent retailers, you probably utilize a free-flow layout, because it offers you unlimited opportunities to highlight merchandise and create display vignettes.

A free-flow layout has no set aisles so shoppers roam the sales floor freely, guided by how you plan the fixtures. When arranging fixtures, avoid straight lines when you can. Instead angle your fixtures so shoppers are unconsciously directed through the store. The more they see, the more opportunity they have to buy.

Stay tuned for more retail therapy next week, when we’ll share KIZER & BENDER’s tips for maximizing a “lake front property” store layout.

Crave more?Click here to subscribe and start receiving weekly tips, like this, delivered straight to your email inbox. RCI's blog is just one of the many resources we offer to help candy makers refine their craft and build upon their business and marketing practices. Follow us on Facebook for even more sweet inspiration.

Not a member? Click here to learn how RCI can help you build your sweet business.