Remember when the holiday displays went up before Thanksgiving? It seems that the holidays are starting earlier every year. This year I walked into a grocery store in October and saw Christmas items before Halloween had even passed. Holiday songs start streaming in stores as early as the beginning of November now, and it’s common to see Christmas trees, strings of lights, and blue and silver Hanukkah displays well in advance of Black Friday madness.
With the Great Recession still fresh in the rearview mirror, it’s easy to see why retailers took advantage of the busy holiday shopping season earlier and earlier to encourage sales in a flagging economy. It’s also difficult to put that cat back into the bag. The earlier you roll out your holiday displays, though, the earlier you also need to consider when to tear them down, pack them up, and return your retail location to normal. When is it time to pack up the holidays? Here are a few factors to consider.
Customer Expectations
No matter how early you start adding holiday décor to your store, customers likely expect it to stay in place until the New Year. The week between Christmas and New Years may not be quite as busy as the weeks leading up to the holidays, but plenty of people will use their time off to hit stores in search of after-holiday blowout sales, to make returns and exchanges, and to use new gift cards.
This in-between week is still considered part of the holiday season, and it can bring in significant sales for retailers, so it’s best to live up to customer expectations by keeping the holiday theme alive, even if you remove signage that is holiday-specific (with words like “Christmas”). Then it should be a mad scramble to stash it all and create new displays for the new year.
Buyer Burnout
So, you decided to put up your holiday decorations at the tail end of Halloween. This will not only annoy some customers, but it could lead to a level of buyer burnout by the time the actual winter holidays roll around. The question is: should you strip decorations immediately following the holidays to give shoppers something new to think about?
What you could do, if you want to change things up for the week after Christmas, is remove the holiday décor shoppers have already become familiar with over the past couple months in favor of a remix. If you opted for a red and green or blue and silver color scheme, for example, try switching it up.
Shoppers would surely be surprised to enter your store and find new holiday-themed décor leading up to the new year. New colors and decorations will mean some extra man-hours, but the “wow factor” could be enough to nab the after-holiday shopping crowd. This is also a great way to seamlessly segue from winter holidays into the new year without abruptly removing all holiday displays.
And don’t forget, while all of your holiday decorations are out, clean the extra displays before you store them. By quickly wiping down wire shelving racks and other shelving units, you work to keep holiday cleaner and fresher for next season!
If you are a customer, who would love to update your store, shop our website, Specialty Store Services, for all your retail store needs. If you have a question that you would like answered immediately, you can Live Chat, or phone us at 800-999-0771.