The biggest Christmas mistake I see is not ordering too little. It is trying to stock everything.

Hi, I'm retail strategist and founder of Resilient Retail Club, Catherine Erdly.

This episode is sponsored by Capify

Every year I watch independent retailers try to turn themselves into a one-stop shop for December. More lines, more categories, more just-in-case. And every year the same thing happens. The money goes out across everything, the shop looks busy, and the sales still land on a small handful of products you could probably have named back in August. It is not about having everything. It is about having the right things. The reason most of us get that wrong is that we plan Christmas as though it were one single, homogeneous block of spending.

It is not. Your customers are not walking in to buy "Christmas". They are on missions, and every one of those missions has its own budget, its own timing and its own deadline. The Secret Santa buyer and the Christmas Eve panic buyer are not the same person, they are not spending the same money, and they will not be in your shop in the same week. In this episode I walk through the buying missions that actually make up December, roughly what each one is worth, and when each one turns up. Once you see them written down, the gaps in your range become uncomfortably obvious.

Then I get to the part that quietly decides your whole December: your hero products. The small group of lines that will carry the majority of your Christmas sales, why identifying them now changes how you market, price and reorder everything else, and why your strongest one probably does not look remotely festive. By the end you will know exactly which lists to make this week, which gaps to fill before the autumn trade shows, and where the room is to try something new without gambling your peak season on it. Press play and I will walk you through it.

CHAPTERS

00:00 The one-stop shop mistake, and what to do instead

01:16 Think like a Christmas shopper: the missions people are actually on

06:11 Hero products: the 20% that will carry your Christmas

08:51 Filling the gaps, and the 20% where you get to have some fun

LINKS

Free Get Set for Christmas planner: https://www.resilientretailclub.com/christmas

All episodes of the Resilient Retail Game Plan: https://www.resilientretailclub.com/podcast/

Catherine on LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/catherineerdly

Parts one and two of this series: episode 316, Christmas Retail Strategy: Why August Decides December, and episode 317, Retail Cash Flow at Christmas: Four Ways to Ease the Squeeze.

Episode 309 with Hannah Bartlett on Christmas trends: https://thechristmasinsider.com/

Find out more about Stock Doctor: https://stockdoctor.net

Say hello on Instagram: @resilientretailclub