Preparing to sell your products at Christmas – with Catherine Erdly

undefined: 00:00:01

Welcome to the Bring Your Product Idea to Life podcast. This is the podcast for you if you're getting started selling products, or if you'd like to create your own product to sell. I'm VickI Weinberg, product creation coach and Amazon expert. Every week I share friendly, practical advice as well as inspirational stories from small businesses. Let's get started.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:00:29

Hello. So if you are listening to this episode around the time it's released, it's June, 2023 and it's almost six months to the day until Christmas. And incidentally, I cannot believe how fast this year's gone. So I am re-releasing this episode for the second time, as the first time I put this episode out it was either September or October, and our guest, Catherine Erdly, told me that it's actually far too late to be talking about Christmas. So I re-released the episode last summer and got some great feedback that it was a really timely reminder. So I thought I would share it with you again. I won't release the same episode year in, year out, don't worry. Um, we will record a new episode for 2024, but Catherine has so much great advice. And right now or release very, very soon is a good time to start thinking about your Christmas 2023 sales. So even if you've heard the episode before, it's a quick one. Hopefully there'll be a few reminders, things you haven't thought about, or even if it just prompts you to get thinking about Christmas, even if you don't listen to the entire episode. But it, this is just your annual reminder to start thinking about your Christmas sales and thinking about what you get, need to get in order. I think that's fantastic. So I would love now to reintroduce you to Catherine. So, hi Catherine. Thank you so much for being here.

Catherine Erdly: 00:01:43

Hi. Thank you so much for having me.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:01:45

Can we please start with you, give introduction to yourself and your business please.

Catherine Erdly: 00:01:49

Of course, my name's Catherine Erdly. I'm the founder of the Resilient Retail Club, which is my membership for product businesses. I have 21 years experience in the retail industry, and I've spent the first 17 working for high street retailers. So the last job that I had before I left the corporate world was at Paper Chase. And then since 2018, I have been helping independent brands and retailers start, grow, and scale a profitable product business.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:02:19

Oh, thank you so much. So I know that quarter four is a really busy time for the retail business, probably the, it's the busiest. Um, so my first question is how far advanced do we need to be planning for that? Um, I've got a feeling you're going to say before now, obviously this is going out at the end of October.

Catherine Erdly: 00:02:35

Um, yeah, just to, yeah, just to put it into context. Then the, the, for the retail industry as a whole, the stat that al always jumps to my mind is that one third of all money spent in the retail industry for the year is spent in the six weeks in the run up to Christmas, so November to December, six weeks. So just over 10% of the year. We take over a third and probably if you're listening to this podcast in, and a small business, small businesses tend to be more design led, more desirable, so they tend to be more, as a result, more often purchases, gifts. So if you're a gifting retailer, then it could be 40, 50, 60% of your sales coming at Christmas. So it is this huge, huge piece of the puzzle and it can really make or break, uh, your year as a, as a business. And a lot of the big retailers know that. So they, just to put it into perspective, the Paper Chase team, for example, will probably be getting ready for Christmas 2022. They'll be starting to think about it in the next month or so, at least in terms of putting together ideas and, and starting to think about those kinds of things. So a year is not uncommon at all for, for planning for Christmas, but for small businesses, I would say the, the most comfortable way to do it is to start in the summer. A lot of people have a bit of a quieter summer, so using that time to really look ahead, start planning everything from your messaging to your hero products, to your um, packaging needs, everything you can be thinking about from the summer onwards. Obviously we're talking about October, so we are not really talking about planning ahead anymore because we're in quarter four. So yes, the answer is yes before now, in an ideal world.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:04:19

So maybe we can talk about two things actually. What, what would be good to know is in an ideal world, because obviously some people will be listening to this when it comes out, but other people might pick this up at various points over the year.

Catherine Erdly: 00:04:28

Sure.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:04:29

That's a brilliance of podcast, isn't it? So let's first of all talk about if we were all listening to this in good time.

Catherine Erdly: 00:04:35

Yes.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:04:35

What are some of the things we would ideally be doing in the summer to prepare for Christmas? And then once we've covered that, we'll talk about, okay, we're in October. What should we be doing now with the time we have? Is that okay?

Catherine Erdly: 00:04:45

Yeah, yeah, for sure. So I would say it's all about product. I'm sure that you'll agree it's about having the right product. So if it's the summertime and you are getting ready to plan ahead for Christmas, this is the perfect opportunity to look back at your sales figures. If you've already traded a Christmas, it's the perfect opportunity for you to look back at that and say, okay, what were my best products? What do I want to do with them this year? Do I want to move them on, change them slightly, bring out a new version, do another version, because this was the best and I only had one product type, and I think I can expand that range. So you really want to be looking at your own figures and information. You also want to be looking at the trends, what's happening overall, and if I say the word trend and you think, oh, well I'm not a fashion business, or trends don't matter to me, trends matter to every business because a trend in its largest form is simply what's on the customer's mind. So what are they going to be thinking about? So, and you can think about macro trends like plastic free, for example, or, or vegan. So you just want to be aware of the kind of way that the wind is blowing, if you like. Thinking about how things are changing and do, do you therefore want to make any changes to your products? And then getting ready to pick out your hero products for Christmas. Because the 80 20 rule, which is, I'm sure you've heard of the idea that 80% of your sales will be coming from 20% of your products. That's true. Especially at Christmas. So you want to kind of get in your head, what do you think are going to be those 80, those those 20% of products that drive 80% of your sales? Because you're going to want to make sure you've got enough stock with them. You want to make sure the photography for them is really on point. You're going to want to make sure that all of your marketing campaigns and everything else are built around those. You want to make those a real focus. So in the summer, the really, that's the kind of starting point, is what is going to be the underpinning, what are the products that are going to underpin my Christmas strategy?

Vicki Weinberg: 00:06:43

That's perfect. Thank you. So I guess it's what are the products and then what do you need to do to make sure you're in the best position to push those products?

Catherine Erdly: 00:06:49

Yeah.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:06:49

At the right time.

Catherine Erdly: 00:06:50

Yeah. And also, do you need to develop new products? Because I'm sure you know better than anyone, it takes time finding the right suppliers. I mean, even the summer might be too late to find new suppliers for Christmas products.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:07:01

Yeah, I think so.

Catherine Erdly: 00:07:02

Yeah. So it's, so even earlier, you know, almost like January is a great time actually to do a lessons learned. So every big retailer, after they do a major holiday event like Valentine's Mother's Day, Father's Day Christmas, they have what they call a lessons learned strategy meeting where they sit down and they go through and go, okay, well, what worked well and added value and what didn't work well and I would want to change next time. And that's actually probably the point at which you would want to say, well, do you know what that supply, let me down. I'd like to find a new one, or I'd like to develop these new products for next Christmas. So to give yourself the maximum amount of time, but for sure in the summer is when you would really focus in and make that decision about what your Christmas products that you're going to base your kind of marketing campaign on would be.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:07:50

Amazing. And I guess that's also a good time. I mean, I was talking to someone last week who was telling me that she had some Christmas themed photos taken of her products, for example, back in the summer because she was having a photo shoot anyway and thought let's get the ones with the tinsel and the ball balls and everything else now. So I guess if you are extremely organized, that would make sense. I, I guess to have all of that done and ready so you have all your marketing materials ready way, you know, way, way ahead to start them.

Catherine Erdly: 00:08:15

Absolutely. And the other thing to say about that is that if you have a certain product photographer that you like, I'm sure a lot of people have this experience where they just get booked up. So if you really want them to be doing the photography for you, you want it early. And in fact, you could argue other reasons that you might say the summer was almost a bit too late. You could even say April or May is the, is the perfect time to, to really start, because in May, for example, you've got the selection for Not on the High Street. So if you're somebody who sells through, Not on the High Street, they start doing their selections around Christmas campaigns way back in the spring. So if you've got great Christmas imagery and some new exciting product ideas, you are much more likely to get that kind of exposure. If that's what you want. And then the other thing to think about is long lead times on Christmas gift guides for print magazines, they, again, for long lead time, some of those are selecting in April or May. So again, if you start that process, even if all you do is come up with your product ideas and get some great photos taken and then don't do anything for another couple of months. Even just having those in hand is going to put you in such a strong position. You think about something like Christmas in July, so there's a big PR event in July. Lots of brands will wheel out all of their Christmas stuff so that the press can go take a look at it. If you are in a position at that point to have your Christmas imagery ready and you are really focusing on PR, for example, for your business, then again, you're just in a, in a really great position.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:09:44

Amazing. Thank you. So in terms of things like, and I don't know if there is an ideal time for this, but it just struck me that in terms of your Christmas imagery and, and all of this, the marketing materials, what's a good time to start getting that in front of people? Because we're recording this in mid October, which.

Catherine Erdly: 00:09:59

Mm-hmm.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:09:59

To me as a consumer, Christmas still seems quite a way off, but yet it's not, and people are starting to talk about it more than, I'm sure if I went shopping the Christmas music would be in the shop.

Catherine Erdly: 00:10:08

Yeah.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:10:09

What's the, what's, what's not too early, I guess, to start, I don't know, maybe changing your Etsy store to a Christmas banner and that kind of thing.

Catherine Erdly: 00:10:16

Yeah, I mean, I think the sort of typical progress is, um, some people will have things up but not shout about them. I think there's almost, with Christmas it works really well to do a short, to do a, a soft launch if you like. So a soft launch is basically, you list it, but you don't really talk about it that much. But if somebody's searching for it, they can find it. There will be people, there are two ki two kinds of Christmas customers or two extremes of Christmas customers. There is the person, I mean, I have clients who have Christmas products who were receiving orders in September for Merry Christmas items. So there is definitely that early shopper. The super organized person, and then there's the last minute person and there's pretty much everything in between. So the Christmas period really starts so some people will start looking in September. That said, I'd say October is more standard, say mid-October. I've seen a lot of product launches happening recently. Uh, small businesses getting their products out there. Again, some of them have done a Big Bang Christmas shop and some of them have just listed them, but not made a big fuss. Typically what happens is you'll see that we've got to get through Halloween. To a lesser extent perhaps, um, bonfire night. But then once those are out of the way, then it just goes straight into Christmas, Christmas, Christmas. So a lot of businesses will kind of get them out for that early shopper, but maybe not be shouting about them. But then they'll be full-blown promotion from early November.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:11:47

Amazing. Thank you. And it's funny you mentioned Halloween because when I went out to my community earlier this week and said, I'm talking to Catherine about Christmas, what should I ask? Quite a few people came back and said, but it's not been Halloween yet.

Catherine Erdly: 00:11:57

Yeah.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:11:57

I'm still thinking about that.

Catherine Erdly: 00:12:00

Well, that is, you know, that is certainly true and a lot of people, if you're, if especially if it's you and it's just you in the business, it can be really hard to think ahead. So, people often do focus on, right, I've got to focus on Chris on getting through Halloween, and then they'll switch over and, and really focus on Christmas. But the thing about Christmas is because it can get so busy, anything that you can do to prepare in advance, even if you've got a little bit of a quiet week this week, you know, at the, at the end of October. If you could write yourself some emails that you're going to be sending out or write your, put together some, some Instagram posts for November, December. You always say, future you would be so excited to, to when they're, when you are busy and the orders start coming in, that you don't have to then sit down and write your newsletter. You can literally just pop into your drafts or and just send out one you've already written. So there's still definitely things that you can be doing now, even in October to prepare yourself for the, for the busiest time.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:12:58

Absolutely. Thank you. I really like the idea of helping your future self help by getting all of that done. And we'll talk in a moment about other things you can do to make your life easier, because I think that's going to be particularly relevant to anyone listening who maybe sells handmade products and they're going to be giving up to do a lot of making. I guess anything that you can do to the sort of simplify everything else would be fantastic.

Catherine Erdly: 00:13:19

Yes.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:13:19

Um, but let's say for somebody, um, who is listening to this when it comes out, so Halloween weekend, so you know, Halloween sales. You know, done. Um, how long will it be then? Six weeks, seven weeks till Christmas. Not long anyway.

Catherine Erdly: 00:13:31

Yes.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:13:32

What are the key things that we should be doing right now to get ready?

Catherine Erdly: 00:13:36

To get ready, I think it can be as simple as tidying your workspace, making sure that it's actually organized, that you know where everything is, doing stocktake on your packaging, making sure that you know how much you've got of everything. And putting in an order if you think you might be running low, because the last thing you want to do is run out of tape or stickers or boxes, and then go out to the packaging supplier and find that the lead time has suddenly extended from overnight to actually, it's going to take them two weeks. I think we can assume as well. I think we should all be really conscious of the fact that there's so many people are talking about delivery delays, about supply chain disruption, and it may not even affect your products, but it could affect some of the supplies around your products, like your shipping products and things like that. So making sure that you've done that stocktake, you've checked that you've got all the supplies that you need, you've checked that you've got the product that you need, that any supplies you need to make your products and materials. Making sure that that's all ready to go. Said. Have a tidy up, declutter. Make sure you've got as much space as possible if you can do anything ahead of time. Any making ahead of time, or if you don't make and you are just packing, then can you make up boxes. Can you fold your tissue, paper, anything that you can think of. Basically to speed things up so that when you are at that busy time that you, it runs as smoothly as possible. The other thing to think about is if there are any processes that maybe it's okay that you hand write the labels when you've got three orders a day, but if you were to be putting through 30 orders a day and you had to hand write them. Is that going to be a problem? Do you need to get a label printer? Do you, is, do you have a clunky process where you have to download your addresses one by one and then paste them into the labels? Or could you find an app that would sync it with your Shopify? All of these things are really good. Just little, almost, if you can save five minutes per order when you've got a lot of orders, that can make a real difference.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:15:39

Oh, I'm loving those. Thank you. Um, yeah, I guess anything that can make your life simpler is Yeah, yeah, would be fantastic. Um.

Catherine Erdly: 00:15:46

Do your own Christmas shopping.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:15:48

Yeah. No, that's great. Do you have any other sort of, um, any other tips or things you, maybe you can au automate or ways of saving time? Because I think these are just, these are Golden Catherine, thank you so much.

Catherine Erdly: 00:15:59

I think one of the key things is to, to look at the streamlining. The communication as well, because talking to your customers is so, so important, but it can also be really overwhelming. So if you don't have a separate email already for your custom services, you may want to consider getting a separate email. Just, you know, most domains will allow you, or you can get like another email address for a small amount, only a couple of pounds a month, but where you could cha make it to support at. Product business.com. Um, so that you don't ha, you're not kind of wading through and worrying about missing emails if you find it overwhelming because people DM you with issues. You could put a little note in your Instagram buyer that says, for, for, uh, customer service queries, please. Please email this email address. And then what you can do with the, with the customer service email, once you get it separate, just makes it easier to deal with. And then maybe if you get busy enough that you have to, you can hand it over to somebody else. It's a great job that people can do remotely, for example. So if you haven't got space even to bring someone into your, into your space to help you pack, for example, they may still be able to watch your emails for your, or do something like that. But then putting an autoresponder on, see, making it really clear, because one of the things that people often get really worried about is that they want to do that instant response. Oh my goodness, I, I have orders to do, but I've also got, I've got these queries coming in and they think they have to immediately respond. Whereas if you think about it, if you emailed John Lewis, they wouldn't respond within 20 minutes. Like so, make sure there's an autoresponder that says thank you, which. You know, easy to set up. Most emails systems will let you set up an auto email that goes out when an email's received that explains this email, this address is monitored. Um, this, this email is monitored between nine and five Monday to Friday. If you are, uh, we, we endeavor to respond to everyone within 24 hours. If it's really urgent, maybe give them one way that they can contact you if it's like super urgent, like, oh my goodness, I've put the wrong address on and I absolutely have to tell you before it goes out. Like give them another option. Even. Um, even if you have a mobile phone that you purchase that is literally like a pay as you go sim or something, brick phone, you know, like burn a phone that's just for Christmas that just says like, for real urgent queries call this number and then you can relax because you know that the only reason, you know, number one, the only reason anyone would ever call that number is if it was urgent. So you'll know to answer it, but you don't have to spend your whole day sitting there monitoring your emails and never getting anything done because you're so panicked that there's going to be something urgent comes up. So I think that things like that can really make a big difference, especially if it's, you know, you don't have a big team helping you. That juggle between, I mean, I need to be packing, but I'm worried about missing something, I think can be really stressful. So anything you can do like that where you, you set expectations for your customers. I mean, you can't call the energy company on a weekend. You know, you can't, you can't call the healthcare comp, you know, um, you know, I've tried to call a big, you know, big healthcare company at a weekend, which I had a question I needed an answer for at the weekend and couldn't get hold of them. They said they'd be, there're back on Monday. So I think small businesses sometimes feel like they have to be available 24/ 7, but you actually don't.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:19:22

That's really good. Thank you. Um, and I think along those lines, I think Christmas obviously can be a really busy time of the year. It can be quite stressful.

Catherine Erdly: 00:19:31

Mm-hmm.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:19:31

Um, and some of us, myself included, um, can get into the habit of thinking, as you said, you sort of have to do it all.

Catherine Erdly: 00:19:37

Mm-hmm.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:19:38

But what are some things that you would say don't do over the Christmas period? Things that you would say, actually don't do that now. Just leave it till January. Beause I'm sure there are some things that fall into that camp.

Catherine Erdly: 00:19:47

Yeah, pretty much anything that is to do, is not to do with business as usual. So if you're like, I need to change email providers, I need to change, replatform my website, I need to change the theme on my website, I need to. Um, I mean, you, you know, there's still time to, to hire like a temp if you needed to get someone in quickly. But if you would, needed to do major research into, into getting a, you know, an employee and have to have a long length interview process for example, that's just not the kind of things. Basically the only real focus in November and December should be on dispatching products, marketing your business and delighting your customers. And that is it. It has to be those, those things. Again, big retailers, they move everything out of November in December. They don't attempt to do anything, even from, to be honest, September's almost the last date I think, that you want to be doing stuff in your, on your business, as it were. And then those last October, October should be preparing for Christmas and November, December should be selling and shipping. So anything that you've got on your list, if you think, oh, you know, I should start Pinterest. Oh, I should check out TikTok. Oh, I should. I should really have someone look at my SEO. Like all of those things, those are January jobs. So I think anything that you've got in the back of your head, or maybe I should get this up before Christmas, to be honest, I think at the end of October it's just going to cause you stress. It's just going to cause you stress and worry at a difficult time. At a busy time of year. And I say difficult. I mean, it can be very exhilarating. I don't want to sound all negative, but I think basically there's a lot of things that you can take advantage of. The fact that January is typically quieter and you can work on them, then I would. Definitely not be looking to work on any major project in your business whatsoever. Uh, especially not say changing fulfillment centres or something like that. Definitely not something like that.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:21:41

Yeah. I think you've probably made so many people really happy by saying that because yeah, it can be really tempting can't it, to think I have to get this sorted. I have to get this off my to-do list.

Catherine Erdly: 00:21:52

Yeah.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:21:52

I'd said I'd do this in 2021, but you're right, and I, I'd say the same actually even goes for things like if you're researching a new product or supplier.

Catherine Erdly: 00:22:00

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:22:01

Or even launching a new product. I mean, I'd say if it's, especially if it's, even if it is a gifting it, but especially if it's not a gifting item.

Catherine Erdly: 00:22:08

Oh gosh, no, don't.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:22:09

Don't try and launch it in December.

Catherine Erdly: 00:22:11

No, the only thing I'd say that sometimes you have to be cautious of is if you are a business that's got a really big Valentine's, Mother's Day, um, type business, and you really know that there's new products that you want for that, you kind of have to keep those ticking over if you're working on getting samples or working on that product development and maybe getting photography done for those because just the way, same way that you go Halloween, Bang into Christmas. Often you go Christmas bang into Valentine's Day, which sounds bonkers, but if you know it's going to suddenly switch like that, or if you're somebody, for example, who sells a lot of wholesale, so you're dealing with retailers, people may want to know about your Valentine's pretty sharpish after Christmas. So that's the, I think the only thing in terms of product development is to maybe have those sort of things in your head, but again, the main focus, I mean if that's not achievable, it's not achievable. But yeah, just because you said you were going to do it in 2021, I'd say if you've not done it by the end of October, you are not authorized to do it before January. Otherwise you'll just, you just stress yourself out.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:23:20

Absolutely. I think that's so helpful. And what about, and what would you say for anyone who's, who's listening and thinks, well I don't know if I'm, if my products are seasonal or, I don't know if they will sell more in December. Because obviously there are people who sell things that are very clearly gift items.

Catherine Erdly: 00:23:34

Yeah.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:23:34

Things that you would, you know, you would see as a gift. Um. What impact does Christmas have or does a Christmas have an impact on other kinds of products? So products that maybe aren't as traditionally thought of as gifts, because I mean, in theory, anything can be a gift. You. The things I buy my husband, but he's into sports and the random things he wants for Christmas. I'm sure those retailers don't think these are gifted items, but no, they are.

Catherine Erdly: 00:23:59

It's generally, it lifts everything I'd say. I mean, so for example, when I was at Paper Chase, I was running the stationery team, and of course it was gifting stationery, but you know, every, all stationery lifted in December because people, there's more eyes on the business, there's more footfall. Um, so I would say, there are of course there are products, you know, if you've got a very wedding focused business, for example, then Christmas may not be your biggest time of year. Apart from the fact, you know, thinking about could you have an element of your business, which is about, you know, your first Christmas as a married couple, that kind of thing. And also be aware that there's a huge number of engagements happen between Christmas and New Year for another example. So even if you think to yourself all on wedding, which is all summer focused, it's just worth thinking about whether or not you'll get some peaks or spikes around the Christmas time period. Obviously, if you're a really super summer focused brand, then it may be that you do, you aren't as, you don't see such a big bump. I'd also say arguably some fashion isn't as seasonal. It's not quite as focused on Christmas unless, because, because it's tougher. It's tougher to gift fashion. You'll, you'll get a bump for Christmas party. You'll get a bump for, so people buying outfits for Christmas parties, that usually happens sort of end November. You'll also get a bump for the carve the Turkey outfit as we call it. So people will buy themselves a new outfit for Christmas Day, and you'll see a bump in anything that's clothing related, that's giftable. So jumpers, scarves, hats, gloves, anything like that that that could be given as a gift. But sort of typical everyday clothing, you don't necessarily get as much of a lift at Christmas as some other products. But I'd say, I'd say the majority of product categories, we'll see some kind of lift, even if it's quite utility, because again, utility can be a great gift. People are gifting, you know, zero waste, household cleaning, starter packs, things like that. If somebody's really passionate about their re, you know, reducing their environmental impact. So I think that, I would, I, I think I would ask yourself like, could this be given as a gift? And if you have literally nothing in your business that could be given as a gift, you know, just thinking about whether or not it's worth, maybe for next year, well definitely for next year developing a product that is giftable or even a way of just making some of your products more giftable because it is a huge, huge opportunity for you and your business. But, uh, there will be some, some products more than others that, that, that will, um, spike for sure.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:26:37

Thank you for that, because I mean, I'm with you that I think a lot of things are giftable. Even if you perhaps don't, you know, even if they're not obviously

Catherine Erdly: 00:26:44

Yeah.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:26:44

Like giftable because, you know, it depends, it it depends more on the person that you're buying for, doesn't it?

Catherine Erdly: 00:26:49

Yeah.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:26:49

Than the retailer that you are, that you're going to.

Catherine Erdly: 00:26:52

And don't forget about gift cards as well. If you've got a shop and, and maybe your product, maybe it's quite niche, maybe it's to do with a hobby, but there will be a customer that will want to come and get a gift card and, and purchase it for someone so that they can go and choose their own item. So think about what you could, I think everyone can participate in Christmas in some way. It's just working out how.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:27:14

That's great advice. Thank you. I think gift card is a fantastic idea because as you say, if it's something very niche, it might be that, you know, I might not know what to get someone who liked fishing, let's say and example.

Catherine Erdly: 00:27:25

Right.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:27:25

But I could get them a gift voucher so they could go and choose.

Catherine Erdly: 00:27:28

Yeah.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:27:28

Whatever it was they wanted or needed. So that's, that's really good suggestion. Thank you. And I believe a lot of like e-commerce sites give you that functionality now anyway, don't they? To add cards on?

Catherine Erdly: 00:27:38

Yeah, a lot of them do, and sometimes I think they do charge for it. But even if you had to activate it for November and December and have it, you know, workable for that and um, and then go from there. But, uh, I think it's definitely worth trialing it, at least to see if you've got a customer who wants to give your your product. You know, your, your niche product area as a gift.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:28:01

That's great. Thank you. It's been exciting actually, isn't it? So many opportunities. So much to.

Catherine Erdly: 00:28:06

So many opportunities, and I think that what, what's really exciting about Christmas is that often you can kind of feel how the customer is thinking. So if you've got the product that the customer's looking for at this time, it just feels so much easier. Everything just moves easier. It's much easier to sell. It's, it's harder to sell to a customer that's not looking for, I mean, it sounds really obvious, but I think it's worth remembering that, that sometimes it can feel really tough to sell. It's like you are pushing water uphill, but at Christmas your customers have m money to spend. They want to. They're really, really invested this year more than ever, in creating these magical moments, in creating memories, in creating a lovely Christmas experience because so many of us did not have a great Christmas experience last year. So I think that we'll see more than ever this year people really wanting those special items so that they can have those special times with family and, and have those memories, which sounds sort of super emotional, but you know, Christmas purchasing is emotional, but it is exciting as you say, because it's the time when the customer is out there looking for things to buy. Now the customer's not always looking. We saw in the summer a real dip because the customer was busy out, going to the restaurants and bars and seeing friends. So it, it was harder to sell to them because that wasn't what was at the forefront of their mind. Whereas what's at the forefront of their mind right now, it's finding that perfect gift for their loved ones. So if you can help them do that, it will just feel so much easier than any other time of the year. So it is really exciting. It's when you have the most eyeballs on your business, you're, you are just able to sort of test things and try things so much more easily and just see what happens.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:29:50

That's amazing. Thank you. So let's jump even further ahead if that's okay, Catherine, I've just got one or two more questions, so.

Catherine Erdly: 00:29:57

Sure.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:29:57

Let's jump forward to January or 26th of December, whenever, you know, whenever Christmas is over.

Catherine Erdly: 00:30:02

Yes.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:30:03

What do we, what could we be doing then? Um, because I know you were talking about, you know, we need to be planning early and I guess there's also something to be said for keeping up momentum, reviewing how you did. What should we be doing once Christmas sales are over? We've had a little break.

Catherine Erdly: 00:30:17

Yes.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:30:17

Um, and we're ready to get going again.

Catherine Erdly: 00:30:19

I think first thing, do a little tidy up, little housekeeping. Make sure that you've changed. If you changed any of your product descriptions, which I definitely recommend, it's worth doing. So if you mentioned that something was a great stocking stuffer, for example, make sure that you've changed everything back so that it's, it's not referencing Christmas. Make sure that all of your imagery's been changed back. Make sure that homepage is reflecting everything, your newest products. I think definitely taking the time to do a lessons learned strategy type review where you go through Christmas and you ask yourself how it went, and you make yourself some notes because you think, oh, I'll never forget how this was, but you will. So it's always really good just to ask yourself, so what went well? What didn't go so well? Not in a kind of finger pointing or blaming type way, but just try and be as scientific and as objective as possible. Think about which suppliers worked well. Did your courier company let you down? Which of your sales channels, if you have multiple sales channels, which ones of those were the most successful? What kind of price points worked really well? When did the selling really kick in? So you don't panic next year if you, if you really found that, actually, I didn't sell that much until the middle of November or the end of November. Make a note of that so that next year you don't sit there at the beginning of November thinking, oh no, what's happening? Make a note of what worked really well. What you sold out of that you could have sold more of if you'd had more to, to sell. What you really thought was going to do well, but underperformed. What you didn't sell much of at all, what you've been left with. All of these things are really important to capture in the moment because you really just won't remember it you know, just like, it's like childbirth. You'll just block it all out. So, so think about, did the packaging supplier let you down? Do you actually really need to find something, you know, something, someone else for next year? All really great questions to ask. And where do you want to target yourself next year? What, what do you want your sales target to be? Where do you think, what do you think it could have been if everything had gone to plan? And also having a look at some of your, actually in January, some of the really big events, if you wanted to be part of like a Christmas fair or Christmas market. Some of the biggest ones, the most popular ones, actually start putting in, putting out for applications in January. So again, if you want the biggest choice of everything you, you want to think, be thinking about it early. And then in terms of your customers, I would just make sure if you've been able to gather email addresses from people over Christmas, make sure that you start being consistent with your email marketing so that you can build up that relationship throughout the year. So make sure that you are, you're taking advantage of the fact that these people have bought from you, and nobody's more likely to buy from you than someone who's already bought from you. So make sure that you don't just see it as a kind of one time bump, but you actually use those relationships that you've now got with people, who are now paying customers of yours to build on as you move into 2022.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:33:15

That's brilliant. Thank you. And you're right, I think an email list is one of the best things you can have in terms of having a group of people who've brought from you already

Catherine Erdly: 00:33:22

Uhhuh.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:33:23

Um, so therefore hopefully like you, like your products and might be interested in buying again.

Catherine Erdly: 00:33:27

Yes.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:33:28

So yeah, I think, I think that's a great thing that anyone who hasn't done after Christmas, sort of getting your email list together could be in, what am I trying to say? In time for Christmas next year.

Catherine Erdly: 00:33:38

Yes.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:33:38

It's not as far off as it seems, would be brilliant.

Catherine Erdly: 00:33:41

Yes.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:33:42

So one final question for you, Catherine. Um, what is the number one thing you would suggest people do to grow their Q4 sales? If, if, if everyone, someone's listening and they're thinking, oh, there's so much I should be doing, um, I can only think of one thing, what would the main one be?

Catherine Erdly: 00:33:57

I think the main one is really focus on your excitement, which sounds like a bit of an odd thing to say, but by that I mean if you are not excited about your products, then why would your customer be excited? So you really have to ask yourself that question. And it can be hard because you can be looking at a product, especially if you look, started looking into it in January and you're, you're just getting to Christmas now and thinking, oh, I'm sick of this. I've seen it so many times, I don't care anymore. I'm sure everyone's going to hate it. You know, all of those sorts of things. I think you just have to really connect with why is this the best gift for your customer to give to their loved ones at Christmas? How are you helping them have an amazing Christmas? Really connect with that because as soon as you get that sort of fire in your belly and you get excited about it, that shows up in everything that you do. It shows up in the words that you use in the emails that you write. It shows up in social media for sure. If you're on some thing like Instagram and you're talking about it, you can all tell, like when you, when you see someone talking about something and they're like, okay, well we've got these, you know, we've got these things. And then you, on the other hand, you may see someone who's like, oh my goodness, I've just got the samples. They've arrived. They look amazing. I can't wait to get these up on the website. You immediately get drawn into the person who's got that energy. It's the same thing as if you go to a Christmas market, and we've probably all been to these events, and you'll see some people will be on their phones, sat behind their stall, not making eye contact, and then you'll have the person who's over there saying, hi, how are you? Waving and smiling at everyone, even if it's pouring with rain, you know? And you just get drawn to that energy and you get drawn to people who are excited about their products. People want to buy things that people are excited about. They want to buy products that are going to really delight their loved ones. So you have to really believe in it. And I think that actually has a real impact because it gives you the, the, the energy to keep going. It makes everything that you do just much more appealing to the customer because they feel like, well, if you are that excited about it, it must be great. And it also just makes it more fun, I think. I think if, if as much as you can possibly tr think of it as having fun, showing up, helping your customers celebrate Christmas with their loved ones. I think that is almost the most important thing that you can do. And, and what does it, what does it mean to protect that energy? Do you need to say no to other things in your life. I mean, I'd argue if you run a product business, the, in your personal life, there's probably a lot that you shouldn't be doing in the fourth quarter either. Like, don't get a new puppy or move houses. I mean, obviously, you know, life happens, you can't avoid it. But thinking about what, how can you keep the rest of your life a little bit quieter during that time so that you, you can rest and not just feel completely overwhelmed and run off your feet.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:36:45

That's all brilliant advice. Thank you so much. And I really like what you said about the excitement because you're right. I mean, selling products in itself is exciting. It's exciting when someone chooses to buy from you.

Catherine Erdly: 00:36:54

Yes.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:36:55

But someone choosing to buy from you for someone else. Like it's a whole other, you know, thing. It's, it is super exciting.

Catherine Erdly: 00:37:01

Yeah.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:37:02

In that, you know, your gift might make someone's Christmas I think is, is good. So I think you're right and it is really easy to lose sight of that among the to-do list. And everything else, so thank you for.

Catherine Erdly: 00:37:12

For sure. You're welcome.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:37:16

Well, thank you so much for that and for everything that you've shared today, Catherine. Um, where can people come to find a bit more about you?

Catherine Erdly: 00:37:23

So, I'm most often found on Instagram. I'm at Resilient Retail Club. So come on over, I share tips about growing your sales, about managing your stock, about everything to do with having a profitable product business.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:37:41

Thank you so much for listening right to the end of this episode. Do remember that you can get the full back catalogue and lots of free resources on my website, vicki weinberg.com. Please do remember to rate and review this episode if you've enjoyed it, and also share it with a friend who you think might find it useful. Thank you again and see you next week.