Preparing to sell your products at Christmas – with Catherine Erdly

Vicki Weinberg: 00:00:08

Welcome to the, Bring Your Product Ideas To Life podcast, practical advice, and inspiration to help you create and sell your own physical products. Here's your host Vicki Weinberg. Today I am delighted to have Catherine Erdly joining me on the podcast. Catherine helps product businesses, start grow and scale profitable businesses that last Catherine's joining me today to talk all about Christmas. Yes. I know it might seem like a long way off but I promise you actually isn't. So whether you're all set for your Christmas sales already, or if you haven't even started thinking about them, you're going to get lots of advice out of this episode. And actually it doesn't matter when you're listening to this, you know, if you pick up this episode and listen to it in January or in the middle of the summer, it honestly doesn't matter. Because as far as Catherine's is concerned, there were things we can be doing year round to prepare for Christmas. Um, it doesn't mean you need to be thinking about Christmas constantly not as scary as it sounds. Um, but Catherine makes some great points about things you can do at various points throughout the year to help set you up for some really great Christmas sales. So with all of that said, I'd love to now introduce you to Catherine. So hi, Catherine. Thank you so much for being here.

Catherine Erdly: 00:01:18

Hi, thank you so much for having me.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:01:21

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

Catherine Erdly: 00:01:24

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 spent the first 17 working for high street retailers. So the last job that I had before I left the corporate world was at Paperchase. And then since 2018, I have been helping independent brands and retailers start grow and scale a profitable product business.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:01:55

Oh, thank you so much. So I know that quarter four is a really busy time for the retail business, probably 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: 00:02:11

Um, yeah, just, yeah, just to put it into context. Then the, the, for the retail industry as a whole, the stat that'll 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 and you're in a small business, small businesses tend to be more design led more desirable. So they tend to be more as a result, more often purchased as 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 your year as a, as a business. And a lot of the big retailers know that so theyjust to put it into perspective, the Paperchase team, for example, 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 starting to think about those kinds of things. So a year is not uncommon at all for planning for Christmas, but for small businesses, I would say 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 packaging needs everything you can be thinking about from the summer onwards. Obviously we're talking about October, so we're not really talking about planning ahead anymore. Cause we're in quarter four. So yes, the answer is yes before now.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:03:54

So maybe we can talk about two things. Actually, what 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. That's the brilliance of podcasts isn't it? So let's first of all, talk about if we were all listening to this in good time, 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?

Catherine Erdly: 00:04:19

Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. So I would say it's all about products. 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 at Christmas. It's the perfect opportunity for you to look back at that and say, okay, what will my best products, what do I want to do with them this year? Do we want to move them on, change them slightly, bring out 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. 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, 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 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 only want to make sure you've got enough stock of them. You want to make sure the photography for them is really on point. You want to make sure that all of your marketing campaigns, everything else is built around those. You want to make those a real focus. So in the summer that 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: 00:06:18

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

Catherine Erdly: 00:06:25

Yeah. And also, do you need to develop new products because 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: 00:06:37

Yeah.

Catherine Erdly: 00:06:39

So it's so even earlier, you know, almost like a January is a great time actually, to do a lessons learnt. 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 learnt and strategy meeting, where they sit down and they'd 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 supplier, let me down. I'd like to find a new one or I'd likes 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: 00:07:25

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 baubles and everything else now. So I guess if you are extremely organized, that would make sense, I guess, to have all of that done and ready. So you have all your marketing materials readyway ahead of when you start them.

Catherine Erdly: 00:07:51

Absolutely. 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 May. That 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're 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. And even just having those in hand is going to put you in such a strong position. You think about this, 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're in a position at that point to have your Christmas imagery ready, and you're really focusing on PR for example, for your business, then again, you're just in a, in a really great position.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:09:19

Amazing. Thank you. So, in terms of things like, and I don't know if there is an ideal time for this, it just struck me that in terms of your Christmas imagery and all of this, the marketing materials, what's a good time to start getting that in front of people because we've recorded this in mid-October, which to me as a consumer Christmas still seems quite a way off yet. It's not. And people have started to talk about it more when I'm sure if I went and shopping, the Christmas music would be in the shop. 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: 00:09:52

Yeah. I mean, I think it's a 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 soft launch. If you like. So a soft launch is basically listed, but you don't really talk about it that much, but if somebody is searching for it, they can find it. There will be people, there are 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 they're 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 said, 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, 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 there'll be full blown promotion from early November.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:11:22

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 still thinking about that.

Catherine Erdly: 00:11:35

Well, if that is, you know, that is certainly true in a lot of people, it feels 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 and get 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 end of October, if you could write yourself some emails, You're going to be sending out or write you've put together some, some Instagram posts for November, December. It would say future you would be so excited when the, when you are busy and the orders start coming in, but you don't have to then sit down and write your newsletter. You can literally just pop into your drafts 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 a bit for the busiest time.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:12:33

Absolutely. Thank you. I really liked the idea of helping your future self out 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 gearing up to do a lot of making, I guess, anything that you can do to sort of simplify everything else would be fantastic. Um, but let's say for somebody who is listening to this, when it comes out, so Halloween weekend, so, you know, Halloween sales you know, done. Um, how long would it be then? Six weeks, seven weeks till Christmas, not long. Anyway, what are the key things that we should be doing right now to get ready.

Catherine Erdly: 00:13:10

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 stock take 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 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 the 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 stock take, you've checked that you've got all the supplies that you need. You check that you've got the products that you need, that any supplies you need to make your products and materials, making sure that that's all ready to go Have a tidy up. De-clutter 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 an you're 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 right them. Is that going to be a problem? Do you need to get a label printer? Do you, 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: 00:15:13

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

Catherine Erdly: 00:15:20

Do your own Christmas shopping!

Vicki Weinberg: 00:15:22

Yeah, no, that was great. Do you have any other sorts of, um, any other tips of things you, maybe you can automate or ways of saving time? Because I think that these are just these are golden. Catherine, thank you so much.

Catherine Erdly: 00:15:33

I think one of the key things is 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 customer services, you may want to consider getting a separate email, just, you know, most domains will allow you. You can get like another email address for a small amount, only a couple of pounds a month, but where you could change, make it to support@productbusiness.com. Um, so that you don't have, 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 bio that says for, for, uh, customer service queries. Please email this email address, and then what you can do with the, with the customer service email. Once you go separate, just makes it easier to deal with in 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 examples, 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 you, or do something like that. But then putting an auto responder on so you are 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 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. So make sure there's an auto responder that says, thank you. You know, easy to set up, most emails systems will let you set up an auto email that goes out when an email is received, that explains this email address is monitored. Um, this, this email is a monitored between nine and five, Monday to Friday. If you're, 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 purchased that is literally like a pay as you go sim or something, brick phone, you know, like burner phone, there's just for Christmas that just say. 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, 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 them. 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 can't call the health care company you know, um, you know, I've tried to call a big, you know, big healthcare company a weekend, which I had a question I needed an answer for the weekend. I couldn't get hold of them. They said they'd be there back onMonday. So I think small businesses sometimes feel like they have to be available 24 7, but you actually don't.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:18:55

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. 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, 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 til January. Cause I'm sure there are some things that fall into that camp.

Catherine Erdly: 00:19:21

Yeah. Pretty much anything that is to, to 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. 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 needed to do major research into, into getting it, you know, an employee and have to have a long lengthy 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 has to be those, those things. Again, big retailers. They move everything out of November and December. They don't attempt to do anything even from, to be honest, September is 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 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 Tik TOK. Oh, I should. I should really have someone look at my SEO. 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 for 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. 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's 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 centers or something like that. Definitely not something like that.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:21:14

Yeah. I think you've already made so many people really happy for saying that because yeah, it can be really tempting can't it to think, I have to get this off my, to do list. I said, I do this in 2021, but you're right. And I say the same actually even goes for things like if you're researching a new product or supplier, or even launching a new products. I mean, I'd say if it's, especially if it's, even if it is a gifting item it's, but especially if it's not a gifting item.

Catherine Erdly: 00:21:40

Oh gosh no.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:21:41

Don't try and launch it in December.

Catherine Erdly: 00:21:44

The only thing I'd say that sometimes you have to be cautious of is if you're a business, that's got a really big Valentines 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 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 lot wholesale. So you're dealing with retailers, people may want to know about your Valentines pretty sharpish after Christmas. So that's the, I think the only thing in terms of product development is to maybe have those things in your head, but again, the main focus. I mean, if that's not achieveable it's not achievable, but yeah, just cause 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 just, you just stress yourself.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:22:52

Absolutely. I think that say helpful. And what about, and what would you say for anyone 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 of in December. Cause obviously there are people who sell things that are very clearly gift items, things that you would, you know, you would see as gifts. Um, what impact does Christmas have or does 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 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. No, they are.

Catherine Erdly: 00:23:32

It's generally it lifts everything I'd say. I mean, so for example, when I was at Paperchase, 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, 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 that, 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 Oh I'mwedding, 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 really super summer focused brand, then it may be that 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 and less cause, cause it's tougher. It's tougher to gift fashion. You you'll get a bump for Christmas party. You'll get a bump for some people buying outfits for Christmas parties that usually happen sort of end of November. You'll also get a bump for the carve theTurkey 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 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. 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 gifting, you know, zero waste household cleaning, starter packs, things like that. Somebody's really passionate about the, you know, reducing their environmental impact. So I think that. I would, I, I think I would ask yourself, 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 there will be some, some products more than others that, that, that will, um, spike for sure.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:26:09

Okay, thank you for that. Cause I mean, I'm with you that I think a lot of things are giftable, even if you perhaps don't, you know, if, if they're not obviously giftable, because you know, it depends, it depends more on the person that you're buying for. Doesn't it than the retailer that you're, that you're going to,

Catherine Erdly: 00:26:24

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 items. So think about what you could think. Everyone can participate in Christmas in some ways it's just working out how.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:26:46

Yeah, that's great advice thank you, I think giftcard is 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 for an example, but I could get them a gift voucher so they could go and choose whatever it was that they wanted or needed. So that's, that's really good suggestion. Thank you. And, I believe a lot of e-commerce sites give you that functionality now anyway, don't they to,

Catherine Erdly: 00:27:09

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, you know, your, your niche product area as a gift.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:27:34

That's great. Thank you. It's exciting, isn't it. So many opportunities, so much,

Catherine Erdly: 00:27:38

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 harder to sell to a customer. That's not looking for. I mean, it's sounds really obvious, but I think it's worth remembering that that sometimes it can feel really tough to sell. It's like you're pushing water uphill, but at Christmas, your customers have money to spend. They want to they're really, really invested this year more than ever in creating these magical moments and 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 have those memories, which sounds to be 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 customers out there looking for things to buy and that 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 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're just able to sort of test things and try things so much more easily and just see what happens.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:29:21

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.

Catherine Erdly: 00:29:29

Sure.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:29:29

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

Catherine Erdly: 00:29:34

Yes.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:29:35

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 and we're ready to get going.

Catherine Erdly: 00:29:51

I think first thing do little, tidy up do a little housekeeping, make sure that you've changed. If you changed any of your product descriptions, which are definitely recommend it's worth doing. So if you've mentioned that something's a great stocking stuffer, for example, make sure that you've changed everything back so that it it's not referencing Christmas, make sure that all of your imagery has been changed back. Make sure your home page 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, say 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 that 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, 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 the next year you don't sit there at the beginning of November thinking, oh no, what's happening. Make a note of what works 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. Your just like, it's like childbirth, there's just block it all out. 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 do you want your sales target to be? Where do you think, 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 want it 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 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're, 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 are now paying customers of yours to build on. As you move into 2022.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:32:47

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 bought from you already. So therefore, hopefully like you like your products and it might be interested in buying again. So yeah, I think, I think that's a great thing that anyone who hasn't done after Christmas sort of getting email list together could be what my try and say in time for Christmas next year seems would be brilliant.

Catherine Erdly: 00:33:13

Yeah.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:33:14

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's someone's listening and they're thinking, oh, there's so much we should be doing. Um, I can only think of one thing. What would the main one be?.

Catherine Erdly: 00:33:29

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're not excited about your product, 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 at it in January and you're just getting into Christmas. Now, I'm thinking 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 things and 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 something like Instagram and you're talking about it, you can all tell, like, when you, when you see someone talking about something where they're like, okay, we've got these, you know, we've got these things and then use on the other hand, you may see someone who's like, oh my goodness, I just got the samples. They've arrived. They look amazing. I can't wait to get this 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 up behind their store, 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. 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 energy to keep going. It makes everything that you do just much more appealing to the customer because they feel like, well, if you're 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 could possibly 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 that in your personal life has probably a lot that you shouldn't be doing in the fourth quarter. I don't get new puppy or move houses, 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 can rest and not just feel completely overwhelmed and run off your feet.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:36:17

That's all brilliant advice. Thank you so much. And I really liked 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, someone choosing to buy from you for someone else, like it's a whole other thing, it's super exciting. It, you know, your gift might make someone's Christmas, I think is good. So I think you're right. And it's really easy to lose sight of that among the to-do lists and everything else

Catherine Erdly: 00:36:44

for sure. You're welcome.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:36:48

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

Catherine Erdly: 00:36:55

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.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:37:08

Oh, that's amazing. Well, thank you so much. Thank you so much for listening all the way to the end of this episode. If you enjoyed it, please do leave me a review that really helps other people to find this podcast. Make sure you subscribe so you don't miss any future episodes and do tell your friends about it too. If you think that they also might enjoy it, can find me@vickyweinberg.com. There you'll find links to all of my social channels. You'll find lots of more information. All of the past podcast episodes and lots of free resources too. So again, that's VickiWeinberg. Take care, have a good week and see you next.