Quiet? Where are all the Christmas Shoppers?!

[rachelcladavies]

Is it just me, or is anyone else's shop actually quiet at the moment? I am in a town centre, but just am not getting many people in through the day at all. I have had to close the door this week because my shop is small and it is very cold.

I am a homeware and accessories store. I will add I have been open for only 9 weeks so it is very early days, but I cannot help feeling a bit worried. I had high hopes for establishing myself around the festive period...just hope customers come soon!

Any tips on how to promote the shop as well as my website (which I have not had one single order from) cheaply would also be appreciated. I use social media such as facebook, twitter and instagram constantly.. Thanks!

 

[deniser]

It is very quiet at the moment. You would not think Christmas was round the corner at all.

I am sure all the Christmas sales are going to Amazon and the supermarkets.

 

[fisicx]

I am a homeware and accessories store.

Do people buy these products as crimbo presents? I'm sure my wife wouldn't be too chuffed with a new vacuum cleaner for a crissy present.

I use social media such as facebook, twitter and instagram constantly.. Thanks!

A total waste of time. If you want to promote your products you have to invest money in advertising. It's the only way you are going to compete with everybody else selling the same things.

Where is your shop?

 

[tony84]

Its the 21st of November?! Is anyone doing xmas shopping yet? I havnt even thought about it and probably wont until we hit maybe the 5-10th december.

You say you have not made any sales on your website, how many hits have you had? If you have had 50 hits then its not enough to establish if there is a problem or not, if its 5000 then i would expect there to have been a couple of sales.

Have you tested your site to make sure transactions can go through?

Is the town centre busy?
Do people have bags of shopping (non food)?

If people are not carrying bags of shopping then your not alone, if they are then you need to look at your shop.

I suppose what im saying is try to establish if you are in line with everyone else or if you are the exception this will help to determine if its you or the area/current market.

 

[Elliottc26]

Hi,

fisicx is correct...you need to get your offers out there and persuade people to visit your shop. Just opening the doors and waiting isn't going to do the trick.

Plus people will be using online shopping, Amazon and the supermarkets as deniser said. But you need to and can entice people in...

I would suggest:

1. Christmas grotto shop window with snow, lights, santa, etc., and some products with special xmas prices. Get some festive air freshners in, and perhaps get a warm pot of alcohol-free mulled wine and some cheap xmas pies in, plus a tin of sweets for the kids.

Use a sign, "Pop in for a free cup of festive mulled wine and a mince pie!" in the window, and on an A-board outside.

2. Have a flyer produced and get some printed off and handed out too. The more the merrier, and you could also use the design for an ad in the local paper and for online use.

3. Send a press release about festive "yum yums" to the local radio station, and paper - plus promote on social media. Get your friends and family to like and share with all their connections to get momentum going.

Hope this helps

 

[rachelcladavies]

Do people buy these products as crimbo presents? I'm sure my wife wouldn't be too chuffed with a new vacuum cleaner for a crissy present.

With homeware, I mean diffusers, candles, decorative items, so yes, I do think people buy these as Christmas presents, granted probably not the larger furniture items, but I'd expect my accessories to be going out the door as gifts.

A total waste of time. If you want to promote your products you have to invest money in advertising. It's the only way you are going to compete with everybody else selling the same things.

Where is your shop?

My shop is in Shrewsbury, Shropshire. It is a busy town centre. My shop is down a side street, so yes, point taken regarding more advertising.

 

[emmylou74]

This is my shops 3rd Christmas and its the quietest yet. The footfall has fallen dramatically. We get free parking starting in a couple of weeks so that might make a difference. I am busy though with custom work and fully booked till Christmas now - but if I were relying on the shop then I would probably just close and hibernate

I just read that you are down a side street. Have you thought about hiring someone to carry a sign and hand out leaflets advertising you? In my town we are not allowed A boards so we have to pay people to walk about with signs. But it helps to get seen. Paying for advertising in the local newspaper has been a total waste of money.

 

[rachelcladavies]

This is my shops 3rd Christmas and its the quietest yet. The footfall has fallen dramatically. We get free parking starting in a couple of weeks so that might make a difference. I am busy though with custom work and fully booked till Christmas now - but if I were relying on the shop then I would probably just close and hibernate

I just read that you are down a side street. Have you thought about hiring someone to carry a sign and hand out leaflets advertising you? In my town we are not allowed A boards so we have to pay people to walk about with signs. But it helps to get seen. Paying for advertising in the local newspaper has been a total waste of money.

Thank you for your response. I am going to get some postcards made with 10% discount and leave them in shops restaurants etc hopefully that will have some sort of an effect!

 

[Elliottc26]

Paying for advertising in the local newspaper has been a total waste of money.

Hi,

With this type of advertising, you really need to highly target the readership with offers and persuade them to visit you. Plus depends on circulation numbers.

With the right offer, copy, and design, you'd be able to see a return. But you should estimate an average ROI of £1.30, which is if 2,000 people see the ad you can estimate an average return of £2,600.

If the response rate is 2.84% (guessing!), that's 57 new customers, who each spend £45.61.

So, if your ad was only 5% effective you'd see a return of £130.

 

[mhall]

Shrewsbury is a strange town - It's very busy but also sprawled out and if you are not on the main drag you will be relying quite a bit on people finding you. This takes time and you will need to become a destination shop if you want to build. You have quite a few shops in Shrewsbury that have done this as people, especially tourists will mooch around.

Interestingly we looked at opening in Shrewsbury a couple of years ago, but then discovered it was actually cheaper to open in Chelsea's Kings Road (not that we went there either). Shrewsbury Council does not have a good reputation amongst the traders we spoke to and seem to have an inflated idea of what Shrewsbury is. We went back a couple of months ago and were amazed how many empty shops were in the Centre and yet the landlords were still demanding ridiculous rents.

 

[islandgirl]

SOOOOO quiet, customers have fallen off dramatically in Oct and Nov. My first a/w season , bills to pay, no money coming in, marketing and advertising budget spent, overheads not cleared, time to bow out ! Rubbish !

 

[herewegoagain.]

Quiet here too - well prepared, lots of browsers, plenty of people mooching about - but not many carrying bags - I work on the principle that once the good people have been paid at the end of Nov - or had their Giro's (!) it will be a mad rush - hope so - I have holiday money to find !! LOL x

 

[The_Bag_Supplier_Ltd]

The High Streets throughout the country (with the exception of isolate micro-economies) are struggling. I have witnessed this with my own eyes.

A case in point is a once thriving seaside town close to where I live...

Having lived in Thanet, Kent, pretty much all of my life, I have watched the High Streets deteriorate whilst out of town shopping centres have expanded rapidly.

Margate High Street used to be alive with shoppers at this time of the year and yet, now, it is like a desolate waste ground. Most of the shops are empty and it appears that those who are left trading are largely hanging on by their fingernails.

Many of the High Street shops are owned by Investment companies who ask rents akin to that charged in London and do not seem to care whether the shops in Margate have tenants or not. Perhaps they are more interested in the longer term land values of the properties they own?

It might seem a harsh view to take but I do wonder if the Local Authority should compulsory purchase these empty properties and charge them out at a peppercorn rent so that start-up businesses might get a foothold again.

Alas in Thanet, at least, no such ambition appears to exist and local communities appear to be suffering.

I tend to agree with MHall's earlier post and add that, in my view, Council's should be held to account for the apparent lack of appropriate management.

Perhaps it is time for a National High Street Restoration pressure group to be formed in order to influence and apply appropriate Political pressure on Local and National Authorities to act?

One small struggling shop on the outskirts of town is unlikely to be listened to I would guess, but, 100,000 small shops might be a different matter?

Perhaps High Street deterioration is common cause enough for competing businesses to lower their guard and join with each other for the good of all?

I do not profess to have all the answers, I do confess to feeling an overwhelming disappointment at the loss of the High Street and deep empathy for those businesses struggling to survive and put a little food on the table.

I wouldn't want to lead a pressure group as described above but I would offer as much lawful support as I am able.

What do others think??

 

[Leather Briefcase Company]

This is a Christmas like no other in my retail experience back to 1970.
Disposable income is only with the very well retired 60+ group, and business people who've beaten the slump.
Most wage earners and pensioners can only try to meet their bills.

 

[Paul Norman]

Newcastle seems, generally, to be fairly heaving with people.

We are seeing the beginnings of the Christmas build up - but mostly on line. Of course, this is what we would prefer, selfishly, as online is much bigger for us than the store.

 

[beasty]

Is it just me, or is anyone else's shop actually quiet at the moment? I am in a town centre, but just am not getting many people in through the day at all. I have had to close the door this week because my shop is small and it is very cold.

I am a homeware and accessories store. I will add I have been open for only 9 weeks so it is very early days, but I cannot help feeling a bit worried. I had high hopes for establishing myself around the festive period...just hope customers come soon!

Any tips on how to promote the shop as well as my website (which I have not had one single order from) cheaply would also be appreciated. I use social media such as facebook, twitter and instagram constantly.. Thanks!

Instead of sitting indoors on FB and twitter, go outside, introduce yourself and hand out leaflets to real humans as they pass your door, tell them you are new, invite them in and repeat.

If you are looking at FB at work, it is stopping you speaking to potential customers, see FB as evil unless you can DIP into it occasionaly it should not be something you are on for more than a few minutes a day

 

[The_Bag_Supplier_Ltd]

I guess that the point being made in this thread is that there is generally a lack of humans passing doors to hand leaflets to in a great many High Streets around the UK.

The 'Bees Around A Honey Pot' scenario is not happening because the 'Honey Pot' is being permitted to run out of 'Honey' and the 'Bees' are believing there is no point flying to an empty 'Honey Pot'. It is therefore more difficult to attract those 'Bees' back with a spoonful of 'Honey' when the multiples are offering a wheelbarrow load of 'Honey' and somewhere for the bees to park their wings. A lot of the High Street Independents are caught in a vicious circle of high rents and low customer turnout, whilst this is happening a lot of the multiples are at an advantage and are cashing in.

Very low High Street Rents may be the answer.

Leaflets maybe a good idea or it maybe the last pound a retailer spends before closing down.

I supply printed leaflets and promotional products for a living and so, perhaps, I am cutting my own throat by stating the above. However, I wouldn't sleep at night unless I thought that the service and product I supply are worth every penny of a customer's money. I want businesses to survive and buy from me every week not just once and then close down. It is not in my interest to take a business' last penny as a result of their of panic and desperation.

I still stand by my view that a National unified High Street Alliance maybe the only way that the fortunes of many High Street businesses can be turned around now. Possible Local Authority greed and recent cut back panic appears to be holding their focus instead of nurture and potential resultant growth.

Perhaps this a result of Local Authorities being very good at spending money but not very good at generating it?

The Government are desperately trying to encourage entrepreneurship, I think that they would welcome a unified approach to small business regeneration in the UK.

Just a hunch.

 

[The_Bag_Supplier_Ltd]

Is there already a High Street Regeneration Alliance in operation? Wasn't that something Mary Portas was doing??? Or was it something else??

 

[BelindaChong]

I opened a small shop, on a quiet back street. To get people coming in I have handed out fliers that I printed myself; I have had a stall at various markets in the town centre; I have done craft fairs, Christmas markets etc. My long suffering husband minds the shop for me whilst I do these things. I also make sure that what I sell is not readily available online, and sell hand made crafts. Business is picking up again after a very quiet October and I am optimistic that sales will be good in December.

 

[strikingedge]

Seen a huge increase in business last month from our wholesale accounts stocking up for Christmas - and we let people buy little and often.

Biggest orders are coming from the websites - the high quality ones that know how to market and don't depend on discounting or bidding on your brand name to capture sales. But good quality orders coming in from the independent stores as well.

The multiples are a bit "meh" but they don't get going until December.

The big promotion coming up is Black Friday - most popular with our US customers obviously. We don't discount at all during the year, so our customers know this is their one opportunity to splurge.

All the indies that are doing well are run by people with great taste - their stores look amazing, regardless of whether they've spent a lot or upcycled their fixtures from Ebay.

It is very rare to have a store stockist who is doing everything wrong, but then ups their game. A couple of honourable exceptions, but pretty much, if they lack taste and retail nouse at the start, they're going to have to find a different hobby once the money runs out.

You think Margate and the regional towns are dead? Try the walking dead Chiswick stores where they really do charge London rents but the store owners don't have a clue. And Chiswick people have money to spend and only need the merest opportunity to do so....so there's no excuse, especially as the good stores clean up.

Wherever you are, if you've got a great store with great products and are an OK businessman, you'll be fine

 

[The_Bag_Supplier_Ltd]

Nail bars, Takeaways, Cafes and Betting Establishments seem to be expanding down here in the South East. So I don't think money is the issue.

I think you are correct about the great looking stores in some areas, however, I believe the problems down here are more extensive than store keepers who don't have a clue. To agree with you on that point may be a little too naive or remiss.

Additionally, I wouldn't say that great businessmen/women are born that way, they develop with experience. Development potential in Margate is, arguably, being suppressed rather than assisted and, along with it, tomorrows great business people.

I'm not afraid of competition and so perhaps I would take a more empathic view toward start-ups and businesses who need a little help and encouragement rather than having their noses rubbed in it when the chips are down.

 

[David1962]

Wherever you are, if you've got a great store with great products and are an OK businessman, you'll be fine

That's the most load of ******** I've ever read.

LOCATION is the main thing, get that right with what LOCAL consumers want and you stand a slight chance.

For the love of God don't try and convince people retail is as easy as you are suggesting - that's just foolish these days, in the 80's you couldn't fail - today - not so much

 

[Core List]

Do you have an online store? i am guessing more and more people are shopping there. So if you can't beat them, join them.......

John

 

[strikingedge]

For the love of God don't try and convince people retail is as easy as you are suggesting

Quite the opposite - I am saying that some people have great taste and make natural retailers. The rest are hobbyists wasting their redundancy / family money / house equity / life savings and helping to keep rents at stupid levels.

There are some fantastic independent stores out there - having a great location with high footfall is a short cut to success (or failure if you can't sell enough to pay the higher rent), but not a prerequisite. Some of the best stores I know aren't on the high street.

The quality of the store and expert curation of the product range is the single most important determiner of whether it will be a success in the current environment.

The UK has one of the biggest economies in the world and people love to shop - there are many potential customers out there if you get the formula right.

If you've got a tatty unloved shop selling products that nobody wants at a higher price than you can buy them online, then you're doomed to fail. If you opened a shop because you always fancied running one and fill it with items that are your own peculiar and individual personal taste, then you're doomed to fail. If you're a terrible manager of people and your staff couldn't care less about your vision, then you're....you get the picture!

But ultimately it comes down to good taste - if you have it, you should do well. If you don't and can't buy it in, then you'll probably fail.

 

[The_Bag_Supplier_Ltd]

I can't disagree with most of what is written above. Of course, taste, curation, people skills etc are extremely important.

Out of interest, did any of the above make a few costly mistakes when starting up on their way to success?

 

[mhall]

I can't disagree with most of what is written above. Of course, taste, curation, people skills etc are extremely important.

Out of interest, did any of the above make a few costly mistakes when starting up on their way to success?

Define "success"

Hundreds of mistakes, some of them costly. Still don't consider ourselves "successful", just lucky. But then the harder we work, the luckier we get.

 

[The_Bag_Supplier_Ltd]

Me too.

"The history of all human ideas is a history of irresponsible dreams, of obstinacy, and of error." [Sir Karl Popper, Conjectures and Refutations]

 

[herewegoagain.]

For me the bottom line is this - there is precious little spare cash about - whether it be down south or up north, people are not spending on anything other than essentials, then they are shopping around for the cheapest on these...

I am seeing the quietest run up to Christmas for 6 years - I am sure I am not the only one seeing it... as a retailer myself, I have precious spare cash once everything is paid, and all the theory in the world will not change that - people do not have spare cash...

As an example one of my customers mentioned this to me yesterday.... whereas it is almost traditional to do a 'secret santa' at work - she is doing this with her family this year - yes, I kid you not ! - so think about it, if there is a family of 5, that is only 5 presents bought in total, instead of what could be a total of possibly more than 20 !! so 15 lost sales, to all shops....

I would hazard a guess a lot of Christmas shopping this year is being done in the pound shop !!

 

[zigojacko]

Any tips on how to promote the shop as well as my website (which I have not had one single order from) cheaply would also be appreciated.

What is your website/business name?

Do you get traffic?
If yes, how do prices stack up against the competition?
If no, get yourself listed in Google's shopping results (you'd also have to run an AdWords campaign).
If you don't know, install Google Analytics.

Research what the consumer is looking for, identify which of your products are in high demand and optimise these product pages on your website so you're competing in you're online marketplace.

High street retail continues to decline, unless in a fantastic location with a lot of passing trade, it's going to be tough. I'd definitely be looking to get your website sales off the ground otherwise it's wasted cost/effort.

 

[Trisha&ChrisPlant]

I agree wholeheartedly herewego, quiet here at The Kitchen Range as well. Bottom line is, no-one's spending on anything much other than essentials - i.e. food, fuel etc. And that's myself included. I rarely go into town nowadays and spend - just don't have the money to be able to do it.

Yes, we do have our Aga and Rayburn owners spending on pots and pans, but it's few and far between and if it were not for our heating/plumbing/Rayburn cooker side of the business - coupled with my bears and dolls from my Ebay shop, I couldn't justify my B&M shop - which lately has really almost morphed into an office.

For me the bottom line is this - there is precious little spare cash about - whether it be down south or up north, people are not spending on anything other than essentials, then they are shopping around for the cheapest on these...

I am seeing the quietest run up to Christmas for 6 years - I am sure I am not the only one seeing it... as a retailer myself, I have precious spare cash once everything is paid, and all the theory in the world will not change that - people do not have spare cash...

As an example one of my customers mentioned this to me yesterday.... whereas it is almost traditional to do a 'secret santa' at work - she is doing this with her family this year - yes, I kid you not ! - so think about it, if there is a family of 5, that is only 5 presents bought in total, instead of what could be a total of possibly more than 20 !! so 15 lost sales, to all shops....

I would hazard a guess a lot of Christmas shopping this year is being done in the pound shop !!

 

[The_Bag_Supplier_Ltd]

Theory? I think that all the above is already in practice.

By what I have already been able to ascertain, you are right, you are not the only one seeing a quietness of trade and being strapped for cash.

My trade revolves around independent stores and so I chat to many on a regular basis throughout the UK.

The multiples (whether on the High Street or Online), it would appear, are crippling the once nation of 'small shop keepers' the UK was famed to be.

The culture shift has already occurred.

My personal overview is that the remaining surviving businesses are largely ones who offer a product or service that the multiples either can't do or don't do yet, or, are in a position where there is little other customer alternative.

Convenience/Availability/Access is a major contributory factor over price it would seem. Irrespective of spare cash.

The multiples are not always cheap, even if they offer that illusion.

Personal service must be a big plus for shop keepers in this day and age. I personally detest self serve checkouts. Grrr. I strongly suspect that I am not alone.

In saying that I also detest long queues. Grrr too.

My money is hard earnt (as is most), I prefer to feel as though at least my custom is wanted.

Maybe there are plenty of advertisable USP's in what I have just said?

 

[strikingedge]

I wouldn't want to be in the Kitchen business right now - that's one area where you can be showroomed to death by Amazon.

I know Whisk in West London has had a torrid time. I remember a chain called Cook which shut as soon as the recession hit.

For some retailers the landscape has permanently changed and you need a point of difference that the websites can't compete with.

 

[Trisha&ChrisPlant]

I have to agree, strikingedge. And if it were not for the fact that both Chris and myself are completely obsessed with cooking and cookware and all that goes with it, we would have thrown in the towel years ago. Fact is, we just love it too much to give up, the interaction with the customers, swapping recipes, demos in the shop, barbecue demos, we just love it. Maybe that's not enough though, I don't know :|

Quote=strikingedge;2346646]I wouldn't want to be in the Kitchen business right now - that's one area where you can be showroomed to death by Amazon.

I know Whisk in West London has had a torrid time. I remember a chain called Cook which shut as soon as the recession hit.

For some retailers the landscape has permanently changed and you need a point of difference that the websites can't compete with.[/quote]

 

[strikingedge]

we just love it too much to give up, the interaction with the customers, swapping recipes, demos in the shop, barbecue demos, we just love it.

Amazon can't replicate the above But what's to stop people coming to the demos and then buying online?

 

[mhall]

This week we have had quite a few of the idiots who think they look clever scanning barcodes and trying to find it cheaper on line. Thankfully they just look stupid as we have changed the barcodes on anything special- Our best selling £69 item just happens to share the barcode of a tin of beans.

Don't showroom with us - it's not big and you look a dick !

 

[Lunazzurra]

Been absolutely dire here over the past few weeks, even our Christmas Light switch on with Alexandra Burke guesting didn't translate into any increase in sales - the town centre was heaving - but very few people buying, apparently all food outlets, not surprisingly, did very well on the day but all non-food did rather poorly.

Pleased to say though, that by 12:30pm today we've taken as much this week so far as we took ALL of last week, so hopefully things are looking a bit better.

Manged to cover costs and more this month (somehow) but next month has a lot of suppliers bills to pay and on top of that it's rent quater month. I'm not breathing out just yet.

 

[Lunazzurra]

Any tips on how to promote the shop as well as my website (which I have not had one single order from) cheaply would also be appreciated. I use social media such as facebook, twitter and instagram constantly.. Thanks!

To be honest, we've tried every possble way to promote our website over the past five or six years and our Twitter and Facebook pages over the last couple of years with very little success. We've tried local paper, flyers, leaflets, Google Ads, stickers on bags, QR codes, messages on receipts etc.etc. We're now telling customers openly that we are trying to increase our Facebook page and would they like to take this card with all the details and like/follow us at their convenience (and so on and so on) and we still don't get any responses.

To put it into perspective though, we know of a highly niched, destination shop near us with over 1500 FB followers, but out of that they only convert about 60 of those into actual sales. Also bear in mind that they are an established shop and have been going for more than fifteen years in order to get that level of followers.

 

[zigojacko]

To be honest, we've tried every possble way to promote our website over the past five or six years and our Twitter and Facebook pages over the last couple of years with very little success. We've tried local paper, flyers, leaflets, Google Ads, stickers on bags, QR codes, messages on receipts etc.etc. We're now telling customers openly that we are trying to increase our Facebook page and would they like to take this card with all the details and like/follow us at their convenience (and so on and so on) and we still don't get any responses.

To put it into perspective though, we know of a highly niched, destination shop near us with over 1500 FB followers, but out of that they only convert about 60 of those into actual sales. Also bear in mind that they are an established shop and have been going for more than fifteen years in order to get that level of followers.

I actually had a look at your website earlier, it's poor. I can't imagine it will be doing a great job at keeping visitors onsite.

Before spending money on advertising and promotion, there needs to be something 'awesome' to direct them to. That's the missing link in the cycle between website and social media.

I could literally write a book on what's wrong with your website - if you're going to succeed online, this is going to be something you'll need to address somewhere along the line but here are some initial things to consider...

* Have you considered setting up an actual ecommerce website that is more equipped to sell for your business?

* Do you currently have all your products listed on your website? There isn't many, they look lost on your pages currently, this could be redesigned to suit around your product range(s).

Product ranges.
Website visibility.
Branding.
Website design.
Site structure.
URL rewriting.
Category/product optimisation.

There are issues preventing your website from performing with all of the above.

 

[Lunazzurra]

I actually had a look at your website earlier, it's poor. I can't imagine it will be doing a great job at keeping visitors onsite.

Before spending money on advertising and promotion, there needs to be something 'awesome' to direct them to. That's the missing link in the cycle between website and social media.

I could literally write a book on what's wrong with your website - if you're going to succeed online, this is going to be something you'll need to address somewhere along the line but here are some initial things to consider...

* Have you considered setting up an actual ecommerce website that is more equipped to sell for your business?

* Do you currently have all your products listed on your website? There isn't many, they look lost on your pages currently, this could be redesigned to suit around your product range(s).

Product ranges.
Website visibility.
Branding.
Website design.
Site structure.
URL rewriting.
Category/product optimisation.

There are issues preventing your website from performing with all of the above.

Sorry zigojacko, I was NOT asking for a review of my website, if I'd wanted that, I'd have gone through the website peer review section on this site.

Just bear in mind that our website is a Mr Site Takeaway web package with all it's inherent limitations. It is a cost effective solution for us. I am not prepared to spend thousands on any website either now or in the foreseeable future.

I believe you have a vested interest in picking up on this thread and taking advantage as such - your post has nothing to do whatsoever with the basis of this thread. I would respectfully ask you not to respond any further on this post and to keep your posts relevant to the thread. Thank you.

 

[SillyJokes]

oof, well anyway I wonder if the public aren't simply sitting back and waiting for the big multiples to start on their pre Christmas sales. I knew they would lead to problems in the long term.