Posts Tagged ‘holiday’
Hot Trends: Halloween 2008 for Wholesalers
Monday, September 15th, 2008
Did you know Halloween is the second most popular holiday (after Christmas) in terms of decorating and celebrating? With so many Halloween enthusiasts young and old alike, the year long anticipation for the holiday culminates in an excellent opportunity to increase revenue through costume and party item sales.
Using statistical information, recent surveys and targeted polling as resources, Halloween-News.com predicts the following Halloween trends for 2008:
Adult Costumes
This years movie to watch for will include Batman: the Dark Night, Indiana Jones and The Terminator. Jack and Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas are always present. You’ll still see a surge of pirate costumes since Capt. Jack Sparrow is still popular. Couples costumes will be big again this year, take a look at some of them at http://www.adulthalloweencostumes.com . The usual horror film bad guys such as the new Michael Meyers costume and mask, Jason from the Friday the 13th series and Freddy from Nightmare on Elm Street are all still popular. Classic movie villains such as Dracula, the Wolfman and the Mummy are always good choices. There is a strong resurgence towards the traditional, macabre, dark and sexy. Theater quality Vampire and Witch costumes, particularly sexy ones will be to die for this year. Elvira style costumes will also be in great demand. Gothic, ghostly apparitions as couples costumes will also make an appearance.
Decorating
People are decorating for Halloween like never before! The focus is on realism for adult parties, dark and spooky with lots of realism. With the availability of low cost consumer-based fog machines, more will be sold this Halloween due to the three day week-end with Halloween falling on a Friday this year. You’ll also see more elaborate yard haunts pop-up on this special night, complete with graveyards, skeletons, ghosts and special effects.
Halloween Parties
Halloween falls on a Friday this year and that means a week-end of partying! That gives us an extended two days to celebrate and throw week-end parties, also allowing for longer times running haunted houses and Halloween charity parties. Whether its a Pack of Pirates, Den of Vampires, Zombies, or Ghostly Apparitions, theme based parties are definitely in! And those that hold these parties will pull-out all the stops when it comes to decorating and the libation.
Tags: adult costumes, adulthalloweencostumes.com, halloween, halloween-news.com, holiday, Hot Trends, party decorations, Product Sourcing, Rebecca Button, seasonal, source, trends
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How to Cope with Seasonal Product Demand
Friday, April 4th, 2008
The old adage says ‘variety is the spice of life’ - but if you are in business, you know that variety in customer purchasing patterns can be an extremely stressful issue to deal with.
Every season will see different products shoot to the top of the must-have list and others sitting on the shelves, gathering dust. What you want to know is how to stock more of those ‘must-haves’ and fewer of the dust gatherers.
Some seasons will see a trend to fewer purchases - other months, everything you have on the shelves will be selling.
While you can’t change your customers’ buying patterns or convince them to buy what they don’t want, you can use a little logic, research and planning to try and get a better picture of when they are going to want things, what they may want and then prepare accordingly.
Do Your Homework
Start by trying to predict what will sell. If you don’t keep a record of your store sales, you may have a problem with this. The best way to predict the future is to learn from the past.
Looking at your sales from the same time period a year ago will give you a good idea of what sales will be at same time this year.
If you are planning for the fall season, look at last year’s fall sales to know what may be selling this year. Generally, the same types of items will sell, just in the current season’s styles.
Next, plan for typical down times. Create ways to bring customers in that may not traditionally choose to shop right now.
If you would prefer to hear the cash registers ring, you need to come up with new ways to get customers. Some options to do this include holding events, sales and stocking special items:
* Events - Season-based themes usually go over very well (Summer Beach Fun, Spring Break, etc). Use the current season to create an event that incorporates your items.
You could have special visitors that customers can meet, or even a themed party that gets them into your store having fun, and makes them more likely to open their wallets.
* Sales - A great deal will bring in shoppers that were not originally planning to spend money. Design clear signage that lets shoppers know how great the deals are in your store and what they’ll be missing out on if they just walk by.
* Special Items - If your regular items aren’t selling as well, maybe it’s time to try out a few new items or unique niche items that may grab the attention of your customers.
If you can get them in to purchase one small unique item, you may be able to get them to stick around - and purchase a couple more items that are part of your regular inventory.
The key to coping with varying and seasonal product demand is to try to plan ahead for those times to keep the profits coming in.
Tags: holiday, inventory, Leeia Ladipoh, management, product demand, Product Sourcing, seasonal, source
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