Today, PG Buzz hears from Marion and Mark Flaherty, co-owners of Best Wishes, Garstang; Deborah Tingay, owner of Southbourne Cards, Southbourne, and Nicky Stephenson and Claire Jarvis, co-owners of The Tutbury Present Co, Tutbury.
First up, it’s Marion and Mark Flaherty, co-owners of Best Wishes, Garstang…
Your Christmas trade verdict: “Very positive.”
Spill the beans: “Card sales, in most areas, exceeded expectations and we’re up on 2021 figures. Wrap also sold well for us, having increased the variety of price points available. We had great support from regular customers and saw a lot of new faces too.”
What was your festive strategy: “Due to family circumstances we had very little time to do any extra promotions or even big window displays. We were thrust into the big selling season before we knew where we were. Fortunately, due to the great selection of cards we had available our customers didn’t seem to worry – and we had quite a few late nights topping up the card racks!”
Customer buying patterns: “Yet again we noticed a rise in the number of boxes and packs of cards we sold as well as an increase in specific titles, especially Someone Special as well as those for friends. We also noticed that men starting their buying of wife/girlfriend, One I Love cards earlier, rather than the last-minute scramble during Christmas week.”
Your top performers: “We buy cards from a large number of companies covering everything from blanks to the hugely sentimental. What we have noticed the last two years is a growing amount of people looking for more wordy cards, possibly a reflection on the circumstances of the world in which we are living.”
Was it a sustainable Christmas: “Some of the cards still come wrapped and we haven’t noticed any comments from customers to suggest this affects their selection. As for glitter, we didn’t hear anyone mention it, despite the fact that we usually have a few moans about the mess it makes or that they have a phobia about touching it! It did seem that customers were just busy getting on with the job of buying, we’re glad to say. The 10p charge for plastic bags has drastically reduced the amount we’ve used in recent months, which is a move in the right direction.”
Your hunch and approach for 2022: “We’re optimistic that, as we to learn to live with the world as it is, sales in 2022 will continue to gradually improve as they have since we were able to reopen last April. We are looking forward to attending Spring Fair armed with our wish list. In addition to the usual items we’ll be looking for more extended titles in relations (Christmas and everyday) and multiple design boxes. Giftware is always on our radar, keeping an open mind for that new best seller, with good packaging and POS being important factors.”
Deborah Tingay, owner of Southbourne Cards, Southbourne, had a novel approach: “Our Southbourne Cards Christmas can be summed up in Christmas movies!”
The Nightmare Before Christmas
“The Christmas set-up was incredibly challenging, due to stock delays, deliveries outside of the scheduled time slots and availability concerns, coupled with covid issues. One day we had 22 big boxes of stock delivered unscheduled, so no extra staff available to help unpack! As a small business this is challenging, including from a cardboard waste perspective. But, once this nightmare was behind us, we were up and running and there was no stopping us.
Polar Express
“So, our last quarter sales were up 40% on 2019, 28% this year versus last year. Dwell time was up on 2020 while average transactional value and footfall was up too!
Home Alone
“Thankfully I wasn’t Home Alone thanks to my key suppliers – a massive thank you to agent Rosie Trow, Paula from Paper Rose/Nigel Quiney and Roy at GBCC for sending emergency Mummy and Mum Christmas cards to ensure we didn’t run out!”
“Our customers just kept showering us with positive feedback: ‘We love this shop!’, ‘We love your staff!’, ‘We love your cards!’ Our selection was the best ever with new-to-us publishers added to our Christmas offer – notably Words ’n’ Wishes, Wendy Jones-Blackett, Janie Wilson, and The Art File.
“While I’m very concerned about cost price inflation and margin erosion, we’re very confident that our sales will continued to grow in 2022.So, all in all… It’s A Wonderful Life 😊”
And finally, it’s the Christmas countdown from Nicky Stephenson and Claire Jarvis, co-owners of The Tutbury Present Co, Tutbury…
Your festive verdict: “Crazy busy!”
Spill the beans: “Overall our greeting card sales were up by 7.5% in the golden quarter. We were even up on the previous December, which is amazing considering we were closed in November 2020 meaning Christmas buying was pretty much squished into one month.”
Customer buying patterns: “Customer buying started early, or so we thought – but then demand continued right up to the last few days! We then had the tricky situation of selling out of the most popular captions. Luckily some suppliers were able to help us out right up to the last minute – thank you Five Dollar Shake!
Your top performers: “We had a very good sell-through on individual cards, but it was the boxed Christmas that really flew out this year. We’ll definitely be ordering more for this Christmas.”
What was your festive strategy: “Our top priority was to spread the word about our shop in order to increase footfall locally. After so much time spent online we really wanted people to come and enjoy the independent shop experience. We’ve been working with a fantastic team that links our EPOS system to the internet so all our products, including a massive selection of our cards, show up on our existing Google listing, and people then use the See What’s In Store search facility before they visit. We also pop up when someone’s searching for something specific locally, and they can even reserve an item with us, collecting it the same day. This really worked well for us, driving new customers and sales to our door and it’s now being integrated into our social media platforms too.”
Was it a sustainable Christmas: “Most of our cards, including boxes, charity packs and singles are now cello-free or with just a belly band in the case of the packs. For us this is really important to show our commitment to becoming more eco-friendly. It has, however, caused a few issues with envelopes going astray when cards are nested rather than tabbed together. Customers haven’t really commented on the changes, but they are buying the unwrapped choices without issue.”
Your hunch and approach for 2022: “Cards continue to play such an important part in how we connect with friends and family so we’re feeling very positive going into 2022 as we update our everyday selections and prepare for the spring seasons.”
Top: Best Wishes, Garstang, welcomed 2022 in colourful fashion
