I’m a new regular columnist for the Guild of Fine Food’s magazine – the Fine Food Digest! Take a look at this article written for their August 2026 edition. It’s scarily about Christmas, but with that being such a large part of our turnover as retailers, the more time we give to doing it well, the more effective it will be!
The run up to Christmas seems to start earlier each year, becoming mixed with the return to school and Halloween in many retailers.
The challenge of balancing your space to allow Halloween and Christmas enough air-time to shift the seasonal stock you have arranged for needs careful planning. My suggestion is to leave Christmas until 1st November (or Monday 2nd November this year) to ensure you make the maximum impact with your Halloween event.
Don’t overwhelm your customers with a full-on Christmas display from the 2nd, though. Follow the principles of Starbucks – the 1st Monday in November is when they launch their Christmas cup, and then new Christmas products are added on each Monday thereafter
Week 1: Ease your customers into the new season with a small but appealing display of a few of your interesting Christmas items close to the entrance. It’s a great time to launch a hamper offer, for instance.
Week 2: Add Christmas product twists and upsells to your main big hitters. Position them with the main product, with simple signage – name, 2-3 key features, price.
Week 3: Time to create Christmas displays in more places within your store. Highlight new products with height, good lighting and simple signage.
Week 4: Till points should now feature seasonal stock. Choose items that are simple to pick-up, look interesting/ colourful, and give them clear pricing.
Weeks 5 & 6: Keep the displays tidy and filled, moving products around to give good visibility to all your seasonal range over time.
Week 6: Time to condense the displays to key points in your store as your stock holding reduces. Prioritise displays to areas that face the maximum oncoming customers.
Week 7: The final push before it’s all too late. Till point offers and deals on Christmas product where needed ensuring no left-overs for January!
Need more guidance or a workshop for your team? Please get in touch judy.roberts@rightproductrightplace.co.uk
Want to read more? – here’s a link to the whole magazine
Right Product Right Place 