that the right preparation to create an attractive environment to bring people through the door and spend time inside will help to achieve.
Effective and comprehensive shop fitting work can help to create the right ambience, especially in the lead-up to Christmas, when the need to create something bright and sparkly to reflect the mood of the season and deflect from the gloom of the shortest daylight hours of the year becomes all-important.
However, it is important to be ready to follow this up for the post-Christmas period. Long gone are the days of the January sales, when shops shut until the New Year and then opened their doors to bargain hunters. Now, they can start as soon as Boxing Day.
This means you need to move fast with fittings and signage, helping to highlight bargains and discounts.
Why Is Good Preparation Important Before Post-Christmas Sales?
However, while many people will be coming through the doors looking for signs of big discounts, maintenance is also very important. This is especially so if your store has been busy, as that means more wear and tear to floors, as well as more chances of mechanical and electrical failures affecting doors, escalators or lifts.
In the same way, you will need your store to be cleaned after a busy period, while you will need to check the inventory to ensure you have stock for everything you want to sell, as well as establish what you have a lot of and should therefore consider applying larger discounts to.
The good news for retailers is that, despite wider pessimism about the economy, sales have been positive in recent months. The most recent ONS Retail Sales data release, late last month, revealed that in the three months to the end of October, retail sales were up 1.1 per cent on the three months to the end of July.
October itself saw the first dip in retail sales since May, but many retailers attributed this to consumers waiting for Black Friday sales in November.
With some positive signs for retail, now is a great time to prepare well for the next big opportunity for bargain-hunters.