Don't Forget the Stocking Stuffers ...

Can you imagine being a 30 year old entrepreneur and seeing your entire livelihood jumpstart off of a product as small as a matchbox car?  Can you imagine that one day your product would be essentially relegated to a split-second purchase as the customer is leaving the store?  Your product takes less than two square feet of floor space in an 80,000 square foot mega-store, but has been profitable much longer than most other items in the store ... and yet it's the last thing a customer thinks about.


Don't forget the value of that space at the checkout.  Wrigley's has been making its fortune from those few valuable inches of space and last-second purchases for over a century.  The company has a fascinating history (gum was a gift item packaged with baking powder, but soon became more popular than the powder!) ... see here for more on that company.

It's not enough to cram an entire store full of merchandise, you have to pull those last dollars out of the sale at the checkout.  Major boxes have done this for years, but small businesses typically don't or overdo it.

Take a page out of their playbooks this holiday season.  Use the checkout area of the store as a way to remind shoppers to pick up small gifts of thanks for teachers, doctors, bus drivers, mail carriers, etc, or better yet use the space to provide stocking stuffer super buys!  Those extra couple of dollars per customer can amount to percentages in profits come December 31!

The Power of Kids

In a 2012 Nickelodeon study, 56 percent of parents run their homes in a Board of Directors approach where they make the final decisions after consulting the thoughts of their children.  "Little Timmy, where would you like to eat tonight?"

Think about the impact of this on our downtowns and in your business.  More from that study:

"In the U.S., 71% of parents solicit and consider their kids' opinions when making purchases. That percentage jumps to 94% internationally.

Parents in both the U.S. and internationally seek their kids' opinions when buying products for them. In the U.S., 95% of parents do, and internationally 99% of parents seek their children's opinions. When making family purchases, 69% of U.S. parents confer with their kids, while internationally, 87% do. As far as making purchases for themselves, 28% of U.S. parents talk about it with their children before making the purchase, while 55% of international parents do.

The categories that kids are most collaborative in as far as purchases go are clothes and shoes (85%) and fast food (also 85%). The percentage drops to 56% when it comes to making vacation decisions and to 49% in a mobile phone purchase."

What is your store doing to be kid friendly?  When was the last time you engaged the child in conversation, offered kid freebies or purchased children's merchandise even if it isn't your traditional business model?  Perhaps it's time to worry less about what kids might break, touch or steal and focus more on what we can do to bring their influence to the table to make a sale.

For more on the study, go here.

Small Business Saturday ... A Day of Our Own

For many of us, shopping small/shopping local is nothing new and nothing out of the ordinary either.  We don't have to train ourselves on the importance of supporting local businesses, but for our neighbors and those that aren't so informed about the importance of mom and pops, we need to be diligent in our delivery.

Thanks to our friends at American Express for their efforts over the past couple of years to push the Small Business Saturday initiative.  It is always a great pat on the back of Main Street when corporations see our value.  Here in Georgia, we want to make sure our communities are also engaged in the efforts to shop small and shop local.

The Georgia Main Street Program has released a series of ads that communities can place in papers, add to websites, add to facebook and stores can print for windows and sales pieces.

Here are some additional tips to reminded customers about the impact of shopping local:

1)  Use your best display areas to focus on products that are closest to home.  Showcase local artists, locally produced foods, clothing, crafts, etc.  Even if the item is made in the same city or state, highlight American-made products.

2) Use descriptive signs to tell the story of local products.  Make sure that customers in your restaurant know that you are featuring a Georgia wine, local produce, local meats and dairy with a note/symbol in the menu.  Ask your servers to specifically say, "Georgia Shrimp" instead of just shrimp and grits.  I know I am more likely to buy it if I here things like farm-to-table or a familiar place in the name.

3) Feature the person doing the work.  If you are a florist, have the local designer do a display during open house, provide tutorials, showcase themselves with their products and interact with the customer.  Ask the farmer to walk around during dinner service greeting the customer and thanking them for buying the meal that featured his greens.  Sometimes this can be done with a picture of the farmer, designer, craftsman alongside the display.

4) Don't underestimate the importance of the back story.  When people select gifts for Christmas, sometimes they want the story.  "I bought you this piece of jewelry and got to meet the artist.  He said it is interpreted as a pheonix flying through the sunset ... can you see that?"  I'm not saying some stories aren't odd, but a story sticks with the gift even as it is passed on to the next owner.

5) Make sure your customers understand their impact on you and your family.  Let them know that by shopping with you, they are helping you provide Christmas for your family.  Put a picture of your family in a nice frame next to the register that says something like, From Our Family to Yours, Happy Holidays.  The one benefit that small businesses need to utilize is the fact that customers can meet the owner ... let them meet you this holiday!

6) Don't forget that one impact small businesses can have is the personal touch.  Offer gift wrapping, offer shipping, offer anything that makes it easier.

7) Use the Miracle on 34th Street Approach.  Know what your neighbors have in stock and help customers find their needs in your community while they are there.

8) Allow customers to create a wishlist in your store.  Allow them to mark a few things they would like to have and put it on a card.  Then allow their family to see their card when they come into shop and get mom or dad or grandma exactly what they want.

Make it small y'all.  Let's do this!