There’s no escaping it, it’s that time of the year again. The Coca Cola advert has been aired, and for most this signals yuletide rolling into town for one more year. Love it or hate it, Christmas is here for the next month or so, so it’s time to get prepared.
From a commercial perspective, there’s no doubt that Christmas is an extremely important time of the year. Here are some statistics to back up that claim:
- On average, sales jump by 60% from September to December
- The months of November and December account for 21% of annual retail sales
- The average household spends £712.69 on Christmas related items; more than any other annual event
- Over 90% of all Christmas spending goes on gifts, food and drink
So we can see that Christmas is a huge deal as far as retail is concerned. And it’s not just the weeks leading up to Christmas that are important. In 2012, there were 113 million visits to online retail sites on Boxing Day as the UK public went e-shopping for a bargain.
Quite simply, the Christmas period for a retailer is fundamentally important, and if you want your business to succeed, it’s crucial that you have every box ticked. When it comes to winning or losing a sale, the minute details matter, and with that in mind, it’s crucial that the packaging you use for your product is as effective as possible.
When you think about packaging your Christmas product, have a think about how the packaging can best convey everything you want the public to think about your product. It may be that you want your product to exude a touch of class or luxury, and if that’s the case it’s no good using brightly coloured and gaudy traditional Christmas packaging, as this won’t create the desired effect.
Similarly, if your product only really has the ‘wow factor’ when the customer can see what it is e.g. a chocolate snowman, then it’s useless putting it in some packaging which will obscure the product from view.
Quite often people think of packaging in a means to end sort of way; like packaging is only necessary in order to carry or store the product, but actually it’s worth bearing in mind that most likely, the packaging is the first thing your customer will see, and if it doesn’t have the desired impact for whatever reason, then there’s every chance you’re going to lose a sale. Given that Christmas sales account for a fifth of all annual revenue, failing to do what you can to ensure the sales you need can be a massive, and sometimes irreversible mistake.
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Noel Greenwood is the Managing Director of GWD Ltd, the designers and manufacturers of presentation and promotional packaging. You can reach him on (01279) 416093 or at the company’s website: www.gwd.ltd.uk