Christmas gets lots of attention. There’s no denying that
it’s an important sales season. But how important is it really?
Many say that retailers lose money all year
and need Christmas to turn a profit. Have a bad Christmas season and you have a losing year…but
is that really true?
We’ll take a look at retail sales…and maybe we’ll discover that
our focus on Christmas overlooks the most important selling opportunities we
really do have.
Click to read on...
WHEN DO RETAIL SALES TAKE PLACE…looking at the full year.
Major retailers are the single biggest advertisers during
the Christmas seasons. You can’t turn on
the TV without seeing Canadian Tire, The Bay, Winners,HOMESENSE and just about everyone else shouting "We've got Christmas for sale!"
So Christmas definitely gets our attention, but how big is it anyway?
NATIONAL RETAIL CHAINS
National retail chains report their sales to Statistics
Canada, so we are able to see how much of their sales take place at Xmas and throughout the rest of the year. Here
it is:
Basically, at national chains sales are relatively stable
throughout the year averaging approximately 8% of total annual sales in any
given month. December is above the
average and we can say Christmas is important. However it is not close to being the 40% of
total retail sales that is frequently claimed in the media.
CGTA RETAILERS
Now what about CGTA retailers, are they different from
national chains?
We can see that CGTA retailers show the same pattern as
national chains. So while Christmas is
an important sales event, it isn’t the defining sales season of the year.
In fact, it is obvious that retailers and of course
wholesalers, need to do well all throughout the year because 80% of sales take
place earlier in the year rather than at Christmas.
Think of it this way. Christmas is the icing on the cake...it's not the cake.
InvestorsPlace
And over the next few weeks as Christmas approaches we will be inundated with similar misinformed reports.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN
Many wholesalers and sales reps get very concerned about their sales for the Christmas season. And that creates a "can't see the forest because of the trees" situation.
Basically 80% or more of a retailers sales are non-Xmas. And that means a greater focus and enthusiasm throughout the year will bring better results instead of worrying about the Xmas season.
You retail customers know this, after all, they're monthly sales results show it.
Think of it this way. Christmas is the icing on the cake...it's not the cake.
CHRISTMAS IS 40% OF
RETAIL SALES: the source of the myth
The charts in this post clearly show Christmas does not
account for 40% of retail sales. Yet the
myth that is does certainly persists.
Why is that?
One reason is simply that it gets repeated in the media every
year and we assume if we read it in the news it must be true. Here are just a few news sources that repeat the “Christmas
is 40%” myth. Each of these news articles (click to read) refers to the “Christmas
is 40%” myth.
InvestorsPlace
And over the next few weeks as Christmas approaches we will be inundated with similar misinformed reports.
News reporters need to put out stories. They’re not writing research reports. So they get the gist of the story out there,
but the quality of the details can be less than accurate.
It’s like the 80/20 rule.
When something gets repeated often enough, many people just accept
something as truth without actually verifying the accuracy.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN
Many wholesalers and sales reps get very concerned about their sales for the Christmas season. And that creates a "can't see the forest because of the trees" situation.
Basically 80% or more of a retailers sales are non-Xmas. And that means a greater focus and enthusiasm throughout the year will bring better results instead of worrying about the Xmas season.
You retail customers know this, after all, they're monthly sales results show it.
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