Another Christmas, and another year gone. The trees are coming down, the lights are packed away, and the copious leftovers have either been eaten, chucked out, or thrown in the green waste bin. Christmas and New Year’s are a huge time of year, with many people stressing about the perfect gift, and getting around to see the family. And although Christmas and New Year can be a time of joy, there’s no doubting that there is also significant stress to be had in the season.
Running around crowded shopping centres in the Australian heat, searching for the present you spent hours browsing online or in catalogues for, only to get to the store and find that the shop is all out of stock. They won’t be getting any more until after Christmas.
Even small businesses may struggle to source good quality wholesale giftware during the festive and end-of-year season, and with current economic burdens and Australia’s seasonality, Christmas in 2026 is calling businesses big and small to conduct themselves in new ways.
Christmas in…January?
It’s no secret that things have been a little hard economically. The cost-of-living crisis has been active for an extended period of time, and more families than ever (particularly low-income families) are struggling to make ends meet. Groceries are more expensive, wages are stagnating, and then suddenly, the end of the year comes around, and the most fiscally exhaustive time of year begins.
People have responded accordingly. Retail data from last year shows that people are planning for Christmas as early as October in order to make use of Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales. Doing this allows shoppers to save huge amounts of money over the Christmas period, while still ensuring that they have the right presents for their loved ones. Additionally, ordering so early means that not only do they not have to deal with the overcrowded shopping centres anymore, but they also don’t have to be in a mad rush out in the heat to find everything on their shopping lists.
And it might seem unintuitive, but this strategy is good year-round. There are a myriad of national holidays that have retail sales, and not only are these chief times of year to buy, but they also represent excellent opportunities for businesses to turn a profit.
Big and Small Business, Big and Small Wins
As a retail business, it’s important to understand that when people enter a buying frenzy, that’s the time to offer deals and discounts. After all, what entices people to spend more money than an offer of more for less?
However, the kinds of deals and discounts you offer matter exponentially, and may depend more on the kind of business you run than you think.
Big businesses with a more consistent client base, wider reach, and larger budgets should prioritise deals that offer discounts on stocked items. This works for bigger businesses for several reasons. First of all, they have the budget to accommodate a small loss in favour of greater profits. Also, they have enough customers that a discount will likely provide enough influence on consumer behaviour, so that the marginally decreased price of one particular item won’t affect overall profits too much.
Additionally, discounts tend to get excess stock rapidly removed, allowing store space and marketing to focus on newer, more socially relevant items.
On the other hand, small businesses that are either trying to make a name for themselves, or merely content being a small business dealing in niche products, should focus on deals that add value. As you might have guessed, this is because a small business is everything a big business isn’t. They rarely have an excess of stock, they don’t have the budget to sustain a hit on single items, and they don’t have the number of consumers to influence large groups of people with minimal savings.
Instead, small businesses need to play into their niche and add value to their existing stock. Whether this means selling bundles of items together, offering complimentary gift wrapping, free small items after a certain dollar spend, or hand-written cards or thank you notes, the way for small businesses to “win” over the holiday period is through adding value, not discounting.
Get Trending
While we’d all love to have our business go viral with marketing, what we’re actually talking about here is using marketing to determine the direction your business goes. Trends, in general, might be fleeting, but many of them become sociocultural movements that stand the test of time.
Once, climate change was getting made fun of on South Park (they had Al Gore chasing a figment of his imagination called “ManBearPig”). Now, everyone is all about renewable energy and sustainable materials. So it makes sense to add high-quality wholesale items made in this way to your stock, especially during sale periods.
Not all trends are so ethical, however. Sometimes people just want to enjoy themselves. Take a look at social media and see what people are doing for fun.
Change with the Seasons
No matter what happens at Christmas, due to Australia’s summer, there will always be one universal complaint around Christmas time.
It’s. So. Hot.
Christmas time and New Year are right at the end of the first third of summer. It’s hot, in some places humid, and it’s sunny. Now is the perfect time to offer deals on hats, sun umbrellas, sunscreen, sunglasses, and other summery items to help consumers beat the heat.
Any good business needs to understand not only what customers want, but what they need, and when it comes to Australia’s weather over the holiday period, there’s no doubt that we all need something to help us get through the intense heat we can get.
And the same goes for the rest of the year, too. In the spring, offer deals on gardening equipment or garden decorations. Winter offers deals on hot drinks or mugs, gloves, and other winter clothes.
Remember, the retail calendar can be a great tool. Look at the trends, look at the season, and check what national holidays are coming up. Plan your specials accordingly, and there’s no reason you can’t dominate the retail year.
