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Showing posts with label holiday shopping. Show all posts
Showing posts with label holiday shopping. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

25 Days until BLACK Friday, 50 DAYS Until CHRISTMAS, 22 days until CHANUKAH - What Are You Waiting For?



 Happy Holidays


 Do you loathe doing battle with the crushing holiday shopping  crowds?  I get panicky just thinking about it. Does  competitive parking bring out a side of you that no one would recognize? Have you ever encountered a sold-out toy shelf only to silently berate yourself for not rising at 4:00 a.m and waiting on line at the risk of being trampled by adrenaline and Starbucks crazed shoppers ready to SPEND, no SAVE, no SPEND, SAVE!  It is all truly crazy when you think about it. 



Whether you're buying or selling this holiday season, the time to be on the move is now! I have read countless news articles and seen TV news features about how retail prices are lower than, or as low as Black Friday right now! 
According to Time magazine, Sept. 24th issue, 49% of big marketers stated they will launch Holiday Marketing prior to October 31st . A 2.4% rise in spending is forecast for this holiday season and adding to the rising pressure is this:

"Retailers have a reduced window of time to capture peak holiday spending as only 25 days lie between Black Friday (Nov. 29) and Christmas this year, compared to 32 days in 2012. Typically, weekends are busy times for customers to visit stores and, unlike last year, consumers have only four (not five) full weekends to shop.  Also, Hanukkah starts 11 days earlier than it did a year earlier"



Retailers are rolling out the big guns:
  • Layaway
  • Early 'hot toy' lists
  • Giant retailers are price matching
  • Buy-Online, Pickup-in-Store
  • Newcomers entering the Online arena: H&M and TJ Maxx.

 My boyfriend and I love to go to garage sales during the Summer. After a while you see the same people at each one, (if you get up as early as we do). We started recognizing other early regular's  cars because of their particularly crazy and fast driving speeds, passing us at  8:00 a.m. in a sleepy beach town. 


Then we realized they all had the same look on their faces. Stress, anxiety; almost seething  to get to the sale before the others. We deemed it "Garage Sale Face".  

One time we needed a new "beach bike" because one of ours had rusted to smithereens.  We knew we had to get there early because good beach bikes go quickly. Off we went with our coffee mugs from home in our hands, "early-birding" the homeowners (annoyingly arriving ten minutes before the start of the sale).  Sure enough, we looked at each other and laughed, we each had Garage Sale Face as the other regulars pulled in. We got the bike, but we had fallen right into the frenzy!


Well, Holiday crowds to me, all have Garage Sale Face and it ain't pretty! 

"Garage Sale Face" examples:  (not exactly but you get the idea )











Take advantage of the early savings and beat the  crowds. Coupons and free shipping deals abound. You must put in a little extra time, do your due diligence and you will reap the benefits of early Holiday shopping deals. 

Shop early and you will also find the best inventory because  of the recession of recent years, retailers have scaled back on inventories in order to cut back on end of season overstock and unplanned super-markdowns.

 Use positive visualization. YOU, finished with your shopping a week before  Thanksgiving. You saved lots of cash and you can actually enjoy the holidays instead of frenetically stressing out through them.





 This is the buying side of the coming season. What about all of you online sellers.
What are you doing to get your ONLINE Shop Ready?   We'll talk more about that next post.

Thank you for visiting and reading,

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

R.T.S. -- READY to SHIP - Get Your Etsy Shop Ready for the Holidays NOW! 77 DAYs Until Christmas.

Oh boy, Christmas is coming!



Black Friday



I don't know about you other Etsy sellers, but I was caught  very un-prepared for last year's holiday season. I am not complaining, mind you, but it was crazy! And it started in October.  I had very unexpectedly high sales numbers and stress.


I used this image last year, laughing. But it was truly how I felt. It was a real case of 'be careful what you wish for". Well, it is Oct. 8th and now Etsy has those snazzy stats that compare you to where you were last year this time. Well, apparently,  if early indicators mean anything, this could be a very different  (not in a good way) holiday sales season (filing nails, with feet up). 


Black Friday Cyber Monday Shoppers


Many of you know I make mostly custom items  so it is not that easy to have RTS items stocked. But I started in beading and wire-wrapping and I miss making those items! So, I  spent most of September having so much fun, going back to the basics and filling my shop with the items that are ready to go. Now that they are made, I just have to list them. Ugg.


Here are some of my goodies in my RTS department. I have fifty more things RTL (ready to list). Anyone looking for part time work!











I hope its your year to be pleasantly surprised by more business than you can handle! I look forward to all the support and love of the Etsy community throughout another holiday season. I wouldn't want to do it without you, especially my JETS! (The Jewelry on Etsy Team) (Search "Jetteam" on Etsy - no quotation marks - for 120 of Etsy's premier Jewelers)






Thanks for reading and visiting!

Monday, November 21, 2011

Holiday Features



The sale is over but more sales are coming! Meanwhile, I have been featured in several blogs lately and I want to share them with you. In the next few weeks I will also be sharing some of my favorite finds for the holidays here on my blog.

Take a peak at the feature  on Your Daily Jewels in this fantastic Indie-finds blog (and click on the link for more info to read an in depth article the author did with me last summer)

Be back later!
Thanks for reading,
Norah