POST-HOLIDAY HAVOC

LYNNE BREEDEN

LTD7 Staunton, Va.

I honestly look at (post-Christmas) as our clean slate, a chance to breathe and look at our strategy going into the next year. Hopefully we have done our job by collecting names and we can contact the new and existing customers with sales and new inventory coming in.

I reduce my holiday inventory by 50 percent before Christmas to get the share of it gone before the majority of after- Christmas sales at other places. I find that once Christmas is over, it’s over, and people are not as excited to get holiday items. After Christmas, I consolidate it all into one area and reduce it to 60 percent (off) or buy two get one free. Then one week later, I reduce the products to 70 percent off. If anything remains, it is taken out of the store and donated or saved for the next year’s early Christmas sales or sidewalk sales in July.

(There are) no events after the holiday; it is more of a regrouping time for us, and our customers are ready to see fresh as well. We tease them with new products we see at market and do live (stories) at market. We like to include them in the excitement. To encourage them to come into the store, we may offer incentives like double stamps in our loyalty program or a hot chocolate bar, or snow deals online if it happens to snow and we have to close the store.

Seasonal products have a short shelf life, and they need to be turned quickly. As a retailer, you want to get the share of shoppers first … so we do heavy marketing with picture introductions in the beginning. In the end, there is a short window where people will continue to buy.

LISA LANDRY

Living and Giving Rome, Ga.

We actually don’t see the “post-Christmas slump” as a slump. We all need time to take a breath and evaluate the past year, get the stores cleaned and remerchandised so customers are excited about shopping again. We mark down all the holiday items 50 percent the day after Christmas, and the sale is over on Dec. 31. We schedule a few shipments the last week of December so we always have a fresh look to start with in January. Our customers are ready for anything other than Christmas.

We turn over seasonal merchandise very quickly. Obviously, 50 percent off of all holiday-related items is what customers are looking for. We usually have very little to mark down. After 13 years, we’ve got our holiday buying needs figured out, so there is less than 10 percent left over.

KENNETH LUDWIG

Kenneth Ludwig Chicago Chicago

In the new year, we’ll reset the shop floor and flip to decorative accessories, table lamps, artwork and furniture. This is the time we introduce new furniture lines and new accessory lines to our client base. We’ll do a series of cocktail open houses to introduce the new lines. Since it’s winter in Chicago, people just love to get out. We invite our regular private design clientele to see new pieces that we can work into their designs.

For the last week of the holiday season, we run 30 percent off. That really moves a lot of product. We do extensive social media and an e-blast campaign to get it sold. The week after the holiday season, we’ll run a 50-60 percent off sale. From Christmas to Jan. 15, we contact all of our clients personally via phone call or email to let them know of the savings. We’ve recorded and tracked their purchases so we can suggest best-selling items. After Jan. 30, we will store the items until next year. Most (product]) goes within the three weeks after the holidays, due to our personal sales efforts. We only store about 10 percent of what we’ve bought for the season.

TEDDIE AND COURTNEY GARRIGAN

Ciao Coco! and Coco and Dash Dallas

Our business is actually pretty consistent because we work with so many interior designers. There are always projects starting up in the new year, and designers need unique items that they can find at Coco & Dash.

We don’t up stock with holiday-themed items, so (product turnover) really is not an issue. However, at our second shop, Ciao, Coco!, which has some Christmas-themed product, we hold an after-Christmas sale. Again, because we try not to over buy on themed product, we aren’t left with an abundance of those goods.

In January, we host our annual Designer Forecast breakfast event. It coincides with the Dallas Total Home and Gift Market, so it’s a great way to start the day. We invite two interior designers to join us on a panel to talk about what’s going on in the design industry.

PATTI GREEK

Greeks Bearing Gifts Athens, Tenn.

We have our year-end big sale usually two or three days after the new year. This year, it will be on Jan. 5. We are closed for a day to set up the shop. This builds excitement. We have been doing this for about 20 years.

I literally put things that have not sold all year on sale, as well as holiday items. So anything that is not on sale is placed on the wall fixtures. We place other fixtures and long tables of sale items down the center of the shop. Everything that is on sale is 50 percent off.

Our customers will notice that we move things around after a day or two — just like we move our displays — they see something new and even items that are on sale. The third week, we take an extra 20 percent off the sale price for the last three days of the sale.

When it is time to get the shop back to a fresh new-year look, we still have one fixture that has sale items — and replenish it until it is gone.