2020 holiday sales exceed forecasts

by Cindy Jones, Editor and Publisher 💮

This past holiday season may show that you need to rewrite your sales goals and overhaul your operational strategies for 2021. Or, since the landscape is changing day to day, you may need to throw them out altogether and start over!

No doubt many of your customers embraced the gift-giving season as a way to cheer themselves up during a difficult pandemic time. Therefore, your holiday sales probably reflected typical pandemic trends, such as cooking, exercising at home, pet products and tackling DIY projects. Buyers have had to research for new vendors and products not typically ordered from in the past. It will be crucial to keep your finger on the pulse of your customer’s needs and, for yourself, emerging from the pandemic more resilient and agile than ever.

The 2020 holiday season grew an unexpectedly 8.3% over the same period in 2019, despite pandemic.

National Retail Federation. January 15, 2021

Record holiday season retail sales during the last two months of 2020 reflected the recovering economy but also got a boost from consumer emotions after a stressful year, Jack Kleinhenz, chief economist for National Retail Federation said.

“This was not a typical holiday season and it took place amid an unprecedented shopping landscape,” Kleinhenz said. “When we assembled our 2020 holiday forecast, we knew one scenario was that results could come in high and that sales might exceed the forecast.”

The season’s 8.3% growth over the same period a year earlier was the highest holiday growth rate in records going back to 2002 – beating since 6.8% in 2004 – and more than double the 3.5% average of the previous five years, including 2019’s 4% gain.

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Is your gift shop open, closed, or some variant?

Five strategies to smoothly handle a workplace confrontation

by Corey Weiner / Fast Company / Jan 15, 2021

Some situations at work urgently require a confrontation. Maybe it’s a gripe you have with your coworker, your boss, your neighbor, or even your spouse. But instead of confronting the problem, you ignore it. You rationalize away having the conversation by saying, “it’s not that big of a deal,”or “the confrontation will make it worse,” or “it’ll work itself out.”

Instead, the problem festers and grows, until you’re reading into every text, email, and Slack message for proof that the person has it out for you. And yes, the act of confronting someone can be awkward, uncomfortable, and stressful. For these reasons many people avoid confrontations altogether. As the CEO of a growing company, I see confrontations as one of the most important ways to maintain positivity and productivity at work, and at home. Here are a few strategies for making your next confrontation a success.

Don’t sugarcoat things
One of the simplest ways to begin a confrontation is to acknowledge that it will be uncomfortable. It seems counterintuitive, since you would think keeping things as positive as possible would only help, but doing so actually hurts your chances of success. When you begin your conversation with compliments and kind words, the person on the other end winds up waiting for your inevitable but. Starting the conversation off directly, without wrapping it in rosy prose, sets the scene for a more open dialogue about the problem at hand.

By preparing someone with the knowledge the conversation will be difficult, you tell the person what to expect and let them know you would like to address areas that are important to you. For example, consider starting the conversation by saying, “I wanted to talk to you about something important to me. I’ve been avoiding this conversation for a long time, and I’m hoping you can let me finish my thoughts before you interject.” These opening sentences establish the intent of your conversation and also make it clear that you would like the opportunity to speak without interruption.

Use “I,” instead of “you” or “we,” statements
Putting someone on the defensive will only hurt your confrontation. When someone is in a defensive state, they are thinking solely of protecting themselves and deflecting shots in their direction. This state of mind is not conducive to active listening, which will make it impossible for your conversation to be successful. Instead, phrase everything you say with “I” and avoid needlessly incendiary language.

For example, don’t tell someone that, “You didn’t listen to me and deliberately ignored what I said—despite how satisfying that might feel—because their response to that language will be to fight instead of listen. Instead, rephrase and appeal to emotion by saying, “The way our meeting went made me feel like my opinion didn’t matter to you.”

You should also avoid “we” statements. These types of statements imply you’re having conversations about the person behind their back. Keep your conversation between you and the other person, without referencing or scapegoating other individuals. For example, “We are all unhappy with your tardiness” is not effective, while “I have been unhappy you have been late” is a much more constructive statement.

Stick to the facts, not emotions
The easiest mistake you can make in a confrontation is slipping from purely factual content to opinions derived from your emotions. Remember, emotions are not facts. Let’s say you’re upset with someone for being consistently late to a meeting. It’s effective to say: “You were late on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday of this week. That is unacceptable and has to change,” rather than, “it’s clear you don’t care about being on time because you’re always late.” Stick to the facts, and you’ll find your confrontations going much more smoothly.

An important side note: If the person you are talking to disputes some of your facts, don’t get defensive yourself. Listen to them and be willing to accept that you may be wrong about one or more of the facts while still being correct about the issue at hand.

Control meeting hijacking
People are quite good at deflecting to avoid addressing issues head-on. For example, the person could get emotional and pivot to talking about a personal issue. When this happens, the natural tendency is for you to go into “soothing” mode and comfort the person and talk about that personal issue with them in the moment. Resist that temptation, reinforce the reason for the conversation, and offer to speak about their personal issue another time. Remember: this confrontation is your conversation. Listen intently and don’t interrupt the person venting, but make sure to get back on track and take control of the conversation to ensure you get out of it what you needed.

It’s worth noting that some confrontations get emotional. In the rare situation that someone gets very temperamental, angry, starts crying and/or lashes out, offer to reschedule the conversation for another date or time where the person can be calm and focused.

Keep in mind the relationship
The entire point of having a confrontation is to get to a better, more productive place in your relationship with the person. Be clear about what bothers you, what your expectations are for the future, and let the person respond and commit to what you’re looking for.

Navigating confrontations successfully is an art form. The amazing thing about them, however, is if you use these tools and techniques, you will be more consistently happy, positive, and productive in and outside of work.

SOURCE: Fast Company

Hospital gift shop Christmas catalog

Regarding the article, How two shops are driving sales through COVID (Dec 2020): 

In addition to the COVID strategy discussed in the article, we used the down time to self-publish our first ever Hospital Gift Shop Christmas Catalog!

Although it took a little time, we were able to use a preexisting template from Lucid Press and take all the photographs ourselves. It actually was a lot of fun too!

Our customers loved it! We backed up the release of the catalog with a featured catalog item email each day during the two weeks before Christmas. We always included the link to the full catalog. This provided us the perfect way to promote our gift shop during the holidays. – Lee Patterson, Ascension St. Vincent’s, Birmingham, AL. 400 beds. 1/27/21

💮 CALENDAR 💮

GIFT MARKETS

STATE AUXILIARY CONFERENCES

Mar 8-10, 2021 Georgia Society of Volunteer and Retail Professionals (GSVRP) VIRTUAL

Mar 21-23, 2021 Society for Healthcare Volunteer Leaders (SHVL) Annual Convention & Market Nashville, TN

May 12-15, 2021 Michigan Healthcare Volunteer Resource Professionals (MHVRP) Spring Conference Shelbyville, MI

Jun 10-11, 2021 Wisconsin Assoc of Directors of Volunteer Services (WADVS) Annual Conference & Market Pewaukee, WI

May 6, 2021 Midwest Assoc for Healthcare Volunteer Resource Professionals (MAHVRP) Annual Meeting VIRTUAL

Q. Which lines had the best customer service in 2020?

Last month we asked readers which lines had the best customer service in 2020. Who stepped up to the plate and helped you get through a rough 2020! What made their customer service a standout amongst the challenges of COVID? 

Evergreen company for 2020.  I had to change lots of items and not take them due to our shut down. they made me feel amazing! – Tricia Rochman, Pink Geranium Gift Shop, Memorial Hospital of Carbondale, Carbondale, IL. 55 bed. 1/21/21

I vote for Demdaco having the best customer service because I have rarely had any issues with product defects, but when I do they are very prompt in getting it corrected! – Christina Blaskie, Parkview Health in Fort Wayne, IN. 1/18/21

GANZ – Victoria is on top of things. She lets me know what is amazing and what is a dud in her catalog. She lets me know trends and what is different for our area. – Tricia Rochman, Pink Geranium Gift Shop, Memorial Hospital of Carbondale, Carbondale, IL. 55 bed. 1/21/21

Create a ‘spend-worthy’ impression of your shop

Your shop should be a place where patients, visitor and employees can escape from the IV’s, pandemics, and smell of antiseptics. Stepping foot inside should be an exceptional experience in their day. Now, you have 10-14 seconds to do it! What?

First impressions are everything and those customers are like hamsters. They’ll pan your shop, look around at eye level, and create a first  impression instantaneously. It takes shoppers:

• 2.5 seconds to decide if they are going to enter your shop; 
• 2 more seconds to form an opinion, after entering;
• the next 10 seconds to decide if they are going to stay or walk!

Create a ‘spend-worthy’ impression of your shop

Good displays make a statement! They grab your attention. Effective displays are eye candy that entertain and delight our senses. They’ve never been more important!

On average, 50% of the sales floor is never seen because shoppers tend to come in, find a specific item, purchase, and leave. Displays should be designed to move customers through the entire shop, luring them from one area to the next.

Displays have artistic demands to them. Some people have an artistic eye and some don’t. It’s just how we humans are built. If you are not artistic, best to focus on what you do excel at and bring in someone with the skills you need. It takes a team, after all. Assign a staff or volunteer who’s artistic to outright design, or at least review, designs with their artistic eye. 

Themed displays have a theme or thread of commonality like color, material, style, or motif. Combined merchandise should make sense to the customer. Step back and check that the display is not cluttered nor too sparse. Shop lighting should highlight the display. 

10 Display Rules

Intoxicate your customer with a unique retail environment that invigorates a sensory experience and stimulates their personal desires to buy.

Answers:  1. Clean 2. Neat and orderly 3. Stocked 4. Departmentalized 5. Fresh 6. Updated 7. Lighting 8. Temperature 9. Staff 10. Signs  11. Policies  12. Fixtures

JANUARY 2021 NEWSLETTER: ISSUE #613
Check out last month’s articles, surveys, and discussions.

DISCUSSION

PRODUCTS PICKS: LAUGHTER IN 2021

Q. Can you share where you found the products in last month’s article Product Picks: Laughter is the best medicine for welcoming 2021? Your newsletter is so helpful, and take something from each issue. Thank you.  – Lisa Rasmussen, Brookings Health System, Brookings. 49 beds. 1/19/21

FROM CINDY: Hi Lisa, we assembled the list by doing a targeted web search and selecting the ‘stand out’ products. Would it be helpful to describe the search method in detail or were you wondering if these were from a specific distributor? Thank you for your question, your feedback, and all the helpful comments through the years!

MAGAZINES, PAPERBACK BOOKS

 Q. Are there any shops that still selling magazines or paperback books? If so, who is your supplier? Is it worth the time and space? – J. N. Mitchell, While Lake, MI. 1/28/21

Who is your magazine or paperback supplier and do they do well selling?

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Thanks,
Your Fellow Gift Shop Manager!

PROMOTIONS

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