Recapping The Holidays
Recapping The Holidays By Catherine Evans

Recently, the National Retail Federation (NRF) reported that, overall, the 2006 holiday season was “modest,” with a 4.4 percent increase. A 5-percent increase was what the group forecasted. When reading the annual Lawn & Garden Retailer “Christmas Retailer” holiday season review results, I saw some of that; however, I also saw some of the opposite. Some people said the season was great and they sold out of everything, while others said November was great and it all fell apart in December.

Yes, a lot has to do with demographics, weather and so on. However, in many of the typically cold parts of the country, the weather was unseasonably warm. Some analysts say it is the slowing housing market, the lack of time the consumers have (many consumers I talked to didn’t even decorate this year), etc. The simple truth is the holidays are always unpredictable. Every year I hear retailers talk about how surprised they were about something that happened during the holiday season, whether it was lack of cut tree sales, less interest in holiday décor or a huge interest in regular gifts. This industry has to stay on top of its game to remain successful for the holiday season.

For this annual holiday season survey, we reviewed responses from 151 retailers from all over the country about their holidays. This annual report will provide you with plenty of information to help you be successful in future holiday seasons. Enjoy!

The 2006 Holiday Season

Survey participants were asked to describe their seasons in 300 words or less, and we got some pretty interesting answers. Here is a sampling of answers in no particular order, anonymously, so you can see how some of your peers fared this past holiday season.

“Like most everyone, our end of November was a bang! The weather was perfect for decorating and potting up outdoor containers with evergreens. Life was easy! The snow and cold that followed was also good for indoor sales of fresh and decorative product. However, the warm up that followed did detour some of our sales. Christmas ended up about the same as last year.”

“Cut Christmas trees did poorly we had a lot of snow that hampered sales. Our gift department was stellar! The culinary delights, candles and winemaking supplies flew out the door.”

“Very disappointing, down about 40 percent. Other retailers in town are saying the same. A rising cost of living appears to be the major cause. People have been spending very conservatively in all categories (not just holiday items).”

“Best Christmas season on record for us. However, we cut back on product after getting burned with leftovers in the previous two years. This year, weather was perfect for decorating, with less local competition, which left us scrambling for more product the first two weeks of December. It was great!”

“This holiday season seemed to be much busier than last. We had more shoppers in the gift store, but in the end, sales numbers were only up slightly from 2005. More people spending less. In general, customers were wowed by our displays and selection. Sales of fresh greenery and live trees are down again this year most people we asked had purchased an artificial tree.”

“Fresh greens showed large increases for us this year. We think people are decorating for Christmas by changing their flowerpots into winter planters, and we’ve been able to capitalize on this. Home décor and gift showed very large increases, and I believe this is attributable to having the right product mix for this category. Outdoor lighting was good due to warm weather Á and LED lights. Outdoor lighted figures and silhouettes did horribly.”

“Traditional holiday items showed very poor sales; housewares and gift items (non-holiday) moved very well. Fresh-cut trees sold well, but wreaths, garlands and greenery did not. Poinsettias did very poorly. The market seems oversaturated; poinsettias are ubiquitous. On the whole, I was disappointed in holiday items.”

“Our Christmas season was a very good one. We took a different approach this year and focused more on fresh/live products rather than decorations. We filled our showroom with gift items. This way they stay in the store for the entire season and bring in customers during our slow time after the holidays. We also try to have little events going on every weekend in December to attract new customers, bring in our regulars and keep the kids entertained so parents will shop longer. All in all, this was one of our best seasons.”

“The Christmas season was again just OK. This is mainly due to the growing trend to the ‘Artificial Christmas.’ More and more people are waiting until after Christmas and purchasing discounted, artificial items for the following year. We still deal only in live trees, wreaths, etc. Poinsettias seem to increase in popularity each year.”

“Early sales of outdoor fresh décor were encouraging, however short lived. Our holiday shop achieved a 10-percent increase in sales at significantly higher margins than previously realized. Artificial tree interest was up while our fresh-cut tree sales took a wallop, down 15 percent. Poinsettia sales were our best ever.”

“Well above expectations! It seemed a slow start; most of our sales were for gifts, mostly nontraditional holiday plants. November was a bit odd and early December made you wonder, then it all just started moving. Great sell-through on most holiday items.”

“Our Christmas season was up about 20 percent. Fresh tree sales were way down, though. The excellent weather helped people get out and decorate, but cut-your-own trees probably hurt us on the flip side with warm weather. Our gift category and fresh arrangements seemed to lead the sales. Also, quality fresh wreaths and upscale decorations on the wreaths seemed to be in great demand.”

“We had the best holiday season in the history of our company. December continues to be our highest-volume month of the year. The sales of prelit, artificial Christmas trees drove our holiday decor business; however, gardening gifts remained the number-one-selling category.”

“We experienced a great Christmas season, 14 percent above sales plan and 19 percent above last year. Careful buying was a key factor. We put only a minimal amount of dollars into ornaments, a real plus! We also concentrated on a unique selection of gifts and home décor, setting us apart from other garden centers as well as gift stores.”

Best Holiday Sellers

This year didn’t seem to have one thing that was completely overshadowing another as far as what sold the best. However, one emerging trend was gift cards. They were the best seller for 45.3 percent of the respondents. According to the NRF, gift card sales far exceeded expectations for the holiday season. People spent almost half of their gift cards within the first two weeks in January, according to the NRF. It will be interesting to see how many people head to garden centers in the spring to spend their gift cards.

Poinsettia Sales

When reading how overall sales were for the 2006 season, there were answers across the board concerning poinsettia sales. However, the graph does not lie; it seems overall poinsettia sales were pretty much the same for 2006 as in previous years.

Another interesting thing about this year was the lack of excitement for novelty colors and painted. There was an overwhelming response when asked, “What type of poinsettia sold best for you?” The response: 93.1 percent said traditional red. I guess consumers are going back to the traditional Christmas.

Other Popular Poinsettias

Though red may have been the clear winner, there were a few other types that customers were purchasing throughout the holiday season:

‘Cortez Burgundy’
Jingle Bells
Blue/purple painted

Holiday Events

A lot of times garden centers have special events throughout the holiday season. The season may not be the biggest moneymaker of the year for garden centers, but it is a time to pamper customers so they know the store is there and will want to come back in the spring.

Garden centers offer everything from open houses, Santa visits, live music and much more. All I keep hearing from these retailers is that customers love it. They come in with their families and spend hours shopping, talking to Santa, enjoying the music and eating the holiday food.

From the responses in the survey, open houses (65.3 percent) were the most popular event garden centers hold, and holiday food came in second.

Other Events

The “other” category came in third for most popular events. So what kind of events do these garden centers offer for the holidays that didn’t make the list?

Classes/seminars
Special sales/coupons
Chamber of Commerce mixers
Charity donations/events

Percentage Of Annual Sales

We all know the core of your business is spring sales; however, the holidays can add to your annual revenue. We asked survey participants, “What percentage of annual revenue do you attribute to the Christmas season?” We did get a variety of answers ranging from 0-80 percent, but when we averaged them all together, it amounted to about 16 percent of annual sales coming from the holiday season. The four main numbers mentioned were 5, 10, 15 and 20 percent of holiday sales attributed to annual sales.

Shopping The Gift Markets

During the past month or so, many of you have been hard at work shopping all of the gift markets throughout the country. There are a few markets that are larger than others, so a lot of you tend to go there for your holiday needs, among others. The two categories that outshined the others were the Atlanta Gift Market and the “other” category (which was actually the highest at 43.7 percent).

When we examined some of the “other” places where retailers tend to buy their holiday goods, the answers varied quite a bit. However, the variation was on the local gift market level; a lot of the responders shop in Seattle, Wash.; San Francisco, Calif.; Denver, Colo.; Minneapolis, Minn.; etc., which makes sense. There are a lot of shows/markets throughout the year, and if you can stay close to home and save money on travel, then you can spend a little more money for the season for your store.

What’s New For Next Year?

Based on what you did this past holiday season, what are you planning on doing differently for 2007? That was the question asked, and there was a huge variety of answers. Listed below are the answers given most often: