One of the features of the UK retail market is the number of festivals, and holidays celebrated by different sectors of society. Christmas, Hanukkah, Eid, Diwali … as well as secular celebrations like Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day that are celebrated by people in all walks of life, there’s always an opportunity to tailor your display to the needs of your particular customers. You need to be ready to maximise that spike in sales that comes when everyone’s celebrating at the same time.

Christmas is a highly competitive season, with retailers having already felt the pinch of the recession for a few years now, and consumers looking for best buys and bargains when their own purses are smaller. It’s important to maintain standards and quality rather than going for the lowest common denominator, and that’s where your display and point of sales choices can really come into their own. Eid and Diwali and other religious festivals have their own high points and spending peaks that can make a real difference to that month’s turnover.

Many companies make the majority of their sales in the October-December quarter and it’s vital to ensure that at this busy time, your brand and quality are not diminished by a rush to sell on stock and resupply with fresh new items. The Christmas and New Year retail and sales periods can have a huge effect on your turnover and profit, and they bear some consideration now in order to make sure everything runs smoothly when the busy season comes along. Once they’re over, you can look forward to Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, a whole range of festivals celebrated by people of different religions, and even big occasions like sporting events and other crowd-pleasers.

So, how are you going to make sure you take advantage of the seasonal sales peak while maintaining your brand identity and your customers’ perception of the quality of your products? You also need to remember to keep up with the innovative and attractive display solutions you usually have, rather than compromising on quality for a quick fix.

There are two ways to do this: either have permanent displays which you can update with new graphics to suit the season and any new ranges you might be introducing; or you could think about ordering some temporary display solutions that you can add to current displays to make the most of the seasonal sales peak. With both updatable graphics and temporary display solutions, it’s worth choosing a fairly neutral base that you can add seasonal touches to as the year progresses, and talking with your supplier about appropriate materials to use – maybe metal with a graphic refresh rather than a card construction, thus getting better value out of your display and ensuring it can last on through all the different occasions as necessary.

Whether it’s a bespoke short run of customised retail display units or a standardised display for your brand’s seasonal items that you need to roll out into all your third party retail distributors, you need to consider similar points. When is the peak time for your particular market (note: if you have a range of stores this might vary with their geographical location and the communities within which they’re located) Is the display customisable to allow for refresh of ranges and signage? Is it sturdy enough to cope with the seasonal rush? Is it easy to stock, refresh, clean, maintain and repair? Is your display equipment company experienced enough to design, manufacture and install it all for you?