Competing During the Holidays

The hustle and bustle of the Holidays is difficult enough for store security, inventory, and numbers of transactions that it is almost impossible to rise above your competition. It is especially stringent in this current season as stores everywhere are using mass release methods or playing the "low baller" game in product prices. Every business is betting on the sheer numbers to make up for their incredibly low sale prices.
This has become a huge method of corralling people into stores by offering "day after Thanksgiving" sales that go from five to eleven in the morning and other gimmicky sale draws. Obviously all of those people who get up and out will be sticking around past eleven, when all of the sales have ended. People still need to get there shopping done. Also, the numbers for such sales in shopping malls especially are astonishing. People have been known to camp out the night before to be there for the doors to open. The limited products that these customers are chasing will obviously be gone long before all of the customers find their way to the shelves. As a result, they will see all of the other products and possibly pick up something else.
The greatest resent example of such intense product searching is the release of the new PlayStation 3. Stores were ransacked immediately for this item, and the sales continue to climb on Ebay with resale prices up to ten times the original price. The biggest question on everyone's mind is "why doesn't Sony just make more units and make more money?" In actuality this style of gorilla/blitz product release causes the sales of all the other products to rise as well. Masses of people flock to the nearest Walmart, Bestbuy, or any other electronics carrier in search of the PlayStation 3, and when they cannot find one, they probably settle for something else or see something that catches their eye. Numbers produce results. It is just a fact of retail. Seventy-five percent of the battle is getting customers in the front door to view the products you are selling.
Young adults and children are the most targeted people group for such campaigns. Parents everywhere are scrambling to make their child's Christmas the best it can be. They run to stores looking for things on the child's list, and if they cannot find the right item, they speak with a sales associate to find something similar. This is the best sales opportunity for any retailer. The customers are actually desperate to buy something.
Consider this intensity when putting together your own future Holiday sales campaigns. You may not have a PS3, but there are many other forms of blitz sales and low pricings. Advertise a limited product or create extreme sale day with a small window of time. Remember, you need to get people in the door. Do not worry about loosing money on these low sale periods. The traffic of customers will make up for the margins.

About the Author: Ron Maier is the owner of Only Kids Hangers, a leading provider of child clothes hangers. For more information, please visit http://www.onlykidshangers.com.

Keep the Kid's Bedroom Clean (with a little help from them)

One of the most common reasons for children not cleaning their room is that their bedroom is not equipped to easily put things away. With a few simple bedroom improvements your kids will not only find it easier to clean, but they will also take ownership and responsibility of their part of the house.
Children’s clothes cause most of the strife in keeping the bedroom tidy, so making their closet and drawer space easy to use is important. First, the hanging rods in the closet are often two high for children to use. Lowering them is not complicated and will cost you very little money to do. Both brackets and rods are not expensive, and you only need a screwdriver to install them. Secondly, the hangers your kids use need to be a size and shape that make it easy for them to put their clothes away. The hangers might even be colored or decorated to make clean up time fun.
Make sure that everything in your child’s room has a place. For example, toys go in the trunk and coats hang on the hooks by the door. Labeling shelves, hooks, and drawers with cartoon pictures, colors, or words will help them remember where everything goes and can also become a fun came of memory. The largest storage place in the room needs to be for dirty clothes. The bigger and lower the basket is, the more likely a child will use it, and the same is true of a wastebasket. If these baskets are two small, clothes and other objects will quickly begin to pile up on the floor. The same may be true in your own bedroom, so it is good to provide a good example for them and keep your own bedroom clean. If there is not enough space for all of your child’s things to have a place, consider purchasing organizing containers or add-on drawers to go under the bed.
These are just a few incredibly simple ways to get your kids involved in taking care of the house. By exercising these suggestions and continuing to think of new ways to make clean up simpler, you can eliminate many of the issues that keep families from having more quality time with each other. When considering how to keep your house neat and organized, remember to communicate clearly, lead by example, and provide a suitable environment for your children to be effective helpers.

About the Author: Ron Maier is the owner of Only Kids Hangers, a leading provider of kid clothes hangers. For more information, please visit http://www.onlykidshangers.com.

Recycled Hanger Wreath

Recycling is a growing trend in our modern society, but many people do not realize that they have the ability their own recycling projects by using ordinary goods that they no longer need to serve another purpose in their homes. This is especially true of those over abundant wire clothes hangers that nobody really wants. Besides being bad for the wear and tear of clothing, they are always tangling themselves into a mess in the closet. This is just one idea of many to recycle those unwanted clothes hangers, use up some of those left over Christmas wrapping supplies, and maybe have some fun with your kids along the way.
We are going to create a wreath using these simple household items: 1 wire hanger, 3 boxes of regular size plastic Ziploc or sandwich bags, and plenty of ribbons, ornaments or any other Christmas wrapping or decorating supplies you have around the house. Do not feel like you should buy those expensive double seal, ultralock, amazing, ziplock bags. Instead, the cheapest bags you can find will actually be better for this project, as the seals to these baggies are clear. Bend the wire hanger into a circle with the hook at the top (this will still be used for hanging). Tie each bag around the hanger in a single, normal knot. Do this one by one until the entire hanger is full of baggies and the bags are packed close together. When this part of the project is completed, your hanger will already look like a frosty white wreath. Now you must make it a frosty white CHRISTMAS wreath!
Tie a ribbon to the top for the tradition wreath look. Use a nice thick ribbon to tie into a bow, or just use a bow that is already made and use hot glue or super glue to stick it to the hanger. All of the decorations you add should be connected to the hanger rather than bags because the bags may shift and move. Ornaments and Christmas decorations can be added anywhere you see fit. If you want to make your wreath green or any other color, these wreaths are easily spray-painted and look great when dried. The best thing about this project is that it will be quite durable and water proof, so you don't have to worry about where you put it.
Enjoy using those recycled objects to have a fun little craft with your kids. There are so many projects like these that you and your children can do to recycle. Get creative and make up your own ideas.
About the Author: Ron Maier is the owner of Only Kids Hangers, a leading provider of childrens coat hangers. For more information, please visit http://www.onlykidshangers.com.

Stay on Top of Kid Trends

Major providers of toys, safety products, and children's clothing must always stay closely attuned to the needs of the market. The boom in children's apparel is a relatively new phenomena that is likely to change many times before settling into a mainstream norm, so retailers have their work cut out for them in keeping up with all of the new innovations in design and display. This is especially true for those trying to compete in the children's clothing market.
In the year to come, it is expected that kid's wear will continue to follow the adult fashion industry in design, especially for the growing "tween" demographic. Hip hugger jeans and cute spaghetti strap tops will continue to invade the market while ruffles and lace will remain common for the younger kid, spring and summer apparel. For the infant category, bib tops and raglan sleeves will continue in popularity. Baby girl's apparel will still be decorated with lace and broderie with floral or butterfly patterns and boys will sport the nautical style stripes of red, white, and blue.
Jackets and coats are always essential to the kid's retail department. Boys are going for biker and bomber jackets made from cotton, leather, or jersey knit. Girls will be scene in the popular pea coat design, but instead of that scratchy wool, they will be made from soft, thick woven cotton. For the bottoms, all jeans and pants are still going to be made from soft denims or cottons while showing off a new rugged/fashionable look, much like their parent's jeans.
Though children's clothes are increasingly becoming more fashionable, the emphasis on comfort will never leave the industry. Light and airy fabrics will always be used to keep kids cool on the playground and around the house on hot days. Safety is always number one in the children's clothing world.
The standard for displaying all of the coming children's retail trends is very high. The appropriate childrens clothing hangers must be used in order to compete with the new kid's retail giants. Proper displays are simply expected, and as children's clothing becomes more important to parents everywhere, their desire to properly hang their children's clothes in their own homes will grow. Parents are spending more on their kid's clothes these days than they are on their own, so display and hanging fixtures need to be held to the same standard.
Regularly reading children's fashion publications and considering the competition should be a part of every kid retailer's job. There is an amazing amount of profit to be made in this industry if you continue to do research. Staying up on these trends will always pay off.

About the Author: Ron Maier is the owner of Only Kids Hangers, a leading provider of childrens clothing hangers. For more information, please visit http://www.onlykidshangers.com.

Store Displays for a Parent's World

Remember that your store display is almost more important than the products themselves. A kid’s store must be fun for the little ones, but organized for the big ones. An extreme in either direction is not effective.
Light is the most essential display device in any store. Especially in a child’s retail store. Bright light creates a happy mood, which is just the feeling you want your customers to have when considering a purchase. Even none-furniture items need good light fixtures, so that the quality and design of the product reads easily. Children’s clothes are often in brilliant colors, but without the proper lighting, no one will notice. The types of racks, shelves, and tables should be well thought-out so that light will properly expose the products on display. These display casings should be sturdy and clean, along with nice clothes hangers that fit the clothes properly. Investing in the proper hangers for each piece is well worth the cost. The right hanger will make the clothes appear as they would if worn by the shopper’s child, and that might make all the difference. Also consider asking the customer if they would like to keep the hangers at the register, as many customers find extra hangers annoying while others are looking for more hangers at home.
Keep an artistic eye to the furniture and wall colors in your store. The products on display should correspond to these colors rather than clash. This adds a more inviting environment for the customer to carouse the racks and shelves. Not closely considering this detail will cause a store to appear disorganized or cheap. The obvious colors for baby clothing are great for adding accent walls to your display floor, while more vibrant reds, blues and greens are more suited for toddler areas. Whatever colors you decide to outline your establishment, just be sure to coordinate them with your products.
Carefully considering your store display methods is possibly the most important part to owning and running a retail business. Consider every successful small vendor in the juvenile products world and how they show their sales floor. Where the big shots make up for product cost with bulk shipping and economic display, the smaller business takes the higher-end market by moving design and display to a new level. When a store looks nice, organized, and well lighted, people will come to shop. With a growing population of wealthy Americans, the lowest prices are not always what the shopper wants, so give your customers quality and they will give you success.
About the Author: Ron Maier is the owner of Only Kids Hangers, a leading provider of decorative childrens clothes hangers. For more information, please visit http://www.onlykidshangers.com.

The Fashionable Tweens

"Texting" with their own cell phones, chatting with friends online, listening to Britney Spears, and shopping for outfits that put their parents fashion sense to shame, these are the members of today's pre-teen society. These elementary and middle school kids are driving more advertising campaigns in retail clothes than high school or college kids or even their parents who actually have the jobs that provide monetary support. Why in the world would this be the case? How could children who cannot even drive themselves to the mall or legally watch a PG-13 movie without parental consent have so much effect on retail marketing? The sum of these eight to twelve year-old children's purchases go far beyond the billions without even considering their effect on the purchasing affects they have on their entire families. Their population group is quite possibly becoming one of the most powerful influences on commercial America, and this is especially true for the world of fashion. As a result, retailers should be conscious and accommodating to this young market in order to truly keep up with the competition.
From designer blue jeans to flip-flops and tank tops, Americas "tweens" are taking the clothing retail world by storm. Girls especially have a keen fashion sense with particular standards and desires. The majority of this younger generation's fashion knowledge has come from the same place fashion knowledge comes to adults…Celebrities! It only makes sense that this young population wants to emulate the very same people their role models do, and so designer labels and top brands have discovered the "tween" market to be incredibly deep, and they are manufacturing fashionable clothes that seem similar to the much older demographic. As a result, Kid's fashion awareness is growing rapidly.
Children's taste is not only keen to the clothes of fashion however. They have also become experts at interpreting and judging displays and advertisements. Their young eyes have possibly seen more advertising in their short lived lives than many adults have seen in their lifetimes, so naturally they are familiar with commercial appearance. This beckons clothing and fashion retailers to a very high standard. Not only must they be in tune to trends and "tween" advertising techniques, but they must also provide legitimate retail store displays. Celebrity fashions, mannequins, trendy decoration, and the right childrens clothes hangers are vital to display the latest in "tween" fashion. It is not only appealing but also expected. For this reason, retailers certainly have the challenge to keep up with this rapidly growing market, but for those who do, there will be massive rewards.

About the Author: Ron Maier is the owner of Only Kids Hangers, a leading provider of childrens clothes hangers. For more information, please visit http://www.onlykidshangers.com.

Back to School Retail

"Back to school" shopping is possibly the most important time of year for children's retailers in the United States. Understanding the timing for this annual event is essential for making the back to school time a boost in sales. Recent statistics show that nearly 70% of shoppers will begin their back to school shopping in the month of August, but the most important demographic for children's retail is the group that plans to spend $1,000 or more for their children, and strangely enough, almost 50% of these shoppers fall in the remaining 30% of shoppers that will begin their shopping earlier than August. Though this is a much smaller group, it spends just as much, if not more, than the other 70% of consumers doing their shopping in August. So what does that tell retailers is important for the next season?
Retailers cannot afford to miss this huge spending demographic. The latest time for "back to school" shelving must be July first, though putting out supplies and clothes in mid June is not a bad idea either. By forcing the "back to school" displays up for this extra month, retailers will see almost double in sales, well worth the extra effort in early planning. It is true that "back to school" sales do not necessarily make or break annual sales for all children's retail stores, but it can greatly make up for any loses in the previous spring if timed right for the public.
Target advertising is also important for the for "back to school" sales revenues. Promotional sales are likely to bring in customers looking to get their shopping done as cheaply as possible. Even if the bargain sales are small savings, the "sale" sign will bring customers into the store, ready to buy. Half of the consuming market is vastly more likely to buy during a sales promotion, regardless of the actual savings, and more than half of mothers in this country plan to scout out all the "back to school" sales. Consider this when organizing advertising campaigns in July and August, and target the mothers of the world trying to get their children all the things they need to be a successful student.
It is imperative spend the extra time and planning for the "back to school" season to truly reap the benefits of the this annual American expenditure. Without the right length and timing "back to school" displays many possible customers and sales will be missed, and without the right simple sales promotions, half of those may be lost to competitors. Listening to the public and knowing when and what the need has always been important for retail stores, but it is even more acute when everyone is going back to school.

About the Author: Ron Maier is the owner of Only Kids Hangers, a leading provider of childrens hangers. For more information, please visit http://www.onlykidshangers.com.