How Easter has grown into a commercially valuable season

Easter is weeks away and we have sold out of Easter plush a week ago. That is hundreds of pieces. Thankfully, additional stock arrived last week.

Plush sales are already past last year’s numbers, which were terrific in themselves.

Easter is a financially rewarding season for us. We love it.

For many years we played in then chocolate space. First with Darrell Lea, then with Chocolatier – with some Cadbury in the mix too. Three years ago we quit chocolate for an expanded plush offer.

What is interesting is the price range. Our Easter plush is priced from $4.95 through to $150.00. The most common item is $20.00.

Everything has sold well, including at the $150.00 price point. This is great news. It is also what makes Easter a commercially valuable season for us.

To drive new traffic we pitch the season on the lease line as well as in our out of store marketing. We use the Hallmark greeting cards for this too, especially the new on-trend releases for this year.

My advice to newsagents who are experiencing a flat Easter is take a look at your product mix and your marketing. If it is traditional, expect a traditional result. Our approach is anything but traditional and the result speaks to this.

We love Easter for then happy retail displays and experiences of the season.

Footnote: Easter is an excellent season through which to re-cast perception about your business and in particular, the type of business you run. This is what I mean when I talk about being traditional.

If your posters are traditional and your products then the result will be the same old. It can be nothing else.

If you find yourself sighing at flat or declining sales, that is your wake-up call to play outside what you have been doing. Easter would have been a perfect season through which to do this.