Put On Your Christmas Personality

For retailing, Christmas is at its best as a time of hope. Retailers hope for abundant sales to top off the calendar year. Customers count on fulfilled wishes to counteract winter's gloom. As we head into the holiday sales season this year, hope seems to be in less abundant supply, though, kicked off—or out—with the Halloween weekend fright of CIT Group filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Considering that CIT has been a significant source of capital for about 2,000 vendors that supply merchandise to more than 300,000 retail stores, retailers might find themselves scrambling to line up financing to maintain adequate inventories in anticipation of springtime sales. Even retailers who don't depend at all on CIT for financing might fear the ripple effects, and fear doesn't go well with hope.
     Wait. Maybe it does. Here's your chance to put on your Christmas personality, spreading hope all around.

• As a leader of your business, set the tone. Are you feeling hopeful? Having a positive attitude doesn't mean hiding from economic realities. But as University of Pennsylvania research has shown, we tilt the odds towards bigger store profits when we actively treat difficulties as opportunities.
• Are you continually coaching your staff to project hope to the customers? Here's how: Express your genuine gratitude towards staff and then set achievable challenges. Research finds that optimism develops when employees are given tasks which are out of grasp, but within reach for them.
• Pay attention to every detail. For example, Washington State University research finds that if Christmas music and Christmas scent in the store match up, customers say they like the store and merchandise better and are more likely to shop at the store. Oh, and when it comes to Christmas scent, word is you can't beat cinnamon.