Recently I received an interesting email from a flower shop named Rose Red & Lavender in Brooklyn, NY, that included a 20 percent off coupon which uses both a link and a QR code to whisk readers to the shop’s website. I love the simplicity of this email campaign, as well as the use of new technology that provides the reader multiple ways to take advantage of the coupon.

This retailer used their email service provider, Mail Chimp, to generate the QR code used in their email. Your email service provider may have a similar tool. However, there are also multiple, free QR code generators (like Kaywa).

We’re now down to the wire for this holiday shopping season. You have just a few remaining days to ring in as many sales and help as many holiday shoppers as possible. How are your sales looking for the season?

If you’d like to kick it up a notch here are a few tips you can implement by the time you open up tomorrow morning.

Offer free shipping
Whether you sell online or not, anything you can do to create greater convenience for your customers, the better. Offering free shipping is a great promotion to not only draw customers to shop with you, but also an opportunity to offer great customer service that will have customers returning to your store after the holiday season is over.

Events
Host a few special shopping events, like a men’s shopping night, a “We Love Procrastinators Day,” or a kids shopping event. If you don’t already offer gift wrapping, offer it for free at your special events. Offer free hot chocolate and cookies to give your events a festive flair.

Sampling
If you sell anything that can be sampled, try sampling a different item each day and promoting that you are offering free samples.

Price themed displays
Create a few tables or display areas in your store to arrange various gifts in a certain price range. Last-minute shoppers love this kind of convenience and helping them stay within their budget may actually spur them to spend more on other impulse items, which usually carry a larger sales margin for you.

Email marketing
Any last-minute promotions such as those listed above are all great reasons to send out an email blast—and don’t be shy about sending them out frequently (even once a day).

As a follow up to a recent post about creating great interview questions during the hiring process, here are some great behavioral questions I encourage you to use for inspiration.

I’ve always been a proponent of behavioral interview questions because they allow to get a peek into how a candidate has conducted themselves in the past, rather than relying on what they say they would do in the future (or in a hypothetical situation). These five questions will help you find a candidate with the skills and traits you’re seeking.

1. Tell me about a difficult customer service situation you experienced. How did you handle it? What did you do right and/or wrong? How has that experienced changed how you deal with customers today?
2. How to you personally measure job satisfaction/success? How do you think this position will measure up?
3. Give an example of a difficult situation with a fellow employee and how you handled it.
4. We believe that creating and maintaining strong customer relationships are critical to making sales and growing our business. Can you give me an example of how you create strong customer relationships?
5. Tell me about the best boss you’ve ever worked for, what you learned from them and how you apply those lessons today.

If you have done your homework before the interview and created a thorough list of skills and traits you’re seeking, you can score each answer based on whether the candidate displayed those traits in how he or she handled previous situations.

The other day I read a report on the CNBC website that retailers are offering more and better holiday promotions this season. How have your holiday promotions been this year? Are they bigger and better than past seasons?

This is what we've seen major retailers doing this year to boost holiday sales…

Loyalty rewards Toys 'R Us is offering a 10 percent reward for those that are members of its loyalty program and make purchases between October 30 and December 24. Also, customers that spend more than $200 during the holiday season will receive $100 off purchases in the coming year.

Price guarantees Walmart (among other retailers) has holiday-season-only price guarantees. Walmart’s program awards customers with gift cards if they find the items they purchase during the holiday season cheaper at competing stores.

Layaway programs were also very popular promotions this year for many major retailers and are a great way to attract early season shoppers.

Free shipping is another popular promotion this year for online and brick-and-mortar retailers. In fact, 9 in 10 retailers surveyed by Shop.org say they are offering free shipping. Plus, the large majority began their free shipping promotion earlier this year than in past years.

I hope your holiday promotions keep you competitive this year!

Today's guest post is from Dorothy Belshaw, NYIGF director and GLM senior vice president

Sustainable and responsible design is the fastest growing segment of our industry. There has never before been more interest, more innovation or more potential to have an immediate and measurable impact on the health of our planet and its world communities.

NYIGF’s SustainAbility: design for a better world® project includes a curated display of environmentally and socially respectful products and producers from within the gift, home and lifestyle industries, as well as a two-part seminar program addressing issues and opportunities in the “green” arena.

Here’s a quick peek at some of the products that will be showcased in NYIGF’s SustainAbility display.

To-Go Mug by Aladdin, a brand of PMI. This mug not only is reusable, but it is also made with recycled material, including post consumer content. As an added bonus, it can be recycled again when its useful life is over.


Bow Bins by Areaware. Baskets made of just two materials (plastic and rattan), with 80% of its volume from disposable organic materials. The Aeta people, indigenous inhabitants of the Philippines, craft these baskets using traditional weaving techniques, which also can be used for repairs should the basket be damaged.


Bincho Water Bottle by Black+Blum. This re-usable water bottle includes a stick of white charcoal to purify and soften regular tap water to delicious effect.


Pureblocks by Geared for Imagination. Using plant material as the base, these bio-resin blocks for child’s play can be composted and used to feed plants again when the child outgrows them.


Big Piggy Solar Charger by Scratch Tracks, LLC. By collecting and storing the energy of the sun, this offers a backup power supply for most gadgets. It has an 800MA lithium battery that also charges when connected to the USB port of a computer.


See these green products, and hundreds more at NYIGF this winter!

Today's guest post is from Dorothy Belshaw, NYIGF director and GLM senior vice president

More than 400 of NYIGF's 2,800 exhibitors are new. Whether emerging companies exhibiting in NYIGF for the first time, or well-established resources new/returning to the New York market, they add fresh resources to the Fair’s broad assortment of gift, home and lifestyle merchandise.

Here’s a sneak peak at just a few of the new companies exhibiting at the next show (January 28-February 2, 2012)

Four Hands comes to At Home at Pier 94
The company’s Bilardo is an inline three-light long enough for a billiards table, longer bars or dining room table. It's a solid brass fixture that has an up and down movement of 15”, with features including three 10” case gals saber shares and eight distinctive brass wheels.

C.O. Bigelow debuts at EXTRACTS
The company’s La Florentina bar is made by hand using antique bronze molds cherished by the company though the generations, and therefore each bar is unique. For over a century Alighiero Campostrini in Florence, Italy has been producing these luxurious, high-quality artisan soap, using ancient Tuscan soap-making recipes and techniques.

Pretty Snappy Designs debuts in Handmade Designer Maker
The company’s Olivia 3 tiered ruffle apron blends retro blooms with classic red berries and vines, finished with a signature black and white tiny polka dotted waistband and trim. Designed for the woman who isn't afraid of fusion fashion, it comes with a removable pearl necklace and snap on towel. The apron is made of 100% cotton in Vermont, USA, with one size fitting most figures.

Paper Products Designs returns to Tabletop & Housewares
The company’s Fruit Loops napkin and porcelain accessory collection is a new line with a bright colorful fruit loops print. The line also includes a collection of beautiful porcelain accessories and candles. Paper Product Designs will also showcase a wide range of paper goods, including napkins, guest towels/buffet napkins, plates and the original Sniff™ tissues.

See these companies and 400 other new resources at NYIGF, January 28-February 2, 2012, at New York City’s Jacob K. Javits Convention Center and Passenger Ship Terminal Piers 92 & 94.

We look forward to seeing you at NYIGF.

Hiring quality employees is one of our greatest challenges as business owners and managers. Here are some tips to use in the interview process to weed out the losers and choose the winners.

Know precisely what you are looking for. When preparing for interviews. make sure you have your job description and skills list with you — and that you take it with you into the interview. Formulate questions ahead of time that will help you determine if your candidates have the skills and experience you need. Test certain skills (punctuality) with the interview itself. Set a time for the interview and make note of which candidates show up on time (or ideally a few minutes early).

Know how to ask questions. Create a comfortable, conversational atmosphere for your interviews. Candidates will likely be nervous, so start out with small talk to put them at ease. Plan to use open-ended interview questions, such as “tell me about a situation with an angry customer and how you dealt with it.” Avoid questions that only require a 'yes' or 'no' answer. If the applicant doesn't have specific experiences to draw from, you can ask them “tell me what you would do if…” and pose a situation.

Make note of the non-verbal interview. Of course you will listen carefully to the candidates’ answers to your questions, but make sure you are noting what candidates are telling you non-verbally. Important qualities, such as whether the candidate is presentable, genuine and possesses good communication skills are likely important to you. Other non-verbal cues like friendliness and a sense of humor are also good qualities to watch for.

Recently I've had a number of retailers post comments and email questions about interviewing and hiring tips, so I thought it would be helpful to cover this topic more frequently.

Please let me know what topics you would most like to hear about by posting a comment below or emailing me directly.

Lately I’ve been blogging about various ways to promote your business during the holidays. Another great option to experiment with is targeted online advertising using search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing and Facebook. The benefit to this type of advertising is that you can easily target ads so that they are more apt to reach your target audience.

Google
Add coupons to your Google Places page and make sure any Google ads you place link to your Places page as well. Google has created a new advertising platform specifically for small, local businesses called AdWords Express that’s specifically for local businesses looking for local customers.

Yahoo and Bing
With Microsoft’s purchase of Yahoo, they have now combined their online advertising platform for small businesses. Make sure you have also claimed and populated your local business pages on both Bing and Yahoo individually.

Facebook
From your business page on Facebook you can create an advertising campaign that allows you to very specifically target other Facebook users with your ads. Because of the ability to target your ads based on specific demographic criteria, Facebook ads can be very effective and net some great exposure and new foot traffic for your business.

With the holiday season upon us I thought I’d share a bit of inspiration for your holiday displays with an example our trends editor, Becky Tyre, shared with me. The shots below are from A. Dodson’s, a store in Suffolk, VA. I love the stop-you-in-your-tracks creativity this store displays by wrapping the tree branches in yarn for a soft, snowy look and hanging ornaments from them. I also applaud the use of silver, white and blue, all trendy colors this holiday season.

Kick up your creativity a notch and create a display that passers-by will just have to stop and check out.

I'll be speaking this winter at the Las Vegas Gift Show on in-store Visual Merchandising and I’d love to have you join me. I’ll be presenting 50 plus ideas to give you fresh, new inspiration for your in-store visual merchandising. The time and date of the seminar have yet to be set, but the show is January 30 to February 3, 2012. In the meantime, please visit the show’s website for details, dates and travel information. I look forward to seeing you there!

For more merchandising trends and holiday tips make sure to check back here and follow us on Facebook.

To keep you abreast of the latest trends in our industry, our publication GIFT SHOP Magazine has recently launched a new Facebook page. The page is centered around keeping independent retailers up-to-date on the latest trends in colors, products and business practices like staffing.

With this Facebook page we can provide up-to-the minute trends between magazine printings. We know how important it is for you to quickly, easily and constantly know what's going on in our industry, so our team of trend watchers will be reporting to you instantly. We call it “Trends with Benefits.”

So take a minute to visit and like our page, and right away you’ll be able to see the trends we’ve been following.

And of course we’d love to hear from you, so feel free to post, comment and share what you’re seeing in your corner of the world. See you online!