The trends and innovations Pandora, Liberty and Cotswold Company are counting on this Christmas

Christmas: a time to dust off the decorations, tick off those Christmas lists and for retailers, the busiest and most important quarter of the year.  

With November and December accounting for one-fifth of annual trading it’s imperative retailers get their peak priorities right.  

Here we explore the strategies that three of last year’s Christmas winners are rolling out to ensure a bumper golden quarter in 2024.  

For more tangible takeaways and exclusive insights into retailers’ plans, read The Christmas Forecast report.  

The Cotswold Company  

A surprising winner of Christmas last year was The Cotswold Company with a like-for-like sales increase on 2022 of 10.5% for the nine weeks to December 31 ranking it sixth in Retail Week’s Christmas league trading table.  

The homewares retailer’s strategy for Christmas 2024 hinges on customer experience, underpinned by strong operational preparations.  

“This heightened period of the home comes with heightened expectations of service, and our ever-present goal is to ensure our customer has the best possible experience,” says chief marketing officer Matt Pollington.  

Good delivery and returns experiences are important all year round, but never more so than at Christmas. As such, The Cotswold Company has invested in a bespoke training centre for its delivery colleagues.

The space uses room set-ups that reflect customers’ real homes, including a staircase, to allow colleagues to practice getting large pieces of furniture inside and to pick up the best tips for navigating the items through the home without causing any damage.  

But the end of the customer journey isn’t all the retailer is prioritising, with ecommerce experience also coming to the fore. 

In 2023, online orders accounted for 80% of sales, with the company seeing a 9% reduction in bounce rate and 3% increase in conversions over the festive period. Chief executive Ralph Tucker attributed this success to its delivery service as well as optimisation of the online user experience.  

The retailer expanded its online offering to Nothern Ireland in April, following a trial last summer, further boosting opportunities for sales this Christmas. The move has created a “strong blueprint for future expansion across the British Isles,” according to chief operating officer Alan Joseph.  

Pandora 

Gifting jewellery is synonymous with Christmas. Bangles, neckwear and earrings were revealed to be the upcoming bestsellers in a recent feature by Retail Week’s, and for retailers like Pandora, expectations for a strong festive sales performance are high.   

Investments in staff and technology are top of Pandora’s Christmas priority list this year.  

Forty high-footfall location stores, including London’s West End, Glasgow’s Buchanan Galleries and Manchester’s Trafford Center, are set to be refitted with the retailer’s new ‘Evoke 2.0 design concept’ store format by the end of the year, turning them into what UK & Ireland marketing director Sarah Chenery describes as “warm, welcoming and playful” spaces.  

All new format stores will have more mobile point-of-sale systems – set to be a key feature – allowing shop staff to manage what general manager Sonia López-Delgado would call the “iconic Pandora Christmas queues”. The plan is for 1,000 temporary staff to also join the workforce during peak period, all of whom will receive two days’ training before stepping onto the shop floor.  

Staff wellbeing is of utmost priority, too. López-Delgado says the retailer will be replicating an initiative it started last year, sending “wellbeing boxes filled with goodies and fun activities” to every store to “support teams” through the festive period.  

Liberty  

Experiential retailing is the name of the game at department store Liberty, a popular tourist destination during the fourth quarter.  

In 2024, the brand will be providing a “unique” experience, compared with its previous Christmas strategies, but is keeping the specifics of what that’s set to look like close to its chest for now.  

Store director Julian Beer explains: “Christmas shopping is not just about purchasing gifts but also about creating memorable moments with loved ones” – which is what this year’s theme is all about. “We aim to lead on customer experience and deliver a truly memorable Christmas.” 

According to Beer, the festive theme will “transcend the walls” of the London-based store for “a truly immersive experience, unlike anything we have done before”.

In the past, the brand has run wreath-making sessions and sock monogramming services, and Beer expects this type of activity will be popular once again in 2024 as customers treat family, friends and themselves.  

Own-brand products will also remain a priority. In last year’s golden quarter, the brand saw demand for “unique, artisanal offerings and products that incorporate our iconic Liberty prints”, which has certainly influenced this year’s strategy, too.