How to make Christmas 2025 the best one yet in retail

With Christmas undoubtedly the linchpin in retail establishments – the majority of sales occur in just a few short weeks, so getting your approach right is of paramount importance – it’s all to easy to leave preparations until the last minute, relying on tried-and-tested techniques and your regular customer base to build solid sales foundations. 

The devil is in the detail, however, and 2025’s shoppers are always on the hunt for newness, experience, and great value – and if you can offer a heady cocktail of all three, you’re onto a winner.

At Macknade, CEO Stefano Cuomo’s team has discovered that it’s best to get started on preparations as early in the year as possible in order to build on the previous festive season’s momentum and learn from any mistakes made. “Our team are on it from January or February,” he explains. “It’s very much a case of capturing the information while it’s still fresh in people’s minds and acting on it – January is part of our Christmas trajectory.”

While EPOS data is a key driver when it comes to festive planning, the more emotive, experiential intel that can only be gathered on-site in the moment is of vital importance. “A lot of our sales will come as a result of how people feel in our space and what we’re delivering,” Stefano says, “so we do a lot of walking around the shop floor, seeing what our customer sees.” The team also invests time in market research – what others are doing, any opportunities that might have been missed, and which trends for the coming year could work within their budget.

Christmas is often a time for shoppers to lean more local in their purchases, keen to support the small business economy of their region, and the Macknade team make sure to provide a balance of locally-made produce and longer-life items that can be planned for ahead of time. “A good example of this is that we’d like to increase the number of mince pies we stock from a local baker this Christmas, but they might not have the infrastructure to take orders now so this needs to be a consideration for nearer the festive season – whereas a wholesaler is primed to take our order now.”

“Ultimately, we try to be as prepared as possible when it comes to orders and wider plans earlier in the year, so when December rolls around we can put all our energy into front-facing customer engagement.”

While consumers will be looking for a set of markers for the festive season – familiarity is perenially popular – that’s not to say that there isn’t an appetite for innovation. “You’ve got to carve out space for innovation,” he says. “For example, every year we take a fresh look at our own label range, specifically in terms of how we want it to be defined and how it represents us.” 

Connecting suppliers with customers is also given a fresh approach year-on-year. “During November and December we bring more partners into our space to present their products and run tastings, and the way we do this is constantly being strengthened. Our innovation isn’t just in terms of products, it’s also about how we operate as a business.”

As much as it pays to plan for Christmas throughout the year, it’s also worth remembering that for some, the appetite for festive fare doesn’t end as the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve. Stefano likes to enjoy the Christmas cake made by his mother and daughter in the new year – “you just don’t need Christmas cake when you’ve already eaten so much” – and tends to finish it in May. “Of course Christmas comes with its schedule and traditions, but for me it’s much more about the feeling that it captures, which can be enjoyed beyond December.”

Tradition sells

At Grandma Wild’s, Harriet Lister has found that the popularity of Christmas products centre around their ability to create a moment. “At Christmas, consumers seek more than just flavour – they’re looking for comfort, nostalgia, and a sense of tradition,” she begins. “Baked goods become part of the seasonal ritual, whether it’s sharing biscuits with family, gifting a beautifully packaged tin, or enjoying a quiet moment with a cup of tea. Tray baked in the traditional way to achieve that crispy crunch and utterly delicious taste. Just as Annie Wild did back in 1899.”

When it comes to the tastes shoppers want to experience come the festive season, comfort is favoured says Harriet. “Flavour preferences during the festive season lean towards rich, warming, and indulgent. Consumers are drawn to comforting spices, zesty citrus, and creamy, buttery textures.” Don’t feel that you have to stick to the conventional Christmas bakes – Christmas cake, mince pies et al – to satisfy this appetite. “Our Stem Ginger & Lemon Biscuits offer a vibrant twist – combining the gentle heat of ginger with the brightness of lemon for a refreshing yet festive flavour. Meanwhile, our Clotted Cream Chocolate Chip Shortbread Biscuits deliver a luxurious, melt-in-the-mouth experience, blending traditional shortbread with the richness of clotted cream and indulgent chocolate chips,” she says.

‘Tis the season of gifting, and food and drink products that come ready to be gifted are a boon to the retailer and customer alike. “Our tins experience a notable uplift in sales during the festive season, and gifting is a key reason,” explains Harriet. “The tins are designed to be ideal for giving, sharing, or simply enjoying at home. Their festive designs make them a standout on shelves and a popular choice for those looking for a thoughtful, ready-to-give present. Many customers also appreciate the keepsake value of the tins, which often find a second life in the home.”

An appetite for the familiar

Product visuals and ‘creating a scene’ are well worth investing in, says Emma Cyrus of WBC. “If you think that 72% of consumers say that their purchasing decisions revolve around packaging, it’s easy to see why it should be considered a sales asset. In fact, it’s your key to building brand awareness, communicating your core values and creating that all-important buy-in. Which, ultimately, is what good retail marketing is all about.”

Cementing how you want to represent your business and ensuring that this image resonates throughout the customer experience is key. “Whatever resonates will trigger an emotional response which, in turn, creates a link with your brand image that forms the foundation of recognition and loyalty,” says Emma. “Add festive vibes to the mix, and you have yourself a dynamite way of standing head and shoulders above the (very stiff) competition.”

Keeping things familiarly seasonal – reds, greens and metallics – is still a winner. “Seasonal branding takes this up another notch giving you, the retailer, a chance to hone into trends around societal behaviour and ramp up your proposition to reflect current needs,” she continues. “The festive season is all about tradition and nostalgia, and with an astounding Christmas spend of £28.6 billion in 2024, who wouldn’t want to go with the flow?”

Tradition certainly sells at Craigie’s Farm Shop, and seasonal shortcuts created on-site are a key driver. 

“In June the team starts discussing what we want to build on from last year and what we want to do differently in terms of dishes, and then we start looking into shelf lives as it rolls around quickly,” says founder John Sinclair. The aim of the game is to save customers’ time during the busy festive period, so on the list of dishes prepared are things like roast potatoes, red cabbage, and sprouts with cranberries and walnuts. 

Mince pies and Christmas puddings made to John’s Granny’s recipe – “it contains a lot of booze, so shelf life isn’t such a worry!” – are must-haves, but the team has noticed a fall in the popularity of traditional cakes and puds and work hard to provide desserts that cater to customers’ evolving sweet tooths. “We sell a lot of festive cheesecakes and chocolate logs,” says John, “nothing too substantial as you don’t want anything heavy after you’ve eaten half a turkey.”

Wastage in the New Year is a common occurrence in food businesses, but Craigie’s has a smart solution. “We tend not to buy in much overtly Christmassy stock, instead we bring in lines that we can sell throughout the year but put in a hamper with a festive decoration to Christmas-ify it, or display it alongside our own mince pies or cranberry sauce – there are enough things to make the shop feel Christmassy without bringing in lots of reindeers and the like.”

The restaurant is also a handy outlet for spare stock. “Any surplus meat products go onto our menu,” explains John. “If we ordered in too many chipolatas for pigs in blankets, for example, they go into our breakfasts. We always have spare turkeys in the New Year as we don’t want to be out of stock if a customer comes in looking for one last minute and we’ve sold out, but our turkey and cranberry pies sell well into February.” Un-iced Christmas cakes get a second outing as Easter cakes later in the year if they remain unsold by the New Year.

Distributor insight

Now in its 17th year, the team at Bramble Foods is preparing for a bumper Christmas. “We’re growing year-on-year, but Christmas is growing bigger than anything else we do,” say Mark Hilton and Tom Bradshaw, creative manager and operations manager. They put this growth down to the size of its gifting range; hampers, bagged items and boxed cakes are flying off the distributor’s shelves, and its 1,300 lines of festive fare – potentially the largest selection in the sector – are selling better than ever.

Pulling together as a team – and industry – is especially important at Christmas, and everyone in the Bramble Foods team chips in when it comes to packing products in the warehouse. This comradery is demonstrated beyond the business’s HQ too, with a proactive sales team building tailored and invaluable relationships with retailers that benefit all parties – and the on-site tastings service is proving popular with customers, too.

Face-to-face interactions and a reliable operations service are key to a smooth-running festive season for all, say Mark and Tom, and Bramble Foods is proud to offer that and more to a growing customer base.