Tips for a Simple Seasonal Switch-Up

If you're looking for an easy way to update your shop, how about thinking about what's on the horizon? Using the seasons and holidays to guide your plans is a great way to inspire new ideas and work with what's on your customers' minds. We'll cover some ideas to get your brainstorm going, starting with new products.

Season-specific products

It's a fun challenge to think about how you can re-imagine best-selling products for a new season. If you're wrapping up the summer of black t-shirts, how about you offer your most popular design on a black sweatshirt for fall, or a simplified version embroidered onto a knit hat for winter? The following spring, help folks lighten up their look by trying a more colorful print on a white background. Each of these tweaks just takes a few minutes, and they're backed by your knowledge of what's sold previously.

And to make life simpler, consider a print-on-demand service for producing these new items. I like the ease of the design process, and I love that I don't end up with a bunch of pre-printed items on my shelves. It keeps my life less cluttered and allows me to quickly change my product line-up.

When you make products with a print-on-demand service like Printful or Art of Where, they take away a lot of the stress: they'll source the physical goods, help with a design mock-up, and even ship directly to your customers as orders come in. They charge more for this, which can mean that the shop owner sells items at a higher price, or takes a smaller profit on sales.

But for some, the convenience is worth the extra fees, and it sure is nice not to have products from a big stock-up sitting on shelves for months at a time. And once you get in the groove of uploading designs and selecting styles, it can be a quick process to revamp a product to refresh your product offerings for a new season.

Photography that reads the room

If print-on-demand isn't your thing (or if you want to spruce up your products page without creating entirely new items), how about styling your existing products for the new season? Think about how your stuff could be presented in a new way or bring in some fun props and take some fresh photos.

What if that tote was filled like it just came back from a trip to the farmer's market? What if that candle was nestled into a cozy scene next to a jigsaw puzzle? And think about gift-giving occasions too: winter is a big time for festive colors and office gift exchanges while summer is a busy time for romance and weddings. Help shoppers envision how your products fit right right into their lifestyle and upcoming events, and you'll make it even easier for them to head to checkout.

Finding the words

As long as you're making some seasonal updates, take your ideas all the way to your copy. Whether you're writing product descriptions, a newsletter, or captions for social posts, keep your earlier brainstorm in mind, and mention how, where, and for what occasion your audience needs your products. You're helping them connect the dots and showing that you understand their needs.