Blog posts of '2021' 'September'

This isn’t just marketing fluff-- don’t wait around this year to get your holiday shopping started. For one, there is a decent chance you have a few extra clams in the pocketbook, but the real reason is there are still on-going issues in the retail shopping space. Inventories are for some things are fine, but for other things it is bad. Some items are in stock, but only in limited quantities. And then there is the unknown factor: will a lock-down shut shipping down completely? Will manufacturing shut down? Will demand spike unexpectedly? Will inflation kick into overdrive?

Late summer is generally a slow and boring time for the outdoors industry. The ramp-up for the holiday shopping season has not yet begun and shoppers are getting their children outfitted for the just-days-away start of school. While it may be slow, we’ve typically got a full plate as we are continually looking ahead to the challenges the coming months will bring. Nevertheless, it’s never a good time to “blink” or miss a day because you never know just who might show up.

It’s currently hotter than ol’ Lucifer’s musty armpit outside as I write this. Never in my life did I think it would be pertinent to advise folks to begin getting their holiday shopping tasks started at such a warm time of the year, yet here I am. While perusing our website this afternoon, product after product is still out of stock. We are expecting stuff to come in… but some products are in such high demand that they are almost guaranteed to be sold out within days of their arrival. So the purpose of this blog entry is to help you get a sound shopping strategy in place for this year’s crazy holiday shopping season.

This past June JB, our marketing director, and myself headed eastward on I40 to the neighboring state of Tennessee for the 2021 POMA (Professional Outdoor Media Association) annual conference. The whole purpose of this conference is to join manufacturers directly with writers and other content creators face to face for some good old-fashioned networking. It is a busy few days where we learn from each other and can gain crucial trusting relationships with content creators who can help spread the word on our products. Yes, even in this seemingly all-digital world, face-to-face interaction is still the best way to do business.