Episode 33
School Holidays as a Retail Growth Engine
I'm Clare Bailey, founder of The Retail Champion — and I want to change the way you see school holidays.
Most retailers treat the holidays as a management challenge. Too many kids, too much noise, too much chaos. But here's the truth: Easter, May half term and the long summer stretch are some of the biggest commercial opportunities your business will see all year. Parents are actively looking for somewhere to go, something to do, and a reason to spend — and if you make it easy for them to choose you, they will.
In this episode, I break down exactly how to turn the school holidays from a headache into a revenue strategy — with practical, low-cost ideas any retail, hospitality, or town centre business can act on right now.
What We Cover
- Why families are one of the most reliable, repeatable, high-frequency audiences in retail
- How to create a child-friendly environment that actually makes parents spend more
- Simple, low-budget ideas for Easter, May half term and summer that drive dwell time and sales
- Why dwell time directly converts to revenue — and how to use that to your advantage
- The power of town-wide trails and collaborative high street experiences
- Why your Google Business Profile and social media are your most powerful family marketing tools
- The real story of a £7,000 carpet sale that started with an Easter egg trail
Resources & Links
- The Retail Champion: www.theretailchampion.co.uk
- Other episodes: retailreckoningpodcast.co.uk
- Get occasional insights direct to your inbox: https://retailreckoningpodcast.co.uk/newsletter
Connect & Share
If this episode has changed how you think about school holidays, I'd love to know. Share it with a fellow retailePage_DownPage_DownPage_DownPage_DownPage_DownPage_DownPage_DownPage_DownPage_DownPage_DownPage_DownPage_DownPage_DownPage_DownPage_Downr, leave a review, or come and find me on social media. Let's make the high street somewhere families choose.
Transcript
If you think school holidays are a headache because there's lots of
Speaker:parents out there with the kids, forget that. This is a
Speaker:revenue strategy and you need to grasp it. Yeah,
Speaker:Retail reckoning. Retail
Speaker:reckoning. No space for dusty
Speaker:shelves. Cause retail reckoning
Speaker:owns the floor. I'm Clare Bailey, retail champion,
Speaker:and this is retail reckoning. And I'm going to dive straight
Speaker:in because we need to get something straight. If you were in retail
Speaker:hospitality or any kind of town centre business,
Speaker:school holidays are not an inconvenience, despite what you might think.
Speaker:They're probably one of the biggest commercial opportunities of the year.
Speaker:Easter is already here, May half
Speaker:term is fast approaching and then you've got the long summer stretch.
Speaker:And these are the weeks where parents are actively looking for somewhere to go,
Speaker:something to do and a reason. Maybe not to spend money
Speaker:on purpose, but they will be spending money.
Speaker:So the question is not are we ready?
Speaker:It's are we making it easy for families to choose
Speaker:us? And yes, they will spend more because
Speaker:they haven't got the lovely opportunity of free childcare that provide
Speaker:through schools. So what else are they going to do? They're going to want to
Speaker:go out, they want to do things, they don't want to spend ludicrous amounts of
Speaker:money, but if you can attract them into your premises, then
Speaker:they are likely to spend money.
Speaker:So I think what retailers need to do is stop seeing the kids as the
Speaker:problem. And quite a lot of people don't like screaming
Speaker:kids in their store. I mean, I've shouted at my kids on a number
Speaker:of occasions when I've been in stores with glass cabinets and they'd put sticky
Speaker:fingers on. I was like, stop that, stop that. Somebody's got to polish it.
Speaker:But it's the uncomfortable truth. They might feel like a bit of a problem,
Speaker:but they don't need to be your customers if their
Speaker:parents will be uncomfortable. And
Speaker:other people who might not be parents and might not particularly like screaming
Speaker:kids, they might actually want to see something done.
Speaker:So you've got to think of the whole
Speaker:vibe. Yes, there are some retail outlets which will
Speaker:never be child friendly, but there are certain things you can
Speaker:do. So, for example, having slightly wider
Speaker:aisles in terms of retail space in order to
Speaker:potentially push a double buggy through. And you want
Speaker:to have much less of parents feeling awkward
Speaker:with the, oh, don't touch that. Like I was with glass cabinets, don't touch
Speaker:that. You want to avoid that as much as possible
Speaker:because if it feels awkward and
Speaker:stressful, parents are going to leave quickly
Speaker:and it's probably not because they don't want to spend, but because it
Speaker:was too stressful for them. But let's flip that.
Speaker:Imagine a scenario where a child is
Speaker:occupied, entertained, welcomed.
Speaker:There's something digital, there's something tactile, something to do.
Speaker:The parent who is obviously the budget holder can slow
Speaker:down, they can browse, they can feel
Speaker:comfortable, they're going to stay longer and
Speaker:that's going to in most cases result in them buying
Speaker:more. And that isn't just a pure
Speaker:sort of guesstimate, it's not theory dwell.
Speaker:Time definitely turns into revenue and that's proven over
Speaker:and over again. What
Speaker:retailers need to be thinking about is simple wins that drive
Speaker:spend that don't need big budgets, but it does
Speaker:need to be intentional. East has just
Speaker:gone missed the boat this year, but it could be as
Speaker:simple as having a little in store egg
Speaker:hunt where if a child finds five
Speaker:things clues on a sort of treasure hunt thing, they get a
Speaker:little free Easter egg. It doesn't have to cost a lot of money, but it
Speaker:keeps them occupied to allow the parents time
Speaker:to trail around the store or spot
Speaker:the bunny in the window. Activity that engages them and makes
Speaker:people then want to come in. But we're heading towards
Speaker:May half term. We do have time to act. We've not got long.
Speaker:But what about scavenger hunts or colouring
Speaker:stations? Reward moments, something that's
Speaker:relevant, something might be happening in the local community or it might be a
Speaker:sporting event or anything but
Speaker:connecting to the locality and being
Speaker:hyper local and making it entertaining and fun.
Speaker:And then it's summer. My
Speaker:goodness, who wants to have the kids at home for six weeks?
Speaker:Hard work that, especially if you run your own business
Speaker:or you work from home. But in summer, as a retail,
Speaker:hospitality or leisure business, you need to go big.
Speaker:So you're creating days out for the family,
Speaker:mini workshops, creative corners,
Speaker:sort of devise this reputation
Speaker:of this shop always has something available for the kids so
Speaker:that parents will, when they go out to the town or whichever
Speaker:town they're going to, they'll think, well, we'll go there for a
Speaker:bit to occupy them so that then they've been satisfied that
Speaker:they've been occupied. And then I'll run a few of my errands around
Speaker:it and the kids can't complain because it's like, well, no,
Speaker:we went to do the coloring competition so, you know, now we need to go
Speaker:to Tesco and do our food shop. And
Speaker:the thing is, it's not about entertaining children for the
Speaker:sake of it. You are Almost
Speaker:investing in time for parents
Speaker:to relax, look properly at what you've got to sell and
Speaker:spend properly. And they know they're occupied, entertained
Speaker:and enjoying themselves. So there's not that. Mum,
Speaker:mum, Mum, can we go now? Can we go now? I'm bored. Which
Speaker:believe me, I had a lot of that when my kids were little. Luckily they're
Speaker:20 and 22 this year, so I won't have that problem ever again.
Speaker:But I can fully identify with how stressful
Speaker:it is to go out shopping as a parent and have the
Speaker:kids like bothering all the time. So
Speaker:if retailers can make this experience,
Speaker:particularly during the school holidays, better,
Speaker:then it's certainly going to help with loyalty. It's going to help with
Speaker:social media reputation, people who take
Speaker:pictures. People say, I had a wonderful time at this shop today or this coffee
Speaker:shop or wherever it might be, this children's entertainment center
Speaker:where I was able to let my kids play and catch up on my
Speaker:emails. And that's really, really important.
Speaker:The other thing that I find is that a
Speaker:lot of businesses don't market themselves very well
Speaker:for the things that they actually already offer.
Speaker:And I mean, it's almost like if you don't market it properly, why bother?
Speaker:And it's where so many businesses fall down. You might
Speaker:be offering something lovely, nobody knows.
Speaker:I don't want to be wandering about as a parent hoping to stumble across
Speaker:something happening. I, I will go on Google first
Speaker:and I will ask myself, I think you should ask yourself,
Speaker:is your Google business profile up to date? Are you
Speaker:marketing yourself as family friendly? Have you got some really pretty
Speaker:images of the kind of activities you might be offering in the
Speaker:holidays to entertain the little ones so that the parents can spend.
Speaker:Are you posting on social media in a way that says,
Speaker:bring your kids, we've got that covered,
Speaker:because this is what parents are buying. And I'm sure if
Speaker:you're a parent you can identify it's not just about the products.
Speaker:In fact, in some respects the act of going
Speaker:physically shopping with bored, distracted
Speaker:children is really quite stressful. So they're looking
Speaker:for relief and enjoyment and something that's like, actually
Speaker:I didn't take my kids shopping, we had a day out and
Speaker:you need to make it really obvious, really easy and reassuring.
Speaker:Let's look at the possibility that this could be bigger
Speaker:than the just one shop. If you zoom out,
Speaker:what about when a whole town or village becomes
Speaker:part of the story? Let's say they
Speaker:work together collaboratively to create a family
Speaker:friendly summer holiday environment because let's face it, we're
Speaker:planning for some holidays. You could try a few bits and bobs, but the summer
Speaker:holidays is the big one and there's enough time to get organized for that.
Speaker:So what about the local bakery does a
Speaker:biscuit decorating activity or a local
Speaker:cafe offers kids deals at. And also
Speaker:not just kids, pet friendly.
Speaker:So a lot of families will want to go out with their kids, but they
Speaker:might have a dog to walk with them and they want to be able to
Speaker:bring them in too. So kid friendly and pet
Speaker:friendly I would throw in there. But then imagine a
Speaker:whole town with retailers running trails that connect
Speaker:the whole high street. I mean, this is something I used to do back in
Speaker:2011, 12, 13 was I ran the UK arm
Speaker:of Independent Retailer Month that spun off into
Speaker:Indie Easter and Indie Christmas. And we had
Speaker:simple paper maps which listed
Speaker:the retailers that were participating. And the kids collected
Speaker:stickers when they visited stores and populated
Speaker:their Christmas tree with baubles or their Easter basket with eggs. And
Speaker:they were just little stickers and we made sure that everybody got a whole
Speaker:kit who was participant. And I remember it was
Speaker:in Oadby. Oadby
Speaker:Carpets, I think it was. They commented that
Speaker:they'd had a £7,000 sale of a carpet
Speaker:because a parent came in with a kid to get their
Speaker:little Easter egg and saw the perfect carpet for the
Speaker:house that they'd been hunting for and immediately booked an
Speaker:appointment to get a carpet fitting and pricing arranged. And
Speaker:so that retailer did a £7,000 transaction that they may
Speaker:never have done had that retailer not have been on that trail.
Speaker:And that was quite a proud moment for me. Not that I was involved. I
Speaker:mean, I literally just set up the trail and promoted it to. I think we
Speaker:ran 70 high streets that year. But the thing is,
Speaker:trails really do connect all the businesses across the high street.
Speaker:And I don't think anybody realizes
Speaker:as much as they should that your
Speaker:shop is not just your shop. You're part of a
Speaker:destination. And families need to be able to
Speaker:choose your destination, not just
Speaker:your shop. Over retail parks, over online,
Speaker:over staying at home. And this is where the business improvement
Speaker:districts, the councils and the business groups probably need to step up.
Speaker:There are some brilliant ones out there and I've worked with a few.
Speaker:And my colleague Kim is a co founder of Visit
Speaker:Knoll and they've done amazing things. But the thing is,
Speaker:if one business is doing really good, the
Speaker:whole town can learn from it and become
Speaker:symbiotic. And it's really, really powerful. The
Speaker:commercial reality, though, is that families in the School
Speaker:holidays are reliable, repeatable and high
Speaker:frequency audience because let's face it, you've got to keep them
Speaker:amused, otherwise they're going to drive you mad. They need to get out of the
Speaker:house, they need to be actively entertained or stimulated or
Speaker:whatever in their environment. And there's ways to spend time and you
Speaker:can't have the iPad babysitter all day
Speaker:long. I'm absolutely sure for
Speaker:those who work from home, it's hard work,
Speaker:but you kind of, well, I certainly did. You
Speaker:budget for the school holidays and you spend your money
Speaker:where you feel comfortable and welcomed. And so
Speaker:if there is a little coloring station or even
Speaker:some Lego to play with or something in a corner of a cafe,
Speaker:as a parent I would have been more likely to think, oh, five minutes to
Speaker:myself, check my emails, have a cup of coffee, can see
Speaker:the kids, they're fiddling about with whatever it is they're doing. At
Speaker:last a breather. And that is so important.
Speaker:If you ignore that audience, someone
Speaker:else is likely to take it. And as it stands in the
Speaker:market at the moment where every pound matters, this is a
Speaker:risk you cannot afford. Don't
Speaker:wait for the summer start. Now, you may
Speaker:have missed Easter, but at least line up the May half
Speaker:term and then think ahead to summer. And
Speaker:it's kind of a go big or go home thing. Make your business
Speaker:somewhere that children are welcome and that parents can take that breath
Speaker:because when they're relaxed and not stressed and not trying to drag
Speaker:the children out because they're worried about the impact on other customers, because they're
Speaker:whining, they spend and that's really what it's all
Speaker:about. I'm Clare Bailey, the retail champion and this was Retail
Speaker:Reckoning. Thank you for listening.
Speaker:Owns the floor.
Speaker:It.
