Consider the following factors when planning your Christmas Visual Merchandising strategy:

Product:  Your product needs to be your shop's greatest hero.    To create a significant point of difference, plan your product range carefully to ensure you have considered high volume merchandise and the products creating stories.  Plan the placement of these product ranges so there is a balance of volume and value as well as eye-catching highlight displays as your hero. 

Creative planning and capitalising on the prime season:  The festive trading period can constitute up to 40% of a retailer's annual trade.  It is not only important from a financial perspective but it is also the most crucial time to cement new relationships with customers.  To maximise this opportunity retailers need to use creativity to their strategy to build a point of difference to competitors.

According to the fourth annual snapshot of Australian social media habits, retailers are driving the growth in social media marketing among small and medium sized businesses.  Half of small - medium sized retailers are now using social media to drive business, up from just 32% in 2013.  The rise is the biggest leap of any sector.

The full article is from Inside Retail and can be read here.

Why the leap? Because they are getting the picture: consumers are spending more of their time on social networks than ever. Combine that with the slew of new social ad formats Facebook and Twitter have introduced—many of which retailers say are very effective—and retailers see the results in big growth in traffic and sales that stem from social networks.

You're incredibly busy and someone asks to have a product gift-wrapped. 

I've heard:
"Sorry, I can't do that today. We're too busy". 
"You'll have to wait until I've finished serving these other customers".
"Not today.  Sorry".
Or, the wrapping is poorly done with an equally poor attitude.  Mind you, I've also seen perfectionists take an extraordinarily long time wrapping a gift whilst other customers 'silently fume'...

You might want to put these ideas into action:

1. Raise Security Awareness with all staff. Ensure they work the salesfloor (where the thieves hang out) and are not stuck solely behind the counter! Good customer service is the key. Approaching someone with " Is there something I can help you with? I couldn't help but notice your interest in our sunglasses/lipsticks/shoes/shirts/tops etc etc... Perhaps I could show you a colour/size/demonstration etc etc?" Opportunistic shoplifters HATE being singled out and tend to leave your store rather fast. Which, after all, is exactly what we want them to do!

Word of Caution (or Don’t Be “That Person”)
You know those people who go to networking events and try to sell you long before they learn anything about your needs? Who are pushing their product or service as they give you their never-let-go-G.I.-Joe-with-the-Kung-Fu-grip handshake? It’s easy in real life to see how obnoxious that behaviour is, right?
Well, then don’t behave that way on facebook. (Or on any social media site, for that matter.) Anyone jumping into social media as a way to make a quick sale will be sorely disappointed, and may irrevocably damage their reputation.
Social media is about building relationships; you build your network and your reputation over time by providing value to other people. The best book ever written on social media marketing could well be How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie.
Remember; You need to focus on building rapport, reaching out to connect with others, adding value, sharing information relative to your niche and marketplace.