Christmas Cheer

So it’s the 18^th March and finally the sun is shining. Outside the crocuses are blooming and there’s absolutely no sign of a drop of snow anywhere in my general vicinity. So what, you might ask, would you be thinking spending two days travelling to Holland via Germany in order to listen to Christmas carols playing over the music system?

Well in retail, as you know, we are always at least one season ahead and right now it’s time to be buying Christmas. Not just in a little way either; we’re talking full on Christmas with lights, baubles, dancing reindeer and a fifteen foot inflatable Father Christmas! The company we visit is the biggest in Europe and what they don’t know about Christmas isn’t worth knowing.

We arrived on Wednesday and spent the afternoon acclimatising ourselves with the showroom. You really need to get your bearings; this year there are nine theme rooms as well as a candle room, a lighting room, and a room full of animated soft toys. Once we get an idea of the general layout it’s time to start painting a picture of how the season will be put together.

A fresh start this morning and all becomes clear. We head straight for the candle department. This is an area that we have been looking to improve in the last 12 months, and this year they look great.

Having cracked the scented candle market we move to the sparkle and shine room. WOW it’s truly glittertastic. The showroom is a real source of inspiration the displays really do make for phenomenal viewing. The artistry behind making Christmas look this good really is second to none. Even if you are a true Christmas Scrooge you would be blown away by how good it can look if you set your mind to it!

Well it’s been a great trip, even if I am sick to death of hearing jingle bells in the background! It’s great to see some fantastic new products and this year they really have surpassed themselves. Who wouldn’t want to buy a set of reindeer deely boppers?

Remember it’ll soon be Christmas! Ho Ho Ho.

Handbags Galore

Handbags, clutch bags, across body bags and shoppers... A woman’s most important item to hold all of her daily essentials.

Although not as extravagant as some of the bags in the lime light at the moment, the range we have chosen for this season includes some high fashion designs. The range includes a variety of printed bags in all shapes and sizes from python to zebra, to add a bit of fashion flare, as well as some coloured crocs and canvas bags.  A selection of these will be available this week with more to follow...

For a bag that suits your everyday needs, we have a fabulous range of £9 bags. Now in some fantastic summer colours they are certainly causing a stir in our stores. Grab yours while you still can! Our favourite bag of the moment is the gathered detail turn lock bag. We just can’t seem to get enough of it!

Show time take two

Every February we take a trip to the NEC in Birmingham to visit the spring gift show. It is 18 halls full of every gift product you can imagine. You could get lost for days!

It was a successful trip this year, we managed to locate some fun and exciting new products for the spring season and also begun to plan the dreaded Christmas range!

We have been looking for new soft toys to add to our range for a long time and finally we have found some. The new range of baby soft toys from Keel are my favourite and are already selling well. We usually find that baby products tend to be costly, but this range is well priced and great quality, see what you think...

Another product range that we can’t stop talking about is the Easter giftware. The Easter season has been getting better and better for us over the last two years and this is clearly true for other retailers. The Easter product on offer at the show has grown and improved vastly. The products we picked are in and selling well. It really cheers everyone up when they see it as it's fun and makes you feel likes spring is on the way. We love the bunny baskets as you can fill them up with lots of chocolate eggs!

We also can’t not mention the bush babies and new yohoo range we have just had in from Aurora. Everyone in the office loves them. They have just hit shops this week and they are causing a stir. They really are cute!

Lastly the product of the show for us is our new meerkat. We just couldn’t resist him and we were right not to as we have already had to place another order. Get him quick before he sells out!

We will save our update on Christmas for a few months; we feel it's a bit early!

Show time

Thestockshop buying team have started to buy for Autumn/winter 2010. We have been visiting trade shows to give us inspiration for next seasons range and to ensure that we are not missing any new products.

We visited Pure at the beginning of February, which is a trade fashion show that we go to twice a year. Our favourite part is the catwalk show as it gives us ideas on colours, shapes and trends for the upcoming buying meetings. 

The catwalk had a casual feel that we will definitely be translating into our autumn range. We loved the kingfisher blue and will be adding it to our knitwear colour palette. We will keep you updated with sneak previews as samples start to come through!

Apart from using the show for ideas we also buy accessories and we have bought the best handbags yet! It’s a new range for us called Juno and exclusive to the website. Here’s a sneak preview of our favourite one… They will be available from April and we will let everyone know when they arrive!

The jewellery selection never fails to amaze us, and we have added lots of new styles to the range to see us through the summer season, one of the best styles is available now…

Moda was next on the list, which we ventured out in the snow to visit! This is a show that we only go to every couple of years as it is just for stock, not for direction and unfortunately we were unable to find anything new or exciting to add to the range. The only highlight was seeing Trinny and Susannah looking glam advertising their new shapewear brand. They did look very skinny so perhaps we should add their new shapewear to our range! Watch this space!