The Christmas rush at Give Simple has passed, and this week gives me some time to work on Spring 2008. What a lot of wonderful things we have planned for Give Simple! Lots of new products to delight our customers, with the early emphasis on new lines for Jewel and Spa.

Men's gifts will launch in May, in advance of Father's Day.

Another new category will be called "Give" and will offer great products that contribute at least 10% of sales to non-profits. Give a gift, and give back at the same time!

I am also on the lookout for items in our new "Green" category, for those who want to help the earth while they shop.

We wish you all a lovely holiday, and an exciting 2008!

Be happy, Give Simple.

Christine

I have spent many years watching consumer behavior through my retail career. Learning about the Give Simple customer has been very interesting, and a lot more complicated. My experience in a regional department store taught me a lot about what the Texas customer preferences were. For example, lots of color, larger scale jewelry, bigger handbags, fewer commuter style tote bags, no wool or cashmere until November, key item t-shirts are needed all year round, etc. With our national Give Simple customer base, the regional aspect has little meaning. For Give Simple, I am learning to predict style more specifically, and to look for value. Also, we continue to focus on giftable items and ideas.

Our customers have already taught me a lot about gift giving through their phone calls, live chat and emails. The beauty of a company like Give Simple is that we actually talk to our customers. It’s a lot of fun to lay out all the salad servers and recommend which goes best with each of the 5 large platters so that a customer can give each of the friends that hosted her shower an equal yet unique gift. It’s great to feel a light bulb go off when a customer wants to buy 7 sets of Working Class Studio plates for gifts – hey, that’s what I’ll give my friend Conner for Christmas, she’ll love those! The same day, another customer ordered one of each style so that she could have a fabulous buffet table for a party next week. I need to tell all my customers about both ideas from these two brilliant customers (see Monday 12/10 email blast!) Of course, those customer requests also meant getting our friends at WCS to ship us first and fastest so that we could meet the deadlines and still have enough WCS for my friends and for the rest of our wonderful customers.

These are just two examples of great customer ideas. I plan to add a lot more suggestions to the Gift Packages portion of the site as soon as we are able to do some in house photography, so that the great ideas can be shared with all of you.

Happy Gift Giving.

Be happy, Give Simple,

Christine