I'm in the middle of a consulting project for a retailer who brought me on board to help them figure out how to increase sales and profitability. Right now we're looking at the strength of their sales team, as that tends to be one area retailers overlook.

If you have a large team, or just a few employees, you could be missing out on sales. A team is great, but not if it's filled with mediocre employees.

I know firsthand as a business owner how difficult it can be to find even mediocre employees, so the last thing you want to do is fire someone who's doing OK. But while my old mentality was that it's expensive to find new employees and train them (and who knows if a new employee would do better than the old one), my new one mentality is the opposite.

Three years ago I decided we needed a change in one department because the sales had only modest growth and I thought we could be doing much better. I fired the employee, and in only a month, the sales had tripled. And this growth trend has continued for the past three years. If I had kept that employee on, it would have cost me as much as $500,000.

What are your mediocre employees costing you?  If for example, a mediocre employee sells $250 a day and a fantastic employee sells $750, you'd be losing $184,750 a year.

I used to feel guilty about the time it takes to hire the right people. I was concerned that I was spending a lot of time on hiring when I could be focusing on other aspects of running my business.

Now I know it's worth the time to find the best people.

Hire the best-of-the-best employees and you'll get the best-of-the-best results!

For the summer issue of GIFT SHOP (due in July), we've profiled a retailer who focuses primarily on selling toys during the holiday season. What struck me the most about his story is that in the summer he starts growing his beard and then dyes it white for the holiday season—every year!

Tip of the day: dress your staff. It would be fun and seasonal if your staff wore some costumes for the holiday season (reindeer antlers, an elf hat, etc.), and smart to have them dress for special promotions (i.e., wearing the aprons you're selling in the store).

I love bags of all types: purses, lunch sacks, shopping satchels, etc. (What woman doesn't?)

So when I saw this article in the New York Times this weekend, Never Mind What’s in Them, Bags Are the Fashion, I thought, of course they are… everyone knows that!

I love when I get cute bags from stores to hold my purchases, and I always reuse them (to pack my lunch or give a gift), so it's no surprise that retailers are starting to spend more time and money on their shopping bags. Having someone reuse your shopping bag for days on end is great marketing.. and it's cheap!

One of my favorite bags to reuse is from a little shop called Cake. The bag is just your typical brown bag, but it has twisted rope handles and adorable designs. It's perfect for putting a small housewarming gift in.

Do any of you put any extra time or money into the bags you give away?

Halloween now ranks as the second biggest holiday for retailers behind Christmas. Sales have grown to $5 billion, up from $3 billion just two years ago.

Why have sales nearly doubled in the last two years?

Here what I think:

1. Candy sales… Consumers spend $2 billion a year on candy.

2. All-inclusive… This holiday is not linked to a particular religious sector. 93% of children under the age of 12 go trick-or-treating and 60% of adults celebrate, with a surprising 50% of them dressing up for the holiday.

3. Decorating… The fastest-growing segment of Halloween sales is outdoor decor. 86% of Americans decorate their houses for Halloween (both indoors and outdoors).

4. Nostalgic.. We all loved trick-or-treating as kids, so it's fun to participate in the holiday as an adult (particularly if we have kids of our own!).

I hope you had fantastic Halloween sales this year. Now it's time to gear up for a big Christmas season. Stay tuned next week for more holiday sales tips.

Today's guest post is from Poornima Apte, editor of GIFT SHOP magazine.

The National Retail Federation recently reported that the average person will spend $98.34 on Father's Day this year, up from $88.80 last year.

That $98.34? That's us! They must have been following my girls and I as we scooped up stuff for Dad this past weekend.

According to the NRF, "as in previous years, the most popular gift for dad will be a greeting card (69.9%), but he can also expect to be treated to a special outing such as dinner (42.7%). Other popular gift items include apparel (37.1%), a gift certificate or gift card (29.9%), consumer electronics or computer related accessories (17.8%) sporting goods or leisure items (13.9%), tools or appliances (13.6%), and home improvement or gardening tools (12.4%)." Even if it's my 9-year-old's favorite Daddy gift, there's not much demand this year for soap-on-a-rope!

Do you stock special products in your store for Father's Day? Remember, it doesn't have to be anything very extravagant. As the numbers show, greeting cards are very popular. Try a line with a touch of humor. Also of particular appeal are mugs and plates kids can customize for Dad.

As for our Father's Day purchases, after we returned from our shopping expedition, we ran into my neighbor who asked: "How come we have to hang out with the kids and do brunch on Mother's Day while for Father's Day, the men get to hang out with the guys and golf all day?" Good question! It's one, I'm sure, not many surveys will (or can) address!

This morning the editorial team for one of our magazines received an email from an advertiser asking us for insight on the Fall/Thanksgiving/Halloween buying trends of gift store owners. Basically she wanted to know what retailers are seeking for fall merchandise… general stuff, or more holiday-specific lines for Thanksgiving and Halloween.

Our managing editor, Poornima Apte, CC'd me on her response.

From what we have seen, Thanksgiving-specific purchasing is quite limited. Most retailers seem to do general fall-themed purchasing (pumpkins, orange/russet colored decor, fall leaves) and are increasingly stocking select Halloween items as part of their fall offerings. This Halloween-specific trend is on the upswing and it is often mixed in with more general fall merchandise. Thanksgiving-specific merchandise, however, does not seem to be high on shopping lists.

If you're a retailer, take note. There are clearly opportunities to cash in on Halloween merchandise as this trend grows… we think it's so notable we even did a feature in our Spring Issue.

In both of our online eNewsletters this week, we included an article about the Webkinz craze, a plush animal manufactured by Ganz, that is literally flying off shelves across the country. To me, this is fascinating on many levels.

First, Ganz implemented a brilliant marketing strategy by creating a Web-based game that children can play to earn their pets food, attention and other rewards. It's so clever! It creates a value-added reason for customers to buy the product, with very little product cost outside of the initial game development expense.

The second fascinating element of this craze is how quickly it spread and by whom… children! My four year old came running home from school a few weeks ago begging me for a Webkinz. When I asked, "Do you know what a Webkinz is?" she responded by saying, "No, but everyone is talking about them."

Third, the limited supply is creating even more demand. They're so hard to find people want them more (remember Beanie Babies?).

And fourth, an entire culture has now formed around the different animals and games (and it's one with money!).

What I hope is that other vendors will learn from this success and launch similar products using the same marketing principles.

Hey, they're an easy sell.. my daughter doesn't even know what they are and she's already convinced me to buy one!

I recently wrote a piece that outlines the top 10 trends in stationery. It's going to be featured in a future issue of Paper Clips, a newsletter put out by the National Stationery Show (so keep your eyes open for it!).

Here's a sneak peek at three of the products that are being considered…

I received a phone call today from a retail reporter at the Business Press, a newspaper based in San Jose, CA. He's doing an article on the increasing trend of super specialty stores. He defined a super specialty store as a store selling a very unusual product in a very niche category. There were two stores in particular in his area that sparked the article idea including an olive oil store (selling only 100% virgin olive oil), and a store that makes and sells edible floral arrangements. He asked me if I thought that specialized stores were a national trend that was growing. I agreed that it's a trend that's growing. The reason is based on what successful cart and kiosk retailers have already discovered.

In order to compete in today's retail marketplace you have to sell something that can't be found at the mass merchandise stores. In many ways the more unique the product, the more successful you will be. Although, there are a few examples that came to mind of specialty stores that were so niche the products they sold didn't appeal to a broad enough range of the US population. For example, up the street from our office in a small strip center, there is a store selling stencils. While I thought it was a neat concept, how many people are actually looking to buy a stencil? And what is the potential for repeat business?

So I suggested to his readers to consider the following before opening a super specialty store:

1. Make sure your product appeals to a broad range of age groups or a large enough base of customers.
2. If you're only selling one item, such as the virgin olive oil, make sure you clearly communicate why your product is different from what's out there already. Even if it's not substantially different you can create a perception that it is through clever packaging, strong visual merchandising, and a great story (perhaps printed on the back of every package) and on signage in the store.
3. If you're not going to compete on price, then make your customers feel like they are getting incredible value through amazing customer service.

Does anyone else have any other ideas? Or has anyone seen any really great super specialty stores?

After two magazines, four websites and eleven years in business, I've decided to jump on the blog bandwagon.

Be patient, I'm just learning!

I hope to bring you ideas for how to succeed with your specialty retail business, whether it be a kiosk or cart in a mall or airport, or a small gift shop in a local shopping center. I've been doing this for several years, through all the ups and downs, and I know what I've learned can help you run a profitable business.

I'm going to be adding tips, ideas and general information on a daily basis, so watch for new categories in the sidebar <—-.

If you'd like to ask me a question, or propose an idea for a post, please stick it in the comments box and I will respond as quickly as I can.

I hope this can become a forum for retailers and wholesalers, where ideas and thoughts can be freely exchanged.

Thanks for reading.