The festive season is upon us and it provides the perfect opportunity to engage further with your local community and customers. There will be shoppers searching for items of furnishings to cater for guests over the Christmas period, whether that’s a new dining set, sofa bed or even a sofa itself. So, with the Christmas season now in full swing, here are some examples from retailers operating in the furnishing industry that could spark some festive inspiration before the big day arrives. 

Kicking off the festive fun, Furniture Village has recently launched a 12 Days of Giftmas Giveaway where for the first 12 days of December the retailer is offering free prizes. At the time of writing, the first three days included Loop Earplugs, a Jelly Cat ginger bread house and a WoodWick Medium Hourglass Candle Gift Set. Furniture Village encourages customers to enter via its Instagram page by following the retailer, liking the post and tagging someone. Check out their page to see what other offers they’ve included in the Giftmas Special. 

With its own giveaway, Dreams is offering customers the chance to win its Jay Ottoman Bed Frame in a similar format to the above, by like the post on social media and tagging a friend, while also commenting with your favourite festive emoji. The promotion runs until 8th December.  

In keeping with prizes, DFS has delivered a very engaging competition with bumper prizes up for grabs. Titled ‘24 Days of DFS-mas’ the Christmas competition runs through to 24th December with prizes to be won every day, including sofas, beds, smaller furnishings, vouchers and much more. The advent calendar style approach allows the user to pick the day and answer a fun question. This then leads to a data capture form where the user must enter some details to confirm the entry. Check it out here www.dfs.co.uk/inspiration/christmas-advent-calendar .

As for Toons, they have their very own Christmas department in store, with the business running a campaign of 50% off Christmas products. Staff also get into the festive spirit with one of the latest social media posts showing off some elf dancing moves! There’s even a massive blow-up Santa on the roof waving customers into the store! 

From roof-top Santa’s to hosting a Grotto, Nimbus Beds recently held its first of three Santa’s Grotto events with the other two penciled in for 10th & 17th December at its store. The idea is to spread some festive fun for all the family with every child receiving a gift. 

Father Christmas is also making an appearance at Sterling Furniture’s Tillicoultry store every weekend to 22nd December as the retailer celebrates the festive period with a variety of events. Alongside Santa and his Reindeers, Sterling is hosting bauble engraving and wreath making too. 

At Sopha, the business has made room in its store to display and sell Christmas trees, which has proved to be a very popular addition. The retailer sold out in a few days of its first batch and has seen replenished stock sell quickly too.  

Meanwhile, Bensons for Beds has continued its partnership with Crisis, a charity combatting homelessness it has supported since December 2022. This year, its offering two separate ways for Bensons customers to get involved. Bensons is running an offer through December, from 4th until midnight on 31st December. Anyone who purchases a Slumberland mattress during this time will automatically have £5 of their purchase donated to the Crisis at Christmas Appeal. Secondly, Bensons is also collecting and accepting Crisis donations at all of its stores, encouraging customers to donate items such as clothing, gift cards, packaged food and much more.

So, with plenty of time still left in the run up to Christmas, what is your business doing to pull in those extra sales, while offering something a bit different to brighten up the festive countdown?