This holiday shopping season, everyone will be looking for discounts and overall being more frugal and retailers are well aware of this. Etsy’s advice to retailers is to start early. Raina Moskowitz, the company’s Chief Operational Officer explains that small-businesses and side hustlers on websites like Etsy start planning for the holiday season before Halloween.

Your favorite retailers will try to stand out by providing additional discounts or one-of-a-kind products that you won’t find anywhere else. According to Moskowitz, the holiday season is the busiest and most crucial period of the year, particularly for small businesses and retail.

As consumers worry about a looming recession and price increases brought on by inflation, small companies, in particular, are preparing for an unpredictable Christmas season. This year, it’s anticipated that consumers will spend less on holiday gifts and will be more motivated to shop around.

Etsy may have a significant impact: Around 5.3 million small company owners and entrepreneurs are hosted on its internet marketplace globally. Here is Moskowitz’s best advice for those sellers this year, as well as some strategies you can use to your advantage as a consumer.

Etsy’s advice to retailers this holiday

Retailers should carefully price their products 

According to a recent Bankrate survey, 84% of holiday shoppers said they intend to spend less than they did last year. That will entail making fewer purchases or searching tirelessly for the finest offers.

As a retailer, always try to outbid your rivals by undercutting their pricing if you want to make money by selling goods over the holidays. However, Moskowitz cautions that you still need to set your product’s price so that it does not affect your bottom line negatively.

According to Moskowitz, “We hope [sellers’] prices reflect, obviously, the expense of manufacturing their products, as well as their labor and the value that they’re offering to customers.”

 To help you determine good price points,  Etsy advises you to calculate the gross profit margins for each product. That will entail calculating the total cost of manufacturing, shipping, and marketing each item and then comparing the result to the item’s selling price.

If there is a healthy margin between the price of a product and the revenue it generates, you have room to provide discounts while still making money.

Store-wide reductions can also aid in increasing foot traffic and clearing out year-end inventory, provided they still allow room in your margins for profit.

Offer people a unique product or service to offer the right ones

Offer one-of-a-kind, personalized, or handcrafted goods that people can’t find anywhere else. That will give you an advantage against big-box retailers and e-commerce powerhouses.

According to Moskowitz, that is what Etsy does best, but the same could be true for any local store or side business.

She adds that during the holidays, when people want to buy gifts for their friends and family, they need to go further and be more meaningful. Therefore, shoppers feeling the pinch of increasing prices will want to stretch their budgets as much as possible.

Etsy’s advice on trends

It’s always crucial to track retail trends because new trendy gift sets get more attention from the public every year. The trends for this year are already well underway, according to Moskowitz.

Many people are fixated on wall art that is exceptionally colorful and hot pink. According to Moskowitz, pearls on various accessories, shoes, and purses are another trend that is becoming popular. “I believe it’s definitely a sign of people being prepared to celebrate this Christmas season,” she says.

Knowing your clients and what they want can determine the things you offer and how you market them to the public.

Ahead of a looming recession, Moskowitz’s celebratory-themed ideas may feel unanticipated. While consumers seek deals out of anxiety that the economy may worsen, McKinsey observes that U.S. consumers still have money to spend.

With a top projection of $1.47 trillion in spending, consulting firm Deloitte predicts that U.S. Christmas sales will rise between 4% and 6% this year. That represents a smaller increase than last year when spending rose by more than 15%. But it is still a sizable gain.