Well of course you have! You can’t but fail to notice when towns, markets and shopping centres are illuminated with sparkling Christmas lights and the High Street is full of exciting shop window displays tempting you inside to explore further. You are coaxed around the shop floor looking for a solution to your gifting worries…only so many shopping days left …
This is the time of year when everyone pays extra-special attention to the appearance of their businesses and where everything looks fabulous.  Everyone takes more time than usual to create the WOW factor as they know it really helps to increase sales…

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The Northwich Business Improvement District is always looking at ways in which it can help the town’s companies, traders and organisations grow and succeed. As part of this commitment, the BID held a Window Display Masterclass Training Course at its offices in Northwich on Tuesday 5th July. Funded and organised by the BID, the course, run by Made You Look!, taught attendees how to make stunning visual window displays to help them market their offerings in the best way possible and increase interest and footfall in their store.

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A1 Retail magazine  very kindly invited us to feature in their Question and Answer section this month on Visual Merchandising.

There are many skills and specialisms involved in successful  ‘Visual Merchandising’ and we explain how our  training for window and interior visual displays and styling  fits in.  ‘Window Dressing’ isn’t just ‘fluff’ – it is a crucial, silent selling technique which generates sales .

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Many of you will know about Small Business Saturday which took place on December 5^th this year.

Small Business Saturday originated in the States where it was launched by American Express in order to raise the profile of small retailers. Now running in this country too, any small firm looking to take part can join in.  Attention is focused on the small independent business, especially encouraging people to ‘shop local’ in the run-up to Christmas.

We were delighted when Small Business Saturday chose Made You Look! from many businesses around the country to highlight as one of their ‘Smallbiz100’ in the days leading up to the big event itself. We received a whole day of exposure on social media as well as press coverage, and attended the Bus Tour where we ran a Visual Display Presentation along with free consultations.

The Telegraph

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Revive & Thrive is a Business group made up from experts in town regeneration, passionate about helping bring high streets back to life.

An event was organised at the Black Country Living Museum bringing together some of the most innovative town centre solutions each of which was presented to a judging panel of retailers, town team leaders, BID managers as well as anyone else passionate about place and community.

Way-finding, Pop-up shops, analysis of data, customer service training, WiFi for town centres, reward cards & Apps were just a few of the entrants along with Christmas lights & creating vibrant ‘spaces’ where there were none before…so many fabulous solutions which work together well.

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We’ve recently been networking, networking, networking  – spreading the word about how Made You Look! can help so many different types of businesses – not just retailers.  It occurred to us that there are so many micro businesses who work from  Home-Offices, they rely on Networking Events and Exhibitions to promote themselves and to find work.  So, just like any shop window display, these small businesses need to create impact and attract attention in the same way.

So we have created a short course specifically for that purpose!

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Cheers!  Yet another fabulous show!  Thank you to everyone who came to visit our stand and talk with us. We will be helping many more  businesses up and down the country – abroad too!  There were some awesome stands to look at,  Retail Focus magazine  have included  them in their blog – Take a peek!  See if you can find our stand!  Continue reading →

The VM & Display Show is the longest running exhibition for the industry – and this is it’s 25th year!   Come and say hello – we’ll be on stand C11 upstairs.  Entrance is free and as we are celebrating the show’s 25th birthday there will be a free champagne bar everyday!    Continue reading →

As a regular guest on Radio York’s Opinion Panel with Jonathan Cowap, it is always great fun and I meet some really interesting people.  It’s a lively discussion where we debate issues of the day, and callers are invited to give their comments too.  And best of all – the tea is always good!

A1 Retail magazine kindly provided us with a soapbox so we could express our opinion about Flag Ship Stores and how very few retailers actually have one! We are especially passionate about helping the small business owner too …and this is how it read…    Continue reading →