Top Selling NON-tree Items for Christmas Season
Hey guys welcome back to Woods Tree Farm I'm Phil and happy New Year to all of You we have gotten through our Christmas Season we've put everything away for the Most part and now we're starting to Think about next year of course but Before we get into that I want to give You a recap of how our season went I Know in previous years I have gone into A lot of detail about how we've done With our farm how much money we made how Much profit there was and all that kind Of stuff and as our business grows I'm Getting away from that a little bit just Because some of these things I think you Know now the business is a more Meaningful size are you know a little Bit private and as much as I can share That'll be helpful for you guys if You're looking at starting a Christmas Tree farm or if maybe if you're already In the business and you're looking to Expand on some of the things that you're Doing all the idea sharing that I put in My videos is for you guys so that you Can improve your businesses and learn From what we're doing so the specifics Of you know exactly what we did I think Are less and less important I know many Of you are curious and would like to Know but like I said I'm getting away From that so there's a couple things That I want to share with you including Our top selling products but before I
Get into that I want to talk a little Bit about what I think really went well This year and that was the sales of Non-tree products so I took a look back At last year versus this year and I Looked at our tree sales and then all of The stuff that was not trees that we Sold so wreaths and decorations and S'mores and candles and all the other Products that we have for sale and I'm Going to give you some details about What sold the best but basically I broke Down what we did last year what we did This year and the number just kind of Blew my mind and I don't know what to Attribute it to other than we had the Sales building this year last year Everything was intense and this year we Had the building so it looked like a Real shop and I think people just spent More money this year I think our product Selection was very similar to the Previous year slightly better but very Very very similar and I don't think the Product selection by itself is what made The difference this year so when I broke Down our tree sales number versus our Non-tree sales number last year worked Out on a per tree basis that people Spent about twenty four dollars per Tree On non-tree items which that by itself I Think is fantastic I would if I looked At that last year and I knew that's what The number was I would have been
Completely satisfied with that and I Would have said Hey That's The Benchmark Let's shoot for that every year because That's great I mean we see a lot of People come and go with just a tree and I would have guessed that that number Would have been significantly lower when We looked at the non-tree items on a per Tree basis by comparison in 2023 the Non-tree sales worked out to be over 29 Per tree so people spent considerably More about 20 percent more which is Significant so uh anyway I I like I said Don't know what to attribute that to Other than you know the biggest Difference was we had the sales building This year Um and you know aside from that I don't Know product selection maybe a little Bit So because I use Square for our point of Sale and I used it last year I can Easily go in and compare year-over-year Numbers and I can look at it on a poor Per item basis and I can look at it on a Category basis to the extent that we Track things by categories and that kind Of goes into how you set up your point Of sale it's totally worth it in the Beginning to put more time and energy And thought into how you set everything Up because being able to run reports Later is extremely valuable so as far as The tree sales went this year we did do
A few more trees this year than we had Done last year but not a lot less than 10 percent more so last year we did About 380 trees this year we did uh just Under 400. so you know it's marginally More and the trees themselves were a Little bit more expensive this year so Our year-over-year Revenue as a result Of tree sales was higher this year both Because there were more trees and they Were a little bit more expensive so if I Look at the cab categories that had the Highest gross revenue this year the Highest gross revenue by far came from a Category that we just called our own Handmade items which actually it wasn't All handmade things but it includes Things that we had branded our own Merchandise so the the largest grossing Category by far was our own branded Merchandise or merchandise that we made Ourselves and you know that actually Does not include wreaths because in our Point of sale I had a separate wreath Category all right so I'm gonna go down The list here real quick of the top Grossing items under our own house-made Category here and the highest item was Actually our s'more kits I shared this Last year and I think this is what our Third year doing the actual s'more kits These have done really well for us we Started out our first year was it our First two years I don't remember just
Giving away marshmallows for free and Then the coveted year came and everybody Was kind of like uh you don't want to Have any shared surfaces shared items Whatever so we got away from having just Kind of like this community free Marshmallow area and we pre-packaged S'mores in their entirety with you know Graham crackers and chocolate Marshmallow and everything and sold them For it started out as like 350 and then We went to four dollars this year we Went to 475 I picked 475 because with Our Virginia tax it rounds right up to An even five dollars but uh anyway we Sold a silly amount of s'mores again This year like we did last year over 650 Worth of s'mores so I really can't Complain about that the next biggest Thing which was very close over 600 Worth of Wood Street Farm ornaments and We have done these wood slice ornaments Now for a couple years I think many Customers have come to expect them and We try to introduce at least one or two New designs every year and there's a Couple videos out there I will put a Link in the video in this video Description if you want to go out and Check some of those out but Ted Trader Schrader Tree Farm in Michigan has put Together several videos on how you can Do some of these we're not that creative We're not that artsy but these designs
Are pretty easy to do so we set up a Little assembly line and we just go Through you know in you know August September October and put together a Whole bunch of these ornaments and like I said they've done really well for us The next highest category for our own Branded merch is soy candles we Partnered with a local candle person and We put together a couple candles Actually we just put together one but we Gave it two names and we're being a Little silly with it so one was called Jingle smells one was called classic Christmas they're actually the same Scent but we're just playing with the Name a little bit and I was curious to See if one would sell better than the Other there was no winner we sold out of Both of them so uh we could have used a Lot more candles but we just kind of you Know let them sell out next year we know We'll order some more they did really Well for us we got bunch of other Smaller handmade items now on a per item Basis or on a category basis these don't Really show up but we did sell through Almost everything that we made so we Made these small little 4×4 Packages I think I made five sets of Those two of those sold we made little Tree cutouts we made Some little tabletop trees try to look And see what else is in here my kids
Packaged up reindeer food we always sell A bunch of those so anyway there's you Know a lot of little things that we sold I'm gonna look to make a lot more Handmade items for next year because They did really well for us next up are Handmade wreaths they've always done Well we actually did about the same Number of wreaths this year as we did Last year which uh to a certain extent It's a little disappointing I thought we Were gonna sell more I thought Um you know I thought having more trees Available and having more customers Through here would uh have helped us Sell a little bit more more but like I Said it was the same as last year Roughly within one or two units so Really can't complain it's a good money Maker and then we also did expand this Year on our wreath classes which kind of Falls outside of our normal sales time We do that off hours usually on a Weeknight and we did five classes this Year they all maybe one of them wasn't Completely full but otherwise all of Them sold out so those are good little Money makers we had several local Vendors with their items for sale in our Shop and we did this last year for the First time and it we thought it worked Out pretty well so it just helps us kind Of fill out the shop have a larger Variety of product and really there's no
Investment in it at all for us so we did Have to buy some tables and some Shelving and some other stuff in order To accommodate their stuff but really we Didn't have to buy any of the product up Front it's all here on consignment and Whatever doesn't sell we're able to Return to the vendor at the end of the Season so like I said it works out Really well for us we do it at a lower Margin we do it on a 70 30 split so it's A little bit less than your standard Retail margin but like I said we didn't Have to purchase any of that stuff up Front like we do all the other stuff That's for sale and we didn't really Have to put any energy into putting it Out there like we do with handmade stuff That we make so it works out well but I Wanted to share with you kind of the the Types of items that did well for us and The top grossing Vendor for us was actually our soil Cambo vendor the same vendor that made Us our branded candles had a lot of Different of our own candles available And they did really well I think when we Returned her product back to her there Was maybe four or five candles left I Don't remember how many dozens there Were to start with but it was quite a Few and total sales for her stuff I'm Looking at the report here was almost 500 worth of candles so you know easy
Little money maker for us and you know In hindsight if we had more of our Branded candle then we would have sold More than that and I probably would have Taken off her number a little bit but You know all in all it very very Worthwhile and we're gonna hopefully Have her back again in the future There were other handmade items so for Example we had someone who made some Crocheted baby items and blankets and Things like that they had a couple Little stuffed animals and that sold Well you know that when you get into Some of the crocheted blankets it's a Much higher uh ticket you know some of Those blankets were 80 or 100 so it Didn't take many of them to drive the Number up but it was over 450 worth of That type of product and then other Decorative stuff that was seasonal that Was festive is what did best for us so We had a vendor that had some wooden Snowmen and some little wooden snowman Decorations and Um those did well we had pet items have Done well for us in the past and you Know we sold dog bandanas and Dog bow Ties and things like that there were Different kinds of like tumblers Decorated insulated tumblers that did Really well so several hundred dollars Worth of decorated tumblers these little Pine cone gnomes were really interesting
Um people just bought these up we Actually went back to that vendor after Our first weekend and said if you can Make more of those I'm sure we can sell Them she brought us more and yeah we Definitely sold a few more as a result Of having that restocked inventory so That was a fun little thing and you know Something different than the ornaments That we make so we were happy to have Them so if I go back and look at things On a per item basis I'm just gonna go Quickly down the list on the top Grossing items for us the you know and Again I'm just looking at non-tree items Here the the 12 inch wreaths with a bow We did a bunch of those almost a Thousand dollars worth of those the wood Which tree farm coffee which we've had For several years now Again at the top of the list we had I Told you already about s'mores and Ornaments there next on the list the Wood Street Farm candles next on the List after that we had the tree stands You know I think our first year we Didn't have any tree stands and I you Know learned our lesson on that you've Got to have a selection of tree stands You're always going to have some first Time tree customers come out and you're Going to have some tree customers come Out who know the stand they have isn't That great and they're going to see you
Know you have a high quality stay on They might pick one up so we we had Plenty of tree stands go out the door I Think we brought in three cases of the Cinco brand stands I have part of a case Left so those did really well the tree Watering funnels again near the top of The list here in the top ten I have I Don't know fewer than 10 of those left We bought another case of those So you can see here that the type of Stuff that has done well for us us is Kind of what you would expect it is You know seasonal seasonal things uh you Know the decorative items the handmade Items are all the things that I've done Done best so if you guys have any ideas For things that'll do well on a tree Farm or on a tree lot of course you know Share those in the comments but as far As the top grossing items I shared those With you there's another couple dozen Items here on my list I'm looking down On my phone as we do this Um you know we just had dozens and Dozens of different items but because There were so many different items They're not rising to the top of the you Know on the on the top grossing but I Wanted to share with you the things that Have done well for us because like I Said Um you know part of my journey here is Sharing with you what works with us
Sharing with you what doesn't work and As far as like our shop goes there Wasn't really anything this year that I Thought was a failure other than the Weather we had a couple rainy week ends And I'm sure we could have done better If we didn't have such challenging Weather but you know people still showed Up we still pretty much moved almost all Of our trees I kind of expect at this Point to have maybe up to 10 percent of Inventory goes unsold or it's damaged or Whatever so it can't be sold we had well Under that number this year so I'm Really happy with the result everything Kind of worked out the way that we Wanted it to work out so where do we go From here More trees those trees over my shoulder Are going to be some of the first ones That will start harvesting next year That's going to be a change for us and I Don't know what else we're going to Dream up think up here in the next 10 Months before we open again for next Season so who knows stay tuned stick Around like I said if you have any uh Anything to add to this list and the Details I shared in this video put it Down below in the comments so other People can see that and until next time I hope you have a good one I'll see you In the next video bye-bye
