THE countdown has officially begun! With only seven days left until the retail event of the year – Jamaica Observer Takes Style Out – the Jamaica Yellow Pages hosted its final seminar for retailers in preparation for the six-year-old retail extravaganza. Retailers from Mandeville gathered at the second largest hotel property on the south coast and one of the largest conference properties islandwide, the Golf View Hotel, for a workshop to prepare retailers to be the destination of choice for the exodus of fashionistas on October 1.

The workshop was filled with vibrant presentations from a multiplicity of veterans in retail, marketing and customer service. Jamaica Observer Senior Associate Editor, Lifestyle and Social Content, and conceptualiser of TSO Novia McDonald-Whyte, in her opening remarks, highlighted to retailers, “TSO is not only about getting retailers inside your store, it’s about getting them to spend,” which opened the floor for presenters to show how to get customers inside stores, how to get them to spend and how to get them to keep coming back. Master of ceremonies and marketing manager of the Jamaica Yellow Pages Ayanna Kirton underscored the need to support local businesses.

Other noted presenters were: Yellow Pages Digital Manager Rasheed Girvan who presented digital marketing tips; Nadine Burrowes-Seaga, who in her presentation urged retailers to ensure the basics of customer service – smile, eye contact, listening and saying thank you. Creative Director of Karen Booker Design Group Karen Booker spoke about store aesthetics to improve the customer experience, outlining that a combination of good customer service and a dazzling ambiance will create new customers and encourage customer loyalty. Interior designer and columnist Cecile Levee gave a brilliant presentation on impactful store window displays, showing how household items such as ply board, paint and the vehemently detested plastic flowers can be used to make beautiful window displays that will pique interest in passers-by enough to get them inside the store on Thursday, October 1 for The Jamaica Observer Takes Style Out.