Staples Makes the Holidays Easy for Small Businesses with Expanded Online Selection and Holiday Tips

FRAMINGHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--This year Staples, the world’s largest office products company and second largest internet retailer, is making the holidays easy with the Staples Holiday Center, featuring everything small businesses and consumers need to get ready for the season. This year’s center includes an expanded product assortment with more gift ideas than ever as well as recipes and homemade crafts.

“With the Staples Holiday Center, small businesses now have a place where they can go to get an early start on holiday preparations”

Staples is the online destination for holiday planning, now with everything from wrapping paper and personalized gifts for co-workers to party supplies and holiday cards. And it’s not too early to get started. In fact an informal poll conducted through social media found that a third of respondents said their company starts preparing for the holidays before Thanksgiving.

“With the Staples Holiday Center, small businesses now have a place where they can go to get an early start on holiday preparations,” said Steve Bussberg, Senior Vice President, Staples.com. “Whether it’s planning how to market holiday promotions to customers, or getting all the supplies for the office party, businesses now have one place to turn to make the holidays easy. Staples is launching its Holiday Center earlier than ever, with more products than ever.”

The Staples Holiday Center features gift ideas for the boss, co-workers, family or friends, with the ability to shop for gifts within a price range. For those looking to give the latest technology, Staples.com has expanded its offering this holiday season, with LCD and Plasma televisions, and coming soon, LED televisions and game consoles, including Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony PlayStation3, Sony PS Vista, Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS. Of course, Staples continues to offer wide selection of the latest laptops, e-readers, tablets and personal computers.

New this year to Staples is the ability to order seasonal décor online, including live Christmas trees, shipped directly. This makes it especially easy for businesses, those living in cities and families strapped for time to conveniently order a tree and have it delivered to their door. For those businesses that prefer to create their own decorations, Staples offers directions on making holiday craft items. The favorite decoration on the Holiday Center among those polled was a light bulb ornament, with close to 50 percent voting for it, beating out other favorites like a coffee filter snowflakes.

When it comes to marketing, the Holiday Center offers thousands of holiday cards and invitations to choose from, as well as personalized calendars and coffee mugs, making it easy for small businesses to use the holidays as a chance to brand their company.

The office holiday party planner can turn to Staples for all the holiday party snacks and supplies and clean-up items needed to throw a big bash. The Staples Holiday Center also offers great recipes for simple, but delicious, treats that can be made with a few snack and candy items that can be ordered for the breakroom, if they’re not there already. Those polled saw Chocolate Pretzel Drops, made up of pretzels, M&M’s and Hershey Kisses as the most intriguing of these holiday recipes.

Other results from the poll include:

Almost 40 percent of poll respondents said their company sends cards to its customers.
Over 50 percent of poll respondents that said their company will have a holiday party.
A third of poll respondents said they buy gifts for their co-workers.

About the Poll

The Staples Holiday Prep Poll was promoted through social media and had 2,604 total respondents from Facebook, Twitter and Google+.

About Staples

Staples is the world’s largest office products company and a trusted source for office solutions. The company provides products, services and expertise in office supplies, copy & print, technology, facilities and breakroom, and furniture. Staples invented the office superstore concept in 1986 and now has annual sales of $25 billion, ranking second in the world in eCommerce sales. With 88,000 associates worldwide, Staples operates in 26 countries throughout North and South America, Europe, Asia and Australia, making it easy for businesses of all sizes, and consumers. The company is headquartered outside Boston. More information about Staples (Nasdaq: SPLS) is available at www.staples.com/media.

Follow Staples on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/staples and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/staples.

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