Independent businesses could look forward to greater sales, thanks to a new campaign.

Following the success of Independent Retailer Month a new campaign has been launched to encourage Christmas shoppers to buy local rather than opting for chain stores.

Running for the six weeks prior to Christmas day, Clare Rayner, The Retail Champion, told the Retail Gazette that it aimed to promote collaborations between retailers and their local community.

"Consumers will be encouraged to spend a proportion of their Christmas budgets - be that on gift and food shopping, partying or pampering - with local, independent businesses," she explained.

The Celebrate an Independent Christmas campaign starts on November 12th and is looking to boost engagement between local businesses and customers will the help of fun events and "Christmas shopping crawls".

With all this activity going on, independent retailers could receive a greater share of the Christmas spend, while also attracting new customers and forging new relationships with other businesses nearby.

"Christmas is the perfect opportunity to give independent businesses a real boost in sales; already many achieve over 30 per cent of their annual sales in the six weeks before Christmas," Ms Rayner claimed, proving just what a significant difference a campaign like this one could make.

The festive period is a great time for independent retailers to introduce their customers to new product ranges, offering samples or using events to drum up engagement.

Shopping needn't be a chore and with Christmas such a huge occasion independents can try and separate themselves from the high street chains, offering a more personal retail experience.

This could involve training staff so that they are extremely knowledgeable about the products on offer, giving store layouts an exciting new feel or concentrating on branding.

Instead of using plain paper bags, why not give customers something to show off?

Personalised and custom print gift bags could be an innovative way to advertise independent stores and express a little brand identity.