Black Friday is one of the busiest shopping days of the year. The day was named because many retail businesses traditionally went into the black financially on that day. Customers are still looking for bargains, have their pockets wide open, and are ready to buy. By plotting your pricing strategy carefully, you can capture a fifth or more of your yearly profits. By carefully selecting which items you discount, you can still price higher selling items at a profitable level. With inspiration, you can even pull in the shoppers who don’t shop on Black Friday.
The Pre-Holiday Shoppers
Not everyone is a Black Friday Shopper, enjoys long lines or standing outside in the pre-dawn hours waiting for your store to open. Some shoppers even like to have their shopping finished before the official opening of holiday shopping. Therefore, it’s good business sense to sell to these customers before the Black Friday craziness. By pricing some of your merchandise lower now, you can attract the customers who prefer to do their shopping when it’s less crowded. They know that by purchasing early, they can snag an item before supplies become depleted and prices rise.
Also, between online competition and the still frugal customer, it does pay to offer discounts throughout the holiday season--not just on Black Friday. Most importantly, you must stay on top of your customer service staff and other employees, keeping them informed of what is on sale and what is not. Nothing will turn a customer off more than employees who are ringing incorrect prices during a sale.
The Black Friday Customers
Offering discounted items is a good method to get Black Friday customers to come to your store. You can also offer a “door buster” by marking down prices on inventory which had been bought as an overestimation or has been sitting on the shelves too long. Since it has a better chance to sell at this time, it also keeps you from the double whammy of a second markdown after Christmas. By utilizing your sales merchandise carefully, you can maximize your profit from these items while drawing customers into your store. You can also offer bargains on items which will sell quickly but for which there is a limited quantity. You can also mail out coupons to pull in more traffic to your store. Remember, the customer will shop at whatever store they can get the best deals, so your job is to make sure that store is yours.
Broadening the Shopping Experience
Another crowd pleaser is to offer shopping ideas to your customers for other occasions besides the upcoming holidays. Suggest ideas for your merchandise to be bought for upcoming birthdays. After all, we all buy birthday gifts. You can consider mentioning shopping for an upcoming anniversary. Valentine’s Day is the next big gift giving day; why not take advantage of it? You can use suggestive selling for purchasing a gift that can be hidden away for now at Black Friday prices. By using all of your merchandising skills and timely suggestions, you can sell your merchandise for more than one holiday. It’s up to you to convince your customer to take advantage of the sales and buy items for gift giving throughout the year.
Many times the holiday season and its sales are what makes or breaks a store. If you have excellent customer service, worthwhile sales and suggestive selling practices, you may very well come through this holiday season with cash registers ringing.
photo courtesy of Morguefile.com
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