Accurate signage has long been a way to ensure that you are able to communicate to your customers even in the event you don't have an opportunity for a personal connection. If done right, the signage can not only draw attention to great deals, but can often even transcend a language barrier. That is why signage has long held the nickname "silent salespeople".
This kind of marketing is extremely powerful, and can make or break any business. This kind of marketing must be both delivered appropriately, and communicated just as effectively. There are really 3 basic categories of sale a store will run through - 1. Full Price - New seasonal launch, most goods are full price. 2. Promotional - Usually shortly into new season as sales start to indicate which goods are meeting forecasts. Items are then placed on a temporary (Promotional) sale price to accelerate sales. 3. Liquidation - End of season. Deep discounts are offered to rapidly move through unsold merchandise. As is evident, the categories typically run through a seasonal life-cycle.
Success comes in making this balance effectively. Most stores nail the full price mode, as their stores are full, the product is fresh, merchandising is fresh, and the employees are excited over new product. Promotional and Liquidation is where the problems generally begin.
I am going to start with talking about the Liquidation phase, as many of the Promotional problems are born here. There are a few stores that I can think of that cover their windows with GIANT sale signs and move all liquidation product front and center in an effort to make a greater impact. Unless your season missed forecasts by a huge margin and you are sitting on loads of product, this is generally a mistake. You are training your customers to wait for the sales, and what to look for without even stepping foot in the store. Whenever I see this approach, there is usually a line at the register, and a crowd by the sale product, but all the rest of the store barely gets noticed. Without your customers at least looking at the regular priced product, you will be stuck in that cycle of sitting on too much product over and over. This is where your "vocal" salespeople need to step in and actually "sell". I have described it as being a tour guide. Walk your customer all over the store showing them an even mix of both new and sale merchandise - it gives the feeling of your personal interest, because you are showing discounted product along with the "hot" items they shouldn't miss out on! Warehouse style sales with product literally thrown in boxes by pricepoint is not necessarily a bad idea, because it does build excitement and energy, but make sure it is not at the expense of your margins and current merchandise.
Promotional pricing can get a little tricky. Most customers have trained themselves to wait for this phase to do the bulk of their shopping. This is where signage accuracy, product availability, and ease of locating it are most important. Unfortunately, most of the problems in promo pricing are again in attempting to carefully balance merchandising decisions with a need to accelerate sales and those decisions are not typically made at store level. This is evidenced by the retail nightmare of changing something Monday, to change it back Wednesday, only to change it even again on Friday! Communicating to your team why prices frequently change, and not allowing it to have an impact in your general sales approach is key. In ALL cases the customer experience should be about the entire store and all the product available. I once had a Director of Stores say to a room filled with store managers and district managers "Who are you to decide what people get a chance to look at and not look at? It is not fair if you are not giving your customer every opportunity to find an item and make a purchase!"
A good example of a company that has proven that you can succeed if you manage your sales flow right is Victoria's Secret. At any given time throughout the year, their stores are busy. They are fully stocked, clean, and have enough staff available to give great customer service. They have a Semi-Annual Sale, that in some malls will bring so much traffic that nearby stores in the mall staff up accordingly! Their silent salespeople SCREAM to all their customers that the Semi-Annual sale is in progress. Their communication with their teams however never changes. It is never about the sale inside the store. The customer service and interactions are the same, just more of them. If the environment in your store stays with the assumption your customer wants the best product available (aka VALUE), you will be able to save yourself from getting sucked into the a vicious cycle of profit killing sales with low margins.
Your silent salespeople are key to build excitement, get people in the door, and answer "how much is this?" without your team needing to be there. However, once they are in place, it is up to your team to build a complete sale and provide a great "Full Store Experience". Nike and IKEA are prime examples of companies that understand that a great customer experience goes way deeper than picking an item off of a rack and going to the register to pay for it!
This kind of marketing is extremely powerful, and can make or break any business. This kind of marketing must be both delivered appropriately, and communicated just as effectively. There are really 3 basic categories of sale a store will run through - 1. Full Price - New seasonal launch, most goods are full price. 2. Promotional - Usually shortly into new season as sales start to indicate which goods are meeting forecasts. Items are then placed on a temporary (Promotional) sale price to accelerate sales. 3. Liquidation - End of season. Deep discounts are offered to rapidly move through unsold merchandise. As is evident, the categories typically run through a seasonal life-cycle.
Success comes in making this balance effectively. Most stores nail the full price mode, as their stores are full, the product is fresh, merchandising is fresh, and the employees are excited over new product. Promotional and Liquidation is where the problems generally begin.
Promotional pricing can get a little tricky. Most customers have trained themselves to wait for this phase to do the bulk of their shopping. This is where signage accuracy, product availability, and ease of locating it are most important. Unfortunately, most of the problems in promo pricing are again in attempting to carefully balance merchandising decisions with a need to accelerate sales and those decisions are not typically made at store level. This is evidenced by the retail nightmare of changing something Monday, to change it back Wednesday, only to change it even again on Friday! Communicating to your team why prices frequently change, and not allowing it to have an impact in your general sales approach is key. In ALL cases the customer experience should be about the entire store and all the product available. I once had a Director of Stores say to a room filled with store managers and district managers "Who are you to decide what people get a chance to look at and not look at? It is not fair if you are not giving your customer every opportunity to find an item and make a purchase!"
A good example of a company that has proven that you can succeed if you manage your sales flow right is Victoria's Secret. At any given time throughout the year, their stores are busy. They are fully stocked, clean, and have enough staff available to give great customer service. They have a Semi-Annual Sale, that in some malls will bring so much traffic that nearby stores in the mall staff up accordingly! Their silent salespeople SCREAM to all their customers that the Semi-Annual sale is in progress. Their communication with their teams however never changes. It is never about the sale inside the store. The customer service and interactions are the same, just more of them. If the environment in your store stays with the assumption your customer wants the best product available (aka VALUE), you will be able to save yourself from getting sucked into the a vicious cycle of profit killing sales with low margins.
Your silent salespeople are key to build excitement, get people in the door, and answer "how much is this?" without your team needing to be there. However, once they are in place, it is up to your team to build a complete sale and provide a great "Full Store Experience". Nike and IKEA are prime examples of companies that understand that a great customer experience goes way deeper than picking an item off of a rack and going to the register to pay for it!
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