For businesses, holding a sale offers the ability to draw customers to your business by creating a sense of hype and excitement. Customers love the chance to snap up a deal, and discounted prices can definitely help to enhance your business’ visibility significantly.
Sales can also have practical benefits; for example, if you are currently storing products that are not selling at full price, then a sale can clear these items once and for all and free the space for other purposes.
If you’re hoping to enjoy all the benefits of hosting a sale in the near future, here are a few helpful tips that can help to ensure all goes well for your business.
1. Avoid the major sales periods
Big sales periods – such as Black Friday – seem a natural starting point if you’re looking to hold your first sale, but can actually limit your potential to profit. After all, if every business is holding a sale at a specific time, then standing out in the crowd becomes even more challenging. By instead choosing to hold a sale at a time that suits your business, and when your competitors may still be charging full price, you’re more likely to see positive results from the event.
2. Use the reason for your sale to influence price
Sale prices should, obviously, be discounted; but how low can you go? Well, it depends. If you’re holding a sale primarily to spark the interest of customers, and potentially attract new business, then you need to cut the price enough, but not too much. You still want to make sure you’re still profiting on every item that you sell.
If your primary goal is to clear stock, then it might be worth selling at a lower price. However, if you really need the space, you may sell potentially at a loss, though the latter option should always be a last resort.
3. Prepare for the rush
Sales are an opportunity to grow your customer base significantly, but to continue a relationship with those new customers, you’ll need to be able to keep track of their information efficiently; CRM software is very helpful for allowing you to manage and organize information effectively and – most importantly during a sale period – rapidly. What’s more, think about staffing levels; a higher volume of customers will mean more orders, so you’ll need to make sure you have the staff available to meet this demand.
4. Heavily promote the sale
If your sale is to be a success, then people need to know about it. Promoting the sale should be a top priority; specific sale-only marketing and SEO campaigns are strongly advisable. Also make sure that you contact your existing customers to remind them of your sale. It’s also worth looking on social media to find pages that advertise and promote sales and good deals; there are plenty around, and posting to these will allow you to access sale-hunters who may one day become long-term customers of your business.