It may only be the last week of October, but the holidays are right around the corner. More than ever, students and parents will be interested in your retail offerings for possible gift ideas, so it's the perfect time to run a holiday sale. A holiday sale is a limited time event that you offer at your school where students and parents can buy gear at heavily discounted rates. This Tuesday I'll be going into more detail about how to master the holiday sale at my Town Hall Call (RSVP here), but here are 3 quick tips to get you started:
1. Take a look at your existing retail inventory to see what you may have an oversupply of. A holiday clearance will help you move your overstock very quickly. Just be careful not to heavily discount items that you were selling at full retail the week before, because you don't want students to feel like they got a bad deal or set them up to "wait for the sale" next year. If you have any old inventory you'd just like to get rid of: price it to move.
2. It's also a good idea to mix in a few new items when having your holiday sale. You can buy a few big ticket items to display (such as a wave master) for customers to order.
3. Offer a great new design (for a shirt or sweatshirt) to debut at the holiday sale. You may want to order less than you think you will sell to create a sense of urgency during the event. Unless you run pre-order sales for a new design to guarantee purchase, it is better to have less than you need while trying to clear out your other inventory.
There are a lot more tips for getting the most out of your holiday sales, so I hope you'll tune in this Tuesday, November 4th to hear more. Joining me will be Kathy Faust, whose Holiday Sales have been known to bring in $10,000 in a single day.
By Kevin