If you’ve been in business for a while,
whether it’s fashion, accessories or another product, you’re sure to have loads
of samples hiding in cupboards. Items such as wedding dresses have a sample
sale every year to make room for new stock, and the samples are the dresses that
customers have come in to try on, before ordering their size. Other items may
be jewellery designs that you wanted to try out but never finished or perfected
later on. When the discount’s right, customers will flock to buy these. A
sample sale is a great way of clearing out your clutter, while still recouping
you some costs.
Branding
Without adequate branding, your sample sale
is going nowhere. It takes a lot to get customers travelling just for a sample
sale, and so you’ll need to be advertising every day in the run-up to your event.
Make sure that your adverts are clear. What day it’s on, where it’s being held,
and what customers should expect. Putting up pieces for people to see and even
reserve online is a great marketing tool, but make sure that they have to
collect it in-store on the day! This means that they are much more likely to
stay around and buy something more. You need to make sure all of your branding
has a consistent look to it, as this will make your customers take you much
more seriously. Try and avoid the red and white ‘SALE!’ signs and go for something
a little more stylish instead.
Big Discounts
Customers aren’t going to get excited about
your sample sale unless you are promising them big discounts. A sample sale isn’t
about making a profit but recouping the costs of the materials and some of the
manufacturing costs. It’s also about
simply making more room for new stock, and that means selling items. It also means
that you should be selling items at wholesale prices or below. Your customers
are going to want to see an advert for ‘up to 75% off’ as this is something
that they are going to be willing to travel for.
Discounts for Bulk Buys
To increase sales even more, it’s a good
idea to add on an extra discount for those buying more items. For example, an
extra 25% off if 10 items are bought or ‘buy 4 get a 5th free’. This will help
to encourage the customers to buy more, even if initially they weren’t going
to. After all, you want this stock gone by the end of the sample sale. Make sure
that all of your items are clearly labelled with the before and after price as
people love to know exactly how much they are saving. The same goes for any
bulk deals you have, make sure that there are signs around the shop clearly
stating this.
Finish Products
Do you have a few dozen items that are
partially complete that are just lying around? Projects that you started but never
got around to finishing, or that you decided to go in another direction with?
For products such as clothes and accessories, now is the time to finish these
items with the materials you have and to sell them at wholesale prices. If not,
these pieces will either continue to languish in your workshop or they will be
put in the bin. If you can make something that is sellable from them, then now
is the perfect opportunity to do it.
Choose a Suitable Venue
Once you have all your products ready for a
sample sale, all you need is to find the perfect venue. Due to the number of
items you could be left with in your warehouse, you might want to rent out a
venue for your sample sale that allows people a good area to browse around and
that won’t seem too cluttered. There are a wide variety of sample sale venues
for hire in London, so finding one shouldn’t be too difficult to do. Make sure
that it is easily accessible to your customer base, as no one will want to have
to travel too far if they can help it. It will also need to be signed
correctly. If you’ve never held anything here before, then people are going to
need reassurance that they’ve arrived at the right place. Make sure that you give
out detailed directions along with pictures on social media and to your email
list so that they know exactly where to go.
Have an Online Sale
While you’re sure to sell loads during your
sample sale, there’s still bound to be a few items left that weren’t snapped
up. This is the time to let your customers from further afield get in on the
action! Putting the remaining items on your online shop and sending it to your email
list with an extra special discount code is a great way to wrap up the last of
your items – and those that couldn’t make it on the day are sure to be
grateful! Make sure you advertise that you might be doing this in advance so
that your customers are keeping their eyes peeled for all those discount buys!
Don’t keep the items online or too long – making sure that everyone knows that
there is a firm end date to the online sale will encourage them to get buying
straight away.
A sample sale is a stressful event to
organise, but it’s ultimately really rewarding. While it only happens once or
twice a year, there’s a lot of work that goes into it – so you need to ensure
that you market it well so that you see the benefit of it and your customers
leave with some great bargains. Don’t forget to take some time to yourself afterwards
to relax before you start the job of restocking your shelves with new items
again.
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