So! LA Times reports "Big chains get a back-to-school revenue boost." AND they attribute that boost to in-store promotions. So, if using promotions can give big chains a boost (3.6%) that sets them to thinking positively about Christmas, you can too. And if you've run dry of ideas or the promotions you ran last year were only ho-hum, maybe you need some new ideas. Or maybe you need to revive some of the ideas small retailers used last decade or the decade before that to boost sales. And maybe it's time to do some reading to get some new ideas--or just get inspired and motivated. Yes, I'm suggesting A Retailer's Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions (http://budurl.com/RetailersGuide).
What about letting marketing savvy-authors help you boost sales with a workshop, seminar, or reading promotion. Ask them to use their contact lists and social networking skills to bring new customers into your store?
Get details and ideas on a host of other sales producers, too. Signs. Utilizing dead space in your store. Creative events. Point-of-purchase promos. Ideas for your display windows. Contests. Building your lists in-store . Using them effectively. Reward cards. Layaway. Gift certificates. New gift registry ideas (see the last post on this blog, too!). Catalogs. Gift-with-purchase ideas. Parking lot ideas. Cross-promotion. Home parties. Are you tired yet?
And while you're at it, up your social networking skills, too. Check http://howtodoitfrugally.com/retailers_books.htm for more retailing ideas.
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Carolyn Howard-Johnson's FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques launched at the National Stationery Show at Javits Center. Because she is the author of the multi award-winning how-to books for writers,The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success, retailers will also find essentials of writing for blogs, Web sites, and newsletters on this blog. She is the author of an award-winning novel, This Is the Place; and other fiction and poetry. She blogs on better writing at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog. Find her tweeting for retailers at @frugalretailing . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use this little green widget to let them know about it:
Friday, August 31, 2012
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Gift Registires Not Just for Brides! Try Back to School!
In my A Retailer's Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotion, I include gift registries as a kind of in-store promotion that shouldn't be neglected. But now the LA Times business section reports in their continuing retail column about a trend toward encouraging customers to use gift registries for back-to-school needs.
So, OK. I admit I didn't think to include this particular use of registries in that chapter! But now that I have my thinking cap on, what a concept this is.
It works for high school kids. Is Staples missing a bet? Is your store missing a bet? They need pens, computers, backbacks, etc.
And sporting goods stores sells backbacks, no? What else could parents and students add to the list from those stores that includes a top-of-the-line backback.
And what about college students going off to school. They'll need everything from linens to microwaves. What's in your store you could suggest?
And, no, you don't need a big computerized system. You could do a display with back-to-school needs. Use signs to suggest your registry. And when someone likes the idea, make up an index card file for your customer's wish list. Maybe offer free shipping to the college of their choice with orders over a certain amount.
And yeah, this could be done for your online store. If you have one, you're a tech wizard!
What other kinds of gift or essential-needs occasions could you tout to your customers with this simple kind of registry--the kind we used in the 80s? Leave your ideas in the comments on this blog. You may not think that's smart competition, but if you do, it's obvious you haven't read up on the value of cross promotion or the zen of great marketing in my retail books. (-:
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Carolyn Howard-Johnson's FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques launched at the National Stationery Show at Javits Center. Because she is the author of the multi award-winning how-to books for writers,The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success, retailers will also find essentials of writing for blogs, Web sites, and newsletters on this blog. She is the author of an award-winning novel, This Is the Place; and other fiction and poetry. She blogs on better writing at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog. Find her tweeting for retailers at @frugalretailing . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use this little green widget to let them know about it:
So, OK. I admit I didn't think to include this particular use of registries in that chapter! But now that I have my thinking cap on, what a concept this is.
It works for high school kids. Is Staples missing a bet? Is your store missing a bet? They need pens, computers, backbacks, etc.
And sporting goods stores sells backbacks, no? What else could parents and students add to the list from those stores that includes a top-of-the-line backback.
And what about college students going off to school. They'll need everything from linens to microwaves. What's in your store you could suggest?
And, no, you don't need a big computerized system. You could do a display with back-to-school needs. Use signs to suggest your registry. And when someone likes the idea, make up an index card file for your customer's wish list. Maybe offer free shipping to the college of their choice with orders over a certain amount.
And yeah, this could be done for your online store. If you have one, you're a tech wizard!
What other kinds of gift or essential-needs occasions could you tout to your customers with this simple kind of registry--the kind we used in the 80s? Leave your ideas in the comments on this blog. You may not think that's smart competition, but if you do, it's obvious you haven't read up on the value of cross promotion or the zen of great marketing in my retail books. (-:
-----
Carolyn Howard-Johnson's FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques launched at the National Stationery Show at Javits Center. Because she is the author of the multi award-winning how-to books for writers,The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success, retailers will also find essentials of writing for blogs, Web sites, and newsletters on this blog. She is the author of an award-winning novel, This Is the Place; and other fiction and poetry. She blogs on better writing at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog. Find her tweeting for retailers at @frugalretailing . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use this little green widget to let them know about it:
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Learning from Gap, Adidas, Nike, Target Other Environmentaly Conscious Retailers
Not to put a too much of a commercial twist on it, but how can other retailers--no matter what you sell--follow the model being set by Timberland, North Face, Adidas, Gap, and lots of other big guys? They're making eco chic according to Time magazine and it's an example worth copying.
More than 60 big name brands and retailers pilots a program for apparel makers. They assign a Higgs Index to the eco friendliness of clothing. It's all voluntary. Anyone can join. Anyone can apply to get a rating for their clothing item. It was only last week my workout spot (Total Woman) featured a rack of yoga clothing that is eco friendly. They were expensive but also stylish, soft to the touch, and wickable.
I like both the idea and the inclusiveness of the thing. It's great marketing. Should prove profitable--for the businesses and the planet. Everyone wins. So don't we need this for other industries, too. What retail organization could help rate independent stores and chains? What organization could offer (Zagat style?) ratings on paper or home cleaning products?
So far the US government has nothing to do with this program. Thus there's no penalty for a low score and no roses to pin on the noses of those who rate high.
Well, OK. Rating high gives a company (vendor, retail store, whatever) bragging rights. And maybe a write-up in in Time?
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Carolyn Howard-Johnson's FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques launched at the National Stationery Show at Javits Center. Because she is the author of the multi award-winning how-to books for writers,The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success, retailers will also find essentials of writing for blogs, Web sites, and newsletters on this blog. She is the author of an award-winning novel, This Is the Place; and other fiction and poetry. She blogs on better writing at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog. Find her tweeting for retailers at @frugalretailing . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use this little green widget to let them know about it:
More than 60 big name brands and retailers pilots a program for apparel makers. They assign a Higgs Index to the eco friendliness of clothing. It's all voluntary. Anyone can join. Anyone can apply to get a rating for their clothing item. It was only last week my workout spot (Total Woman) featured a rack of yoga clothing that is eco friendly. They were expensive but also stylish, soft to the touch, and wickable.
I like both the idea and the inclusiveness of the thing. It's great marketing. Should prove profitable--for the businesses and the planet. Everyone wins. So don't we need this for other industries, too. What retail organization could help rate independent stores and chains? What organization could offer (Zagat style?) ratings on paper or home cleaning products?
So far the US government has nothing to do with this program. Thus there's no penalty for a low score and no roses to pin on the noses of those who rate high.
Well, OK. Rating high gives a company (vendor, retail store, whatever) bragging rights. And maybe a write-up in in Time?
-----
Carolyn Howard-Johnson's FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques launched at the National Stationery Show at Javits Center. Because she is the author of the multi award-winning how-to books for writers,The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success, retailers will also find essentials of writing for blogs, Web sites, and newsletters on this blog. She is the author of an award-winning novel, This Is the Place; and other fiction and poetry. She blogs on better writing at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog. Find her tweeting for retailers at @frugalretailing . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use this little green widget to let them know about it:
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