I wanted to share a promotion that my staff had while I was at the June Retail Success Summit. I borrowed the idea from someone that said she had a “While the cat is away the mice will play” promotion while she was away from her store. I asked my employees if they would like to plan a similar event while I was at the Summit and that I would trust them to handle it and didn’t want to know anything about it.
It was a huge success. They had a 237% gain over last year.
Here are some of the things they did:
- Wore little glittery mouse ears with a pink bow the whole time I was gone
- Sent out a daily e-mail about the deal of the day (borrowed idea from the 12 days of Christmas)
- Had a big poster for the customers to sign and leave me a message
- Created a poster with a thermometer that they filled in every day to show how they were progressing
- Asked neighboring businesses to send their customers over and gave those customers an extra 10% off. Plus, the business that sent the most people received a gift certificate
- Raffled off a gift basket worth $300 (all clearance items)
- Held a daily raffle for 4 gift certificates ($25 each)
I gave them a hefty sales goal and if they met it, I’d give them each a day off with pay, and they met their goal. They had a blast and were really proud of their event. The customers also had a blast.
I had a friend drive by and they told me it was like a feeding frenzy and the parking lot was a mob scene. I am sure that created some buzz around town, plus it brought in some new customers that wanted to see what was going on!
What a fun idea! we especially love the Deal of the Day email, the reciprocal program with neighboring businesses, the message poster for the boss and the mouse ears. Gosh, we guess I loved all the ideas. Please us know if you try a Boss is Away sale. It sounds like a hoot!