After long months of howling winds and hibernation, spring arrives, complete with balmy breezes, bird songs, and nature’s invitation to step outside and enjoy the warmer temps. As a retailer, you need to start thinking about what you can do to encourage revived consumers to set foot in your store once they’ve emerged into the spring sunshine.
There are several ways to prep your store for spring, including:
- performing a deep cleaning;
- separating old inventory that you need to deeply discount;
- updating your color palette feature the refreshing hues of spring; and
- making sure employees are up-to-date with new products and promotions.
You also need to think about how this invigorating season plays into your marketing and sales strategy. Here are a few ways to make the most of spring, so you can clean out old inventory and boost sales.
Sidewalk Sales
When the weather is pleasant, and people are keen to get out and enjoy it, you have a golden opportunity to entice shoppers into your store. This is the time for sidewalk sales that catch the eye of passing drivers and encourage foot traffic to stop and shop. Whether you showcase new items for spring and summer on outdoor racks or you feature deeply discounted stock that you’re trying to clear out to make way for new merchandise, sidewalk sales are a great way to bring in spring shoppers. Be sure to check local ordinances before you have a sidewalk sale. Adding colorful signage in key points in town can help to draw customers.
Spring Holidays
Depending on the region where you own and operate your store, you could take advantage of spring weather as early as March, which allows you to capitalize on holidays like St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, and Mother’s Day, all of which could be surprisingly big money makers with the right marketing strategy. If you haven’t done much in the past, now is the year to shape up.
National Retail Federation (NFR) surveys showed that, in 2016, St. Patrick’s Day generated $4.3 billion in retail sales, Easter brought in $17.3 billion, and Mother’s Day blew them both away with $21.4 billion in sales. If you want a piece of that pie after the slow down in spending that generally marks the beginning of the calendar year, it’s wise to get on board with decorating your store and coming up with suitable promotions to draw in consumers.
Spring-Themed Sales
It’s true that there are plenty of spring holidays to capitalize on, but if you don’t want to wait, you’ll be happy to know that there are many ways to use the season itself as the impetus for sales. You could try popular springtime promotions like Spring Fling or Spring Cleaning sales, or add March Madness to your annual event calendar if your customers are sports enthusiasts (or you simply want to cast a wider net).
Or you could get creative with a Showers and Flowers sale, where your shop is raining discounts and sales are blooming. You could place coupons in plastic eggs for every customer who enters. They open to egg to discover their discount.
There’s no end to the many ways retail stores can make the most of spring with inventive sales ideas.
If you are a customer, who would love to update your store, shop our website, Specialty Store Services, for all your retail store needs. If you have a question that you would like answered immediately, you can Live Chat, or phone us at 800-999-0771.