Small Business Marketing Ideas and Tips

Clearing Excess Stock – how about bonus deals

Clearing excess stock is a major headache for those in retail & wholesale. Cash is tied up and we need to free it to buy in the new seasons ranges, hence

Clear excess stock - use bonus deals

the original idea for end of season sales. Something I have been watching here in my neck of the woods is the ‘Buy One Get One XX% Off’ ( BOGO), or ‘Buy One Get One Free’, and it sounds like it’s wide spread throughout the world.

According to a recent article in the Globe and Mail, which mentioned an (undisclosed) article in The Journal of Marketing, customers are spending large on these types of deals. Even when 2 items are not required the deal just sounds too good to many shoppers and they just have to buy.

Now… if this works…it is a win-win for us that are trying to clear excess stock!. We get cash in and clear hopefully more volume. Of course my proviso is the conditions and discounts that have to be offered to get the best buy in from the customer. Is 25% off the second item enough of an incentive? Mostly it seems here that the large chains are offering Buy One Get One 50% Off. Now, as a small independant buisness owner I hate the thought of following the big boys, but this may be something that we can use to our benefit.

Note that the offer conditions are important. To make it work to our advantage the second item has to be of equal or lessor value.

Clearing excess stock without too much of a margin loss

So how good is your math? Say the customer wants 2 items at $100 ($200), so the price would be $150 after 50% off the second item. The total discount in percentage terms is 25%off. The real winner is when the first item is $100 and the second lower, say $50 ($150 total at full retail) the price is now $125 only a 16.7% total discount.

The word is that customers love this type of deal, it seems to work really well with FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) such as groceries, fruit and veg etc where perish-ability is a big issue for businesses.

But how about your business? Do you think this could be a good strategy to clear excess stock?

I would love to hear if you have tried it and it it work! So please comment.

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Advertising not working? Maybe your target market is not what you think

Advertising not working? check your customers demographics. Analysing data is not the easiest thing to do for most of us, but

Analyse your customers

when it comes to our businesses it may mean the turning point to growth and profitability. Black Label, an edgy fashion company set out to supply fashion to trendy young things but discovered this was not their customer base.. Then they tailored their business on the needs of the customers, not the owners gut feelings . A great lesson for us all.

Advertising not working? Maybe your target market is not what you think

“It was like, ‘Holy crap, our customers aren’t 22-year-olds who are rebellious and against ‘The Man,'” Bi says. “Our customers are The Man.”

Although Blank Label was targeted towards hipsters, artists, and other creative types, Bi explains that the majority of Blank Label’s customers were actually well-off white collar workers in their late 30s. Many were attorneys. They were the type of consumers who had previously been shopping at Brooks Brothers, not Urban Outfitters.

“We had a hard decision to make,” Bi recalls. “Do we try to still be this fun, rebellious brand? Or do we serve the customers who are letting us run our business?”

They chose the latter. For the next six months, Bi and Wong entered into marketing limbo. They revamped the site, and reworked its messaging. Since 89 percent of their customers bought shirts based on fit—not style—the founders re-focused their offerings to focus less on flashy design, and more on comfort.

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Of course not to be overlooked here is the old ‘never judge a book by it’s cover’ adage. Gut feel only goes so far, analysing your sales, looking at the demographics of your database can throw up some interesting results. And if you are not on the shop floor then encouraging ground up reporting by your staff on who your customers are is an important step in deciding how and when to advertise.. Then it’s up to you to supply a message that is meaningful to those customers. You may get a surprise and maybe this will help get you out of the advertising not working rut.

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