- Announce your sale or special promotion as soon as a customer makes contact with your store. In a retail environment, place a sign in the window promoting your sale and ensure your sales staff personally mentions the sale to every client. On an online store, consider a special banner or pop-up box that give sales details to website visitors. The goal is to make sure customers are knowledgeable about your sale from the beginning of their shopping experience. Your announcement should encourage increased sales and provide a sense of urgency that your sale prices and offers may not be available on the customer's next visit.
- Ensure the long-term success of your company by adequately staffing your company to handle increases in volume due to your sale. Part of the objective of your sale is to entice new customers to try your products and services. You want to put your best image on display, even if you are swamped with increased business to make sure new customers turn into long-term clients. Consider offering overtime, flextime or using temporary help to cover any shortfall in anticipated staffing during your sales.
- Measure the impact of your sales initiatives. Measure increases in promotional sales, overall sales and increases in customer traffic. By measuring the results of your sales, you can help shape future sales promotions. Consider surveying customers after your sale to find out what they liked and disliked about your sales campaign and about their shopping experience. You can use this customer contact to offer discounts on future purchases to spur repeat business.
- Offer sales promotions that provide future rewards based on current purchases. Consider offering discounts such as a dollar amount off a future purchase if a customer buys a specified amount that day. This type of sale drives purchases on higher priced or minimally discounted items. Additionally, you can limit your exposure by limiting the amount of time the future reward is valid. Many customers will not return in the specified time period to redeem their reward, so you reap the benefit of increased sales without a large dip in future profits.
