Samantha and Susie ... On Sale!
By Laurie Karzen and Charlotte R. Morrill -- Gifts & Decorative Accessories, 1/1/2002
Most of our stories are about problems, but this story is about a pair of retailers who know exactly what they are doing! Samantha and Susie own a gift store called Serendipity in the small town of Southern Slope. They are clever, creative, organized retailers who make a profit every year. They are good at a lot of things, but they are fabulous at running sales. To some people sales aren't much fun, but Samantha and Susie have a wonderful time with theirs.In today's world, it's hard to create retailing magic when department stores run almost continuous sales and manufacturers offer regular warehouse closeouts. An 'On Sale' aura permeates the market, creating an atmosphere of 'been there, done that.'
That's not the case at Serendipity. The most important thing about its sales is that they don't happen very often. Samantha and Susie hold two big sales a year: One, in late summer, is held to make space for holiday inventory. The other is their annual Happy New Year Sale, held right after Christmas. They complement these two major events with two tiny sales held over a holiday weekend or on a special day like April Fool's Day or Groundhog Day.
Setting the Rules
Shoppers at Serendipity are notified that there are two major sales a year and that there are no - absolutely no - discounts at any other time. This policy allows Samantha and Susie the freedom to run their let's-put-some-zap-into-our-cash-flow events on their own schedule. Customers always know when the next major sale will be held because the Serendipity Sale Policy sign is printed in sky blue and framed in bright yellow (the store colors are sky blue and yellow), and it hangs on the wall right behind the main cash desk.
Customers eagerly await Serendipity's two big annual sales, because Samantha and Susie really know how to create retailing magic. The magic begins at a staff meeting where they give an extra slice of pizza to the employee who comes up with the best theme for the next sale. That slice is getting harder and harder to earn, as Serendipity's customers have already been treated to a Midnight Sale, a Pink Sale, a Grandmother's Sale, a Raffle Sale, a White Sale, a Little Red Wagon Sale, and a Gone Fishin' Sale. The most recent success was an Orange Ribbon Sale, in which every sale item sported a fluffy orange bow!
Making a List
Samantha always keeps a list of the items that will go on sale. It includes:
- Stock that is dog-eared and shopworn
- Overstocked items (like the 143 sky blue teddy bears that Susie bought and couldn't sell)
- Merchandise that has been in the store for over a year
- Seasonal merchandise that was trendy last season
- The last one of anything (S and S know that one of anything doesn't sell)
- Flawed items like a laughing checkbook that could only whisper its laugh
- Items that simply did not sell (like the beautiful wastebasket that was too expensive for a wastebasket)
- Stock that they are sick of (like the musical napkin rings that blew off the shelves for years until everyone in Southern Slope had one.)
- One fabulous teaser (S and S choose one popular item for each sale and mark it way down. It is always something that needs to be reordered. Early customers get a good bargain, but S and S don't lose out because there are so few to begin with. The teaser guarantees that the first day of the sale will be well attended.)
All sales at Serendipity have a clearly defined beginning and end. Each sale includes two weekends, and runs from ten days to two weeks. The dates appear on all sale signs and flyers. The message is clear: 'Better come in and buy it now, because it will either be gone or be more expensive later.'
Every item on sale is marked with a huge 'Sale' tag (orange for the Orange Sale, pink for the Pink Sale, etc.) right next to its original price tag so that buyers can get that immediate bargain-finding glow. No 'percentage off' tags are used. Doing the math to figure a percentage is work, and Susie and Samantha don't want to make their customers work during their sales.
Branding the Theme
The sale's theme is used in every possible way. For the Orange Ribbon Sale there was a big orange bow tied around the Serendipity sign above the door, and an orange bow on the front door handle. The staff wore orange ribbons in their hair and orange T-shirts. The table displays featured piles of fragrant pomanders made from oranges pricked with cloves and rolled in cinnamon. A fresh orange was tucked into every Orange Sale bag. The sale signs and flyers they made for the event were all orange and white, as was the Orange Sale flag standing by the entrance.
To save money, Susie bought cheap, unprinted orange bags from a jobber rather than using Serendipity's more expensive printed totes. She used bag stuffers instead of a costly mailer to publicize the sale. Personal notes (in orange envelopes) went to special customers, inviting them to the Night-Before-the-Sale-Sale. Press coverage was guaranteed when Susie sent an orange pomander to every member of the local press.
At sale time there are always lots of shopping baskets stacked by the front door. Susie and Samantha used florist's spray paint to color the baskets last year. The bright orange baskets were so popular that Samantha put them on sale the last afternoon. She sold every one.
When the store closed after the last day of the sale, Susie, Samantha, and the staff boxed up the leftover items to send to Goodwill, cleaned the store and put their feet up while they made their sale evaluation lists. One staffer wrote, 'I never want to see orange again!'
But by the time Halloween rolled around, the aversion to orange was forgotten. Which was a good thing because children all over Southern Slope carried those orange Serendipity baskets on their trick-or-treat rounds from house to house.
Laurie Karzen of Just Whistle! consults for retailers, e-tailers, and manufacturers. She can be reached at (510) 654-4567 or through her Web site at www.JustWhistleOnline.com. Charlotte R. Morrill designs for The Chatsworth Collection and other manufacturers. Her e-mail address is crm@cbmcrm.com.
