Great Ways to Create Special Sales Events During Your Slow Season
Tip #1 – Create a calendar of events to boost sales in your slow season.
The best way to get through a slow season is to prepare for it. Take a look at your previous sales year and create a promotions calendar around the weeks or months with slower sales. Planning ahead gives you the time needed to source products, advertise to customers, and gather promotional materials and display decorations. Partnering with product vendors can also save you time and money since they may already have the needed promotional materials on hand.
Tip #2 – Create your own holiday and sales events.
We all know the major holidays that will bring in customers and drive sales up but what about when these special days end. This is the time to get inspired and create your own holiday that could become a yearly tradition. Having trouble coming up with ideas, hold an employee contest. Your employees will jump at the opportunity to bring something fun and imaginative to the table. Anything goes when you are creating your own holiday. For example, your store can host a ‘Lazy Days of Summer Sales Event’ that can be dedicated to one-pot inspired meal ideas. Set up displays that showcase easy-to-prepare beef, chicken and pork ideas with recipes printed for customers to being home with their goods. Also, don’t forget the benefits of cross-merchandising and impulse sale opportunities. Take advantage of the kids being out of school. Create an end- cap with healthy pre- packaged snack items such as granola bars and fruit and place them near lunch meats and cheeses.
Tip #3 – Partner with local charities and organizations.
Many charities and organizations have a need to collect personal and household items. You can team up with them and allow your store to be a drop off location for your customers to make donations. You can provide your customers with special discounts on the day of the donation event or have a portion of their purchases go to the chosen charity. This not only helps you to increase your sales but also builds credibility within your community.
Tip #4 – Host Cooking Demonstrations and Post it on Your Social Media Pages.
You can also consider hosting some demonstrations during times that sales appear slow. Show your customers some fun ways to shake up their grilling season and educate them on the correct temperatures to cook a steak. Creating a buzz around an upcoming event will draw customers into the store and drive up sales. This is also a great way to boost your social media presence. Post pictures and customer reviews of how well the events were and let them know what’s coming up next.
Tip #5 – Surprise, it’s a Pop-Up Sale.
Increase the amount of times that your customers frequent your store by holding pop-up sales. You can do this once a month without advertising when the event will be. Customers will visit more often in the hopes that they have arrived on the day that a sale is taking place. You can allow your customers that follow you on social media to take advantage of limited time special sales offers by posting the dates of upcoming sales. This can include items in your inventory that you may want to push or new items that will be coming into the store.
In short, following these simple tips can get you ahead of the slow season and prepare you for a steady stream of sales. Harvest Food Distributors has a team of Field Marketing Representatives that can also assist you with these efforts. We also have Sales Representatives nationwide to help with your protein ordering needs. Please visit our website to see if we have a location nearest you.
Contact a Sales Representative today for help boosting your sales!