Ok so the big day is almost here. Then what? You have one mission: to minimize returns to grow sales. Most stores have a storewide sale from 10-20% off the week after Christmas. Here are seven tips to grow your retail sales after Christmas:
1) When customers arrive at your counter with their recipt and a return, greet them with, “Good morning. The whole store is 20% off, would you like to look around first?”
Even if they tell you they only want another size, still mention your sale. Look at this as an opportunity to get a second item; not to have your employee give them 20% off a return. You can tell the customer your sale “makes their gift go farther.”
2) Make sure every return is immedately tagged. You don’t want to lose sales because someone threw it into a big pile to “get to” at the end of the day. Price it and get it back on the sales floor with the rest of the items quickly.
3) Make sure everyone knows how to do all types of returns, sale items, closeouts, layaways, checks , etc -employees and customers don’t want to wait for a manager. Patience is gone this time of year for everyone.
4) Don’t get into it with someone doing a return against your policy. It isn’t worth the aggrevation – give them a refund if there is any way possible. Remember our goal is to BUILD sales, not antogonize customers. Battling over a $20 sale item ruins your day more than the customer’s – move on and build sales.
5)Greet people as soon as they come in and let them know what is on sale with, “Good morning. The whole store is 20% off.” You want to interrupt them before they get to the counter wanting their money back. The goal is for them to, “Look around.” Even if they tell you that’s what they want, you can counter with, “We can certainly do that for you as well, we just don’t want you to have to stand in line twice.”
6) Hustle. You want to touch as many people as possible. Now is not the time to let someone lazily size a rack or lazily hang merch. or lazily do a return. Now is the time to actively get onto the floor and minimize those returns. If employees are too slow, customers will give up, get angry and just say, “give me my money.”
7) Get them on your mailing list so they can signup for special deals throughout the year. If you have to, post a sign at your register like this one for one company’s “Buzz Club” e-marketing list.
I used to run retail apparel stores and always looked forward to the final week as frosting on the cake. By proactively deciding to grow sales you will have a better mindset and your crew will keep from feeling overwhelmed. Encouraging people to buy more is easy when you are already offering discounts. Finally, getting their information now will come in handy during 2009.
Good selling!
