Ever wish you could come up with a good, quick, polite answer to the perennial question, “Do you have sales?”?
My reply (which isn’t that good) is We have sales every day! If someone hasn’t immediately snatched an item up at our already-incredible prices, we mark it down [showing the customer a tag with our hand-written markdown on it] so there’s always something on sale, every rack, every size!
Here’s a great way to approach this question, from the Trader Joe’s site (my emphasis):
Sale is a four-letter word to us. We have low prices, every day. No coupons, no membership cards, no discounts. You won’t find any glitzy promotions or couponing wars at our stores. If it makes you feel any better, think of it as all our items are on sale, day in and day out.
How would you adapt that to your situation?
Auntie Kate The Resale Expert 
[…] For lots more about how to use price reductions to increase traffic, sales, and the shop’s word-of-mouth appeal, here are the Auntie Kate posts about markdowns. Including Ever wish you could come up with a good, quick, polite answer to the perennial question, “Do you… […]
Of course we have sales. This is a retail business we’re in, right? If you don’t believe in sales look at what JosABanks men’s stores is doing (successfully).
We use to have a simple quarterly end of season sale where the whole store was 20% off. What we discovered was that we were still left with a ton of out of season clothes to donate. So last year we started having a monthly sale where we would discount two color tags 50% and 70%. Yep, 70% off! These monthly sales have been a HUGE success (except for our donation partners…sorry).
I can hear you saying now…OMG 70% OFF! Keep in mind that the 70% off items we’re heading for the donate bags anyway so why not sell them at crazy low prices! Everyone wins. We see a better cash flow and the consignor gets at least a little something for their items that would have otherwise been donated (we also add 10% for consignors who use their credit in-store).
We got the idea from the JosABank men’s clothing TV commercials. Their sales were so over the top that they have been a huge success and have basically keep the store chain in business! I mean really, buy one suit and get TWO FREE!
We believe that in this economy you have to shock the consumer with you crazy offers and our monthly 70% off sales have done just that. Our business is thriving and is now has the reputation as that little consignment store that has “those 70% off” sales every month. Thank you JosA Banks!
Wehen people try to dicker on the price, we simply say, “We have a set markdown program. If this item is still here after 60 days, it will be added to the clearance rack” This lets them know that there is a regular program for sales and we also follow it up with, “the dates of our clearance sales are posted on our website.” Most of the time, if they really want them item, they will go ahead and buy it at full price as not much ends up on clearance.
We say “all red-slashed items are 50% off all throughout the shop; we hold two sale events Spring and Summer. Other sales are more random. Would you like to be on our mailing list? (we also preempt much of this by talking about our purpose: raising awareness and funds for local hospices.)
We do have some sales, sometimes, when we feel like a section is too full – nothing plan really – we just post a note on Facebook (ie: 40% of shoes, buy one get one half off in the 6 to 9 mo section) and we put signage in the store – those sales only last 2 to 3 days; it’s kind of the surprise sales. I don’t want to promote in advance because I don’t want prospect customers to wait for “The Sale” to come shopping. When people ask if we have sales we answer: everything is on Sale everyday: 50% to 70% off retail price., but feel free to follow us on Facebook as we post new arrivals and end of seasons clearances. (customers love the word clearance…)