Express, the 600-store chain that caters to 20-to-30 year old men and women, had a dismal showing in this past quarter, financial news reports.
Why is that of interest to resale, thrifts, and consignment stores?
Because they had promotions which required the shopper to do math, rather than presenting clear markdowns.
“The consumer is responding to hard price points as opposed to prices they have to calculate”
Yup. Shares in Express fell 22%, in large part, according to professional analysts, to “the perils of resorting to promotions that fail to clearly communicate value to the customer.” Read the whole story.
What did I tell you? What have I always told you?
Do the markdowns.
Don’t count on your customers doing math in their heads. Get out your red marker pen and do them. Your bottom line will thank you.
Explore this concept further: These shops not only require their shoppers to do math, but to parse sentences.
Questions? Opinions? Think your customers are smarter than most and look forward to a little mental stimulus as they browse? Couldn’t possibly find the time to do markdowns? Think I am full of it? Let ‘er rip, below.
Auntie Kate The Resale Expert 
[…] I can even occasionally live with (reluctantly, but I’m fighting an uphill battle here) requiring shoppers to do their own math. (But please, don’t make it a […]
We do markdowns on the tag, and use a blue pen for 20% off, and a red pen for 40% off. The two times in 13yrs that a shoplifter tried to forge prices, they weren’t even smart about it – a $35 coat that had a blue pen markdown to $8.00, and another who tried to get a $60 pair of premium jeans for $12. We use Consign Pro, and when the clerks scan a ticket, they have to key in 20% or 40% to make the computer change the price.
That’s a smart approach, Jan, with the different colors for different markdowns. Question, though: Does that mean the MD person has to keep switching pens as she/he goes through a rack?
And yeh, thank goodness cheaters and thieves are not nearly as smart as they could be.
I was thinking about asking for volunteers to help us with discounting and hanging in exchange for store credit. Would that be bad? We have been so busy taking in and putting out and selling 🙂 that we have neglected our discounting duties. We gotta keep it moving but gotta get to it too of course! Anyone have any thoughts on that? We put out 300 items a day and we take in twice that much so we have thousands of discounts to do!
i mark down weekly…my shop is SMALL (800 square feet) and i can get through my racks pretty quickly…and i’m there 5 days a week so i know what’s been around (for the most part)…so one day a week i tackle the racks and slash with a red pen…(i am in the process of re-thinking software…so the tags will have the markdowns ON THEM)…but until then, i slash…
Thanks Jackie for your comment, but I do want to say one thing here:
NEVER GIVE THE CUSTOMER A REASON TO **NOT** BUY
which is exactly what telling them how much something will be if they wait is. Plus, future MDs get misunderstood, and you will spend the rest of your retail career answering comments like “Well, the markdown’s next Tuesday but I have a dental appt then” and “But I’m your best customer” and “You’re a meanie.”
curious as to know what shoppes find is the most effective way of doing markdowns. Red Pens, red dots, ??.. I hate to say this but we have to think what can’t be duplicated by some not so nice customers. hope I receive some feed back
it’s sad that we have to think about this stuff, right????? i’m not sure…but what about the markdown with a small date code next to it??? maybe you could keep a log of the date somewhere…that way if you get a ticket without a date code next to the markdown you’ll know it’s fishy….time consuming maybe??? just throwing it out there…even just the markdown then /3 (for the third week of the month)….good luck 🙂
To avoid forgeries on your mark-downs, try an unusual color of marking pen (you might even change the color once a month or so.) If you don’t mind extra work, you could flip the tag over & add your initial to the back, but that to me is time-wasting. And to be honest? The forgers ain’t that smart… they’ll usually have the WRONG markdown, in ballpoint pen, or mark something down that we all know came in YESTERDAY.
We use a paper punch to mark down. They are little hearts, one heart is 15% off two is 30% off. Tulips are 75% off.
I got a free stamp from vistaprint with my shop name on it. The free ones are black, but colors are very cheap.