Black Friday started as a term only retailer’s knew, but it’s blossomed into a nationwide buzz word. We predict that soon Black Friday will become an unofficial, official national holiday, like Sweetest Day or Grandparents Day. Or maybe it has already.
Just like every other year, we were up and at ‘em at 4:00 AM on Black Friday, touring Chicagoland shopping centers, checking things out. The lines were looooooong as bargain hunters once again turned out in force. The folks we spoke with were patient and in good spirits; some retailers kept them happy by serving hot coffee to the crowds. In other places, local school sports teams set up tables and sold coffee and doughnuts for a nominal donation.
At Best Buy Stores, employees handed out vouchers to people waiting on line so they would be guaranteed to get the specific products they came to buy. This is a practice that will need to be adopted by all big box retailers in order to prevent tragedies like the stampede at a Long Island Walmart where a store associate sadly lost his life. That, along with better crowd control, and each location having more than just a handful of the advertised door buster items.
We “shopped the shoppers” until the last stores opened at 7:00 AM. By Saturday evening, the medias were reluctantly reporting that Black Friday 2008 sales were up 3 percent over Black Friday 2007. We say reluctantly because this positive news was generally followed by, “But holiday sales are expected to be down and consumers scale back on gift giving this year.” To this we say bah humbug.
Holiday 2008 will largely be what you make it. You can reap strong holiday sales if you are willing to work a little harder to attract shoppers to your store. One thing’s for sure, you cannot compete with chains and big box retailers on price. Period. There’s an old retail saying that still holds true: “If you live by price, you'll die by price.” Price wars are a bottomless pit in which you cannot, and should not, compete.
Instead, put Shoppertainment to work for you – make coming to your store an anticipated and FUN experience! F.A.O. Schwarz doesn't sell toys at rock bottom prices, yet their stores are packed because there’s no other toy store quite like it.
At the F.A.O. Schwarz store in Manhattan, Toy Soldiers celebrate the opening of the store by rolling out a red carpet; one even blows a trumpet to herald the event. Inside, store associates line both sides of the entry way, laughing and applauding, as they welcome customers into the store. There’s also a smiling associate handing out shopping bags. (Courtesy? Maybe, but it’s a fact that shoppers with carts/baskets/bags stay longer and spend more). Watch F.A.O.’s opening ceremony here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49MW74GRe60&feature=related
Shoppertainment is an everyday thing at Paint Your Own Pottery studios. All across the U.S. these clever retailers invited shoppers to visit their studios on Black Friday and relax with a cup of hot chocolate and fresh baked cookies while they painted Christmas ornaments and other holiday items. Some discounted gift cards or offered money-saving coupons, but they all offered a refuge from the hordes of sale-crazed shoppers.
Just like every other year, we were up and at ‘em at 4:00 AM on Black Friday, touring Chicagoland shopping centers, checking things out. The lines were looooooong as bargain hunters once again turned out in force. The folks we spoke with were patient and in good spirits; some retailers kept them happy by serving hot coffee to the crowds. In other places, local school sports teams set up tables and sold coffee and doughnuts for a nominal donation.
At Best Buy Stores, employees handed out vouchers to people waiting on line so they would be guaranteed to get the specific products they came to buy. This is a practice that will need to be adopted by all big box retailers in order to prevent tragedies like the stampede at a Long Island Walmart where a store associate sadly lost his life. That, along with better crowd control, and each location having more than just a handful of the advertised door buster items.
We “shopped the shoppers” until the last stores opened at 7:00 AM. By Saturday evening, the medias were reluctantly reporting that Black Friday 2008 sales were up 3 percent over Black Friday 2007. We say reluctantly because this positive news was generally followed by, “But holiday sales are expected to be down and consumers scale back on gift giving this year.” To this we say bah humbug.
Holiday 2008 will largely be what you make it. You can reap strong holiday sales if you are willing to work a little harder to attract shoppers to your store. One thing’s for sure, you cannot compete with chains and big box retailers on price. Period. There’s an old retail saying that still holds true: “If you live by price, you'll die by price.” Price wars are a bottomless pit in which you cannot, and should not, compete.
Instead, put Shoppertainment to work for you – make coming to your store an anticipated and FUN experience! F.A.O. Schwarz doesn't sell toys at rock bottom prices, yet their stores are packed because there’s no other toy store quite like it.
At the F.A.O. Schwarz store in Manhattan, Toy Soldiers celebrate the opening of the store by rolling out a red carpet; one even blows a trumpet to herald the event. Inside, store associates line both sides of the entry way, laughing and applauding, as they welcome customers into the store. There’s also a smiling associate handing out shopping bags. (Courtesy? Maybe, but it’s a fact that shoppers with carts/baskets/bags stay longer and spend more). Watch F.A.O.’s opening ceremony here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49MW74GRe60&feature=related
Shoppertainment is an everyday thing at Paint Your Own Pottery studios. All across the U.S. these clever retailers invited shoppers to visit their studios on Black Friday and relax with a cup of hot chocolate and fresh baked cookies while they painted Christmas ornaments and other holiday items. Some discounted gift cards or offered money-saving coupons, but they all offered a refuge from the hordes of sale-crazed shoppers.
The festivities will continue throughout the season with all sorts of in-store events. Kim Stanfill-McMillan, owner of Fired Up Pottery in Cottage Grove, Wisconsin will host “Santa and Me” on December 6 and 7. For just a $5 donation, guests can have their photo taken with Santa and Mrs. Claus by a local professional photographer. (Proceeds go to Cottage Grove’s Food Pantry). Kid's can visit with Santa and even make a cool one of a kind "Santa and Me" plate that features both their and Santa's hand print. Check it out on Fired Up Pottery's website: http://www.fireduppottery.com/
Cat Beatty, owner of Cat’s Creations Scrapbooks in Mineral Wells, Texas attended one of our seminars years ago and embraced Shoppertainment with both arms. Cat runs more in-store events throughout the year than any other retailer we know – she works her shorts off to make sure her store is consistently on her customer’s list of Things to Do, especially on Black Friday.
Cat keeps her store busy all day long with her Black Friday events – note that we said events, because Cat runs several. From 10:00 AM – 8:00 PM Cat runs our very successful Bounce Back Bag Sale where everything that fits in the bag is 20 percent off. It’s called a Bounce Back Bag Sale because the back of the bag sports coupons that bounce customers back to the store on various dates in December. The coupons must remain on the bag; making it a walking billboard for the store.
At 3:00 PM Cat sweetens the pot with her “Upside-Down Bag Sale.” Here, shoppers can select any one item and save even more: 25% off any one item from 3:00 to 4:00 PM, 30 percent off from 4:00 to 5:00 PM, and 35 percent off from 5:00 to 6:00 PM. Customers camp out at the store, plotting their shopping strategy!
Cat also encourages shoppers to spend big and save their cash register receipts between Black Friday and December 18, so they can use what they spent at her annual Cash Register Receipt Auction. (A one time event is good, an annual event is better.) For this event, the total dollar amounts in cash register receipts, minus sales tax, add up to the number of Cat's Auction Bucks shoppers are given to spend at the auction. For example, customers who spend a total of $200 during the allotted time frame get $200 in Cat's Auction Bucks to spend at the auction. Free money! Why would customers want to shop anywhere else? Cat’s auction is a fun-filled night with refreshments and great items and a real auctioneer to keep things moving. (E-mail us for more info and how-to instructions on the Bounce Back Bag Sale and Cash Register Receipt Auction). Visit Cat at http://www.catscreationsscrapbooks.com/
Mitch James, owner of James Lumber & Ace Hardware in Poulsbo, Washington, ( http://www.acehardware.net ) gives his customers a good deal and a good deal more. Mitch shared the impact an independent retailer can have on tired Black Friday shoppers:
“We were all decked out with our Ace Hardware Santa hats. We had one of our young fellas opening the door and handing customers the Ace flyer. So, almost everyone was greeted at least once. A little before 2:00, a couple of 20-somethings came in one with our store’s Black Friday 50% off coupon and sales flyer. I wondered back to the end cap to see if they were finding everything. I teased them a little to see if they'd been at the mall; turns out the had left home at 3:30 am to drive to South Center, near SeaTac Airport – an hour and a half drive to get the door busters. They were stopping at the local stores on the way back to fill in the holes on their shopping list. As they turned to go to the checkout, I was close enough to hear the second girl say to the first, "Wow, I like this place. They're all so friendly and HAPPY, too!"
That’s really what it’s all about, isn’t it? Holiday 2008 will call for top shelf customer service, associates who are glad to see shoppers, in-store events and promotions, money-saving coupons and something other than returns and exchanges to bounce shoppers back on December 26th. Click on one of the RSS feeds at the above left and subscribe to this blog – we plan on offering ideas and inspirations to help you increase sales all through the holidays and beyond.
Cat keeps her store busy all day long with her Black Friday events – note that we said events, because Cat runs several. From 10:00 AM – 8:00 PM Cat runs our very successful Bounce Back Bag Sale where everything that fits in the bag is 20 percent off. It’s called a Bounce Back Bag Sale because the back of the bag sports coupons that bounce customers back to the store on various dates in December. The coupons must remain on the bag; making it a walking billboard for the store.
At 3:00 PM Cat sweetens the pot with her “Upside-Down Bag Sale.” Here, shoppers can select any one item and save even more: 25% off any one item from 3:00 to 4:00 PM, 30 percent off from 4:00 to 5:00 PM, and 35 percent off from 5:00 to 6:00 PM. Customers camp out at the store, plotting their shopping strategy!
Cat also encourages shoppers to spend big and save their cash register receipts between Black Friday and December 18, so they can use what they spent at her annual Cash Register Receipt Auction. (A one time event is good, an annual event is better.) For this event, the total dollar amounts in cash register receipts, minus sales tax, add up to the number of Cat's Auction Bucks shoppers are given to spend at the auction. For example, customers who spend a total of $200 during the allotted time frame get $200 in Cat's Auction Bucks to spend at the auction. Free money! Why would customers want to shop anywhere else? Cat’s auction is a fun-filled night with refreshments and great items and a real auctioneer to keep things moving. (E-mail us for more info and how-to instructions on the Bounce Back Bag Sale and Cash Register Receipt Auction). Visit Cat at http://www.catscreationsscrapbooks.com/
Mitch James, owner of James Lumber & Ace Hardware in Poulsbo, Washington, ( http://www.acehardware.net ) gives his customers a good deal and a good deal more. Mitch shared the impact an independent retailer can have on tired Black Friday shoppers:
“We were all decked out with our Ace Hardware Santa hats. We had one of our young fellas opening the door and handing customers the Ace flyer. So, almost everyone was greeted at least once. A little before 2:00, a couple of 20-somethings came in one with our store’s Black Friday 50% off coupon and sales flyer. I wondered back to the end cap to see if they were finding everything. I teased them a little to see if they'd been at the mall; turns out the had left home at 3:30 am to drive to South Center, near SeaTac Airport – an hour and a half drive to get the door busters. They were stopping at the local stores on the way back to fill in the holes on their shopping list. As they turned to go to the checkout, I was close enough to hear the second girl say to the first, "Wow, I like this place. They're all so friendly and HAPPY, too!"
That’s really what it’s all about, isn’t it? Holiday 2008 will call for top shelf customer service, associates who are glad to see shoppers, in-store events and promotions, money-saving coupons and something other than returns and exchanges to bounce shoppers back on December 26th. Click on one of the RSS feeds at the above left and subscribe to this blog – we plan on offering ideas and inspirations to help you increase sales all through the holidays and beyond.
