How to work with stocks and sell: expert recommendations

Marina Polkovnikova -

founder of the international company VMC Retail, expert in the development and launch of design concepts and merchandising, store building trainer, 22 years of experience in retail.

https://t.me/marinavmcretail

“Stimulate the buyer not only with discounts, but also with positive emotions”

Procurement of the fall-winter season2015 / 16 has seriously decreased compared to previous seasons, but, nevertheless, the remains in the stores are large. To get rid of balances, first of all, you need to make an adequate discount on the goods - not 10 and 20% of the first price, but a really attractive offer to lure the customer. During seasonal sales, the margin is minimal or completely absent, here the main goal should be the same: get rid of the leftovers! However, there is one important “but”: discounts should not fall below a certain psychological level, otherwise you run the risk of losing a solvent client, but you will gain customers who are not able to buy goods at a regular price. Further, after revaluation, I recommend that you design the store itself and its showcase. Window dressing is an important part of the sale period. Everyone has a discounted product, but whoever draws up the storefront brighter and more interestingly will receive a treasured customer. In the window, you need to present the goods with the most attractive prices and be sure to use price tags. But, again, it is important to consider the price segment occupied by the store: the premium class should not use cheap banners indicating the exact price. The design should be concise, attractive and not name the price, but only% discount.

Offer regular customers an additional discount on current discounts (to increase loyalty) and avoid complex discounts (buy two things, get an additional 10% discount, buy three things - get an 15% discount, etc.). During the discount period, this is not rational.

Today, it is necessary to stimulate the buyer not only with an attractive discount, but also with positive emotions:

• You can arrange small holidays in stores. For example, on 8 March, give customers flowers and treat them with a glass of champagne. It cheers up and is remembered for a long time.

• Use posters of happy people in the windows and interior of the store (a striking example is the rebranding of Sberbank).

• To come up with musical accompaniment that will inspire pleasant memories from a store visitor (and not just from sellers).

Maria Gerasimenko -

CEO of Fashion Advisers and the first online school for fashion business Fashion Advisers School, expert in business management and development, business coach. Fashion business management experience - more than 12 years. Successfully defended 2 MBA dissertations (Mirbi International Higher School of Economics, Russia, Moscow, 2013) and London Metropolitan University (Great Britain, London, 2017)

Main areas of activity: strategic and anti-crisis management of the shoe business, assortment matrix management, development of motivation programs, conducting trainings in the field of management, service and sales. Clients include: Unichel, Tamaris, s'Oliver, Kotofey, Rieker, Sinta Gamma, Helly Hansen, Rusocks and others.

“Any sale takes our margin and therefore requires careful calculations”

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Today, as never before, buyers need to be “loaded” with positive emotions from shopping. It is necessary to constantly intrigue, interest, attract the attention of buyers, including through various promotions. But it is important to understand that you cannot arrange 50% sale out of the blue. Promotions must always be planned in advance, preferably a year in advance.

Each store has analytics, and its owner knows when the store is low season, when - high and when to start selling. If in the first and second phase of laying out the collection in the hall at full price 30-40% of the product was sold, then this is normal. By the time a new collection arrives, as a rule, 10-15% of the assortment remains. The rest - 45-60% - may be sold during the period of heating stocks and sales. In addition, do not forget about pricing: if we did not initially include a marketing budget in the retail price of a product, in this case a budget per share, then the promotion cannot take place without loss to the store.

When developing an action, you don’t need to immediately rush into uncontrolled creativity or try to adapt the ideas of competitors. First of all, we must identify the purpose of the action - why do we arrange it, for whom is it designed and what effect do we want to achieve. After that, it is necessary to draw up an estimate, that is, to understand what budget we are ready to invest in the action. Any sale takes our margin and therefore requires careful calculations.

Before choosing one or another format of the action for yourself, you need to evaluate whether it is suitable for your store. Previously, any action was considered a luxury, but now it is a mandatory flirt with the buyer, and the usual discounts are no longer surprising and not interesting for customers. This is the same past century as discount cards. Stocks can and should be different, and there are many options for holding them. For example, the action “second product as a gift” or “the first product with a discount of 10%, the second - 15%, the third - 20%” will not only increase the average check, but also make the buyer think and consider the benefits: by purchasing three things, he gets a little great benefit. Buyers are also attracted to promotions for certain categories of goods, for example, “Ankle Boot Week”. The “Bring a friend, get a discount” promotion allows you to expand your customer base and arouses positive emotions among customers that are directly related to your store.

The “melting discounts” type of promotion, still new to Russia, may be very relevant. The principle is that on the first day of the promotion we give 30% discount, and then every day we reduce it by 1-5%. In the early days, the activity of buyers may be small, but it rapidly increases when the discount is already noticeably “melting” before our eyes.

It is important to remember that the maximum promotion period is 2 weeks. Making it longer simply does not make sense, since in this case it simply will not work. Short promotions for 3-5 days attract more attention and give a much greater return, so do not seek to “stretch the pleasure” and do not make your sales endless.

Natalia Chinenova -

Natalya Chinenova, chief consultant on business technologies in retail at Fashion Consulting Group.

@fcgmedia

“The era of spontaneous purchases and increased demand has passed, consumers have become more demanding and thrifty”

Unfortunately, in the system of approach to the buyer, the Russian retail did not make any changes. The misconception that we are in crisis has played a trick on retailers, causing them to waste precious time.

The main market players used the ruble devaluation in order to free themselves from stock balances, which is why the whole 2015 year was spent for stores under the motto “sale all year round” and in the competition who will get more discounts. Of course, such measures helped to get rid of drains. Most operators kept their turnover at the 2015 level of the year or slightly higher, however, in ruble terms. But in units, sales fell by about 30% - this despite the discounts not only to 70, but even to 90%.

And then what? Delivery volumes of the new collection reduced all brands, without exception. Prices for goods of the new collection are certainly higher than for discounted balances purchased even at the dollar exchange rate at the level of 30-35 rubles. And if in the 2015 year a t-shirt could still be bought for 250-300 rubles, today the lowest price for a T-shirt is set at 499 - 599 rubles. Most importantly, it’s not the prices that frighten away the stores, but the general reluctance to spend money. The 2014 year was the last year of excess consumption. The era of spontaneous purchases and increased demand has passed, and a decade of rational consumption has come. Consumer behavior has changed dramatically. Price is still a decisive factor, only now new requirements have added to the decision to purchase: the real need to purchase a specific product, the quality and consumer properties of the goods - such as the composition of the raw materials, wear and tear, ease of care and others.

So consumer flows, regardless of whether the store has a sale or not, have declined significantly. Retail goods decreased, prices grew, and technology remained unchanged. So far, no one has begun to fight to prove to a specific buyer the need to buy goods in his store, this particular brand at a reasonable price, with good quality and quickly.

This article was published in the 135 issue of the print version of the magazine.