Host an April Showers Bring May Flowers customer appreciation extravaganza; your opportunity to make sales and motivate the troops as buyback approaches. With students preparing for exams and needing last minute supplies, you have an opportunity to generate a bump in sales.
The event
Clear out stock before the summer season and still have high-margin items around for the early and mid-May customers. Buyback season brings you a captive audience with money in hand. Create the opportunity to entice additional customers through the door by showing your appreciation for their business.
Sale prices and animation bring a crowd. The team at the Luther College Book Shop held an event to vote for a store mascot. Sales doubled due to attendance. The team at Chico State Wildcat Store had interactive events and games to engage customers and make people passing by stop, watch, listen and make a purchase.
Twister, pie-eating contests and even seeing who can put on a freezing t-shirt first, generates laughter and cheers which attracts other people to your event.
Process
Talk to your customers at your POS, through flyers, social media and in person.
- Inform the campus — Use the included flyer as a stuffer for your customers' bags. Your frontline staff is the voice of your store. Make sure they are talking to people about what you will be doing
- Mark the date — Offer the enclosed bookmark as a gift to everyone. As exams approach, a good bookmark is a necessity, and this little tool will tell students about your sale every time they use it. Offer them in-store, around campus and in town
- On-campus digital marketing — Your campus has digital marketing everywhere. Connect with campus IT and learn how you can have a graphic added to rolling announcements. We will give you an editable graphic. Add your logo and day(s) of the sale
- Social media — Use your Facebook and Twitter feeds before the event to let customers know which items are on sale and how you serve as a locale where students can blow off steam. Here are some post examples:
Payoff
Leaner shelves free of merchandise you have had sitting around for a while, less to pack and store, and additional sales for the last 45-60 days of the academic year. Your sale is an opportunity to showcase what’s in the store for the students who do not come in often. They will be selling their books in a few weeks, and this can remind them of the cool sweatshirt they never bought, the board game they want for summer or the beach towel they will need when they head home.
Your kit
Enclosed you have a half-page editable flyer. Use these as stuffers or post them to your heart's content. There is also a custom bookmark, Facebook and Twitter image, and a digital template for your campus AV.
Execution
Two weeks out — Communicate what you are going to do with your staff, delegate responsibilities, set up schedules and brainstorm some game ideas
One week out — Spread the word with your flyers and bookmarks
Three days out — Hit social media. Don’t forget to include photos of what’s on sale. A picture is worth a thousand words. Keep it up during the sale.
Enjoy the sale. Have fun. Blow off steam with more sales.
