skin smart
priced to sell David Suzuki considers the ‘Discounting Game’
Today’s economy has created an amazing and interesting consumer culture, with a seemingly endless plethora of discounts, bargains and deals.
To a certain extent, it has turned purchasing into a game; search, surf, locate and negotiate. In short, find the best deal on everything, all the time.
define ‘great deal’
With the ‘deal of the day’ online organisations of the world, such as Groupon, assertively driving the delivery of these great deals, it is really hard to ignore the
potential.At the same time there is somuch to sift through and choose from, it has becomemore and more difficult to decipher and define a ‘great deal’.While some companies are offering the latest, freshest goods, others are offering dead inventory and out dated stock at a discounted price. Having said this, although today’s pricing is eye catching, it is not without consumer hesitation, specifically when the cost of the purchase exceeds £50.
There was a time when a 10-15 percent discount on ‘selected goods’would line consumers up around the block the night before the sale began. In today’s culture it will take 25 percent ormore to create a bleep on the attention radar for the average
consumer.As everything seems to be on sale everywhere, all of the time, the dynamics and impact of a ‘sale’ have nearly been lost altogether. Nearly.
priced to sell
As the economy redefined itself, retailers of all products and services have quickly learnt that in order to survive, your productmust be priced to
sell.They have also quickly learnt that these ‘deal of the day’websites are a culture in themselves, and have quickly found themselves ‘stupid busy’with transient consumers. For Spa owners, this can lead to heavily
booked and discounted schedules, low profits, irritated teammembers, very few returning ‘deal of the day’ clients, and worse yet, a complete displacement of loyal clients. Essentially, the polar opposite of everything that it was designed to achieve.
planned discounting models
Themodel of discounting and special pricing is simple;move inventory to existing customers at a great bargain, and build relationships with new customers through the excitement of these bargains.
The discountingmodel, however,must have a theme with a related time parameter, andmust be planned opposed to
random.This small differencemakes all the difference, as it gives themodel purpose and creates the needed dynamics for consumers to appreciate and recognise the special circumstances. For example, for the last week of each calendar year Nike sells all of its current style shoes and gear for 20 percent less than list prices to
make roomfor the new styles that arrive on the first of each
year.This is an example of a successful discounting model that loyal customers depend on, and base their annual purchasing upon. Furthermore, this is amodel that has worked in the best of times, and in the worst of times. Do theymove inventory? Yes. Do theymake their loyalist feel just a little bit special?Yes. Do they build new relationships?Yes. It is true thatmuch of the inventory in this salesmodel is discounted, however, at least 50-60 percent of the inventory on the sales floor is not. Experts estimate that during a sale on selected goods that only one out of every three items purchased is on sale.
the new norm
As we anxiously wait for the economy to ‘get better’, a new normhas been realised during the wait. People aremoving forward with life and have slowly but surely cleared and established new pathways that aremeasurable with consistency and pattern. Ironically it is not so different than our previous culture in that we eat out, we have coffee, we travel
Keep your prices stable, reasonable and predictable tomake your clients feel comfortable, and in turn, loyal.
GUILD NEWS 83
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148