Smart labeling can attract customers’ attention to sale merchandise that a high-end business wants to promote without a lot of extra time spent on merchandising.
Suppose a high-end company that sells clothing wants to hold a clearance sale on seasonal clothing. That company wants to attract customers on a budget to become regular customers. They want to promote the lasting quality of their merchandise as an investment. Yet how can they get these bargain hunters inside their store? After all, the company has maintained a reputation for years as an exclusive specialty shop.
Though these potential customers may be on a tight budget, they still have pride. They don’t want to come into the store and have to ask where the clearance merchandise is and have some snooty clerk point to a disheveled rack at the back of the store. Or worse yet, have the clerk explain in a loud voice that “clearance merchandise is marked with a light green dot.”
It isn’t the light green dot that’s the problem. It’s actually a good idea to have a subtle label indicating which merchandise is slashed in price. The problem is creating a safe place for customers who have good taste, yet are on a budget, to shop without intrusive clerks trying to sell them merchandise beyond their budget or relegated to an area at the back of the store that tells everyone that they’re not the store’s usual clientele.
Instead, high-end stores should use labels—with the company’s name and logo on them, of course–to indicate clearance merchandise, yet let their signage—and their clerks—create a feeling of exclusivity, even at the sale table. Signs reading “For the discerning customer who wants to save money for the important things in life,” or something similar allow customers to feel like one of the town’s elites just for shopping at this store—even if they’re shopping the bargain bin.
When a store puts merchandise out for a sale, it doesn’t take much more effort to create attractive displays, even for the clearance merchandise. Why shove all the sale merchandise onto a hastily-labeled rack when one can group them by size, color, and style in an attractive display?
Promoting sale merchandise isn’t much different from promoting regular merchandise. Make the brand stand out, and a store will attract customers.
