In a months time we will be post Christmas and New Year! In fact we will be in the realm of the ‘January sales’! Some people love the sales, others find them a thoroughly depressing harbinger of the long trudge coming through January and into February.
The dynamics of retail sales have changed over the last few decades. Once upon a time they existed to clear unsold Christmas related stock. They were held mainly to make room for new stock in a time when shops didn’t have a 250,000 sq ft warehouse in the East Midlands available to hold extra stock to resupply from.
The January sales then became a thing in their own right. Almost one of the seasons, in a way, in that people would travel into town knowing that most shops would be holding a January sale.
As we moved into the latter end of the 20th century, some organisations looked to disrupt this established pattern by holding sales at other times of the year, such as Bank Holidays and mid-Summer. Furniture and carpet shops particularly featured in this particular trend with some gaining a reputation for almost being in a state of continuous sales!
The rise of the internet has seen yet another shift in how sales work. We have the rather controversial rise of ‘Black Friday’, which originally started as a sales event on the Friday after Thanksgiving in the United States, marking the start of the Christmas shopping season.
‘Black Friday’ has been adopted by other countries around the world and is now seen by many as a day to make savings on a wide range of goods, though the extent or real savings available and some of the behaviour that surrounds the Friday itself has raised questions over negative impacts of ‘Black Friday’ overall.
The dynamics of what makes a successful ‘sale’ are also interesting. The level of savings are obviously important but some larger retail brands have made their own ‘sales’ the actual event! Harrods stand out in particular in this respect. The scenes of people queuing outside Harrods and then footage of the milling throng basically grabbing whatever they can get hold of, somewhat oblivious to the pricing or purpose of the object, demonstrates how the event itself can overtake any real ‘savings’ point to the whole thing.
If you are in business it is very useful to understand what triggers clients/customers to react to an offer. Is it just price related or are there other factors at play that have equal impacts on buying behaviour? It pays dividends to think about what it is you are looking to achieve before you take action.
