By the time you read this post, the holiday shopping season will be almost over. It might even be over if you don’t get to reading until January. One way or the other, you are going to be dealing with post-Christmas inventory at the start of the new year. How you deal with that inventory will influence everything from your bottom line to your storage capacity. So let us talk about selling designer sunglasses after the Christmas rush.
You may be the type of retailer who doesn’t necessarily differentiate sunglasses by season. If so, you might not have inventory you specifically brought in for the Christmas season. That’s fine. You are going to keep doing what you always do. As for those retailers who market based on seasonal trends, there are three options for addressing post-Christmas inventory.
1. Store It for Future Sales
One option is to take the inventory off your racks and store it for future sales. This might be an option if you invested in some oddly shaped sunglasses to take advantage of their novelty for the holidays. In all likelihood, the novelty will be attractive come spring, when people are looking to buy new sunglasses just for the sake of doing so.
Cat eye sunglasses would fit in this category. They do not tend to sell all that well during the months immediately following Christmas. Their novelty may have made them a great Christmas gift, but that’s about it. Rest assured they will sell again in the spring. Put whatever you have left after Christmas in the storeroom and break it out again around Easter.
2. Have an After-Christmas Sale
Some retailers of designer sunglasses do not like to have excess inventory hanging around. It represents overhead that isn’t earning any money. If this sounds like you, that’s great. You can always have a huge after-Christmas sale that runs through January.
After-Christmas sales are pretty common. You know that. So do consumers, and they are always looking for great after-Christmas deals. Give them what they want. Perhaps a BOGO sale would appeal most to your customer base. Or maybe you would do better offering a flat 25% off on certain selections from your holiday sunglasses inventory.
3. Run a Clearance Event
A third option is to hold a post-Christmas clearance event. If you are new to retail, you might not understand the subtle difference between a sale and a clearance event. A sale is temporary. You only hold it for a scheduled amount of time regardless of how much inventory you move. A clearance event is more permanent.
When you sell designer sunglasses on clearance, you are committing to selling them at a reduced price until they are all gone. The goal of a clearance sale is to guarantee you don’t put any product back in your storeroom. Some of our customers prefer a clearance event because they don’t like dealing with inventory storage.
The only downside to clearance is that savvy customers know the difference. They expect extremely low prices when they shop clearance racks. This is okay, as long as you break even on the product. You might not make your margin, but don’t lose money either. Otherwise, a clearance event is not worth your time or effort.
It has been a difficult year for retail and sunglasses, but we made it through thus far. We sincerely hope that your 2020 holiday season will be successful. Whether you decide to store your post-Christmas inventory, run a January sale, or hold a clearance event, it will not be long before we start thinking about spring sunglasses.
The post Sale or Clearance: What to Do with Post-Christmas Inventory appeared first on Wholesale Sunglasses Blog.
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