The majority of fashion shops experience a seasonal slump in foot traffic and sales. There are certain things you can do to minimize the influence of some slower months on your yearly earnings and well-being.
To promote a positive vibe and boost sales, you should encourage customers to visit your stores during off-peak hours. Here are some recommendations for attracting customers into your store and increasing off-peak sales.
Why an Off-Season Strategy is Important
A good off-season marketing plan is required for any retail company. It can help you better plan for the busy season and promote more items during the off-season.
It’s also important to conduct regular maintenance on your POS hardware and software. Additionally, having a more dependable sales technology like a POS system is advantageous. With the time and money saved, fashion businesses can worry less about downtime and spend more effort building their brand.
There are some ways to increase off-peak earnings. Here’s how to make more money by utilizing POS technology you already have access to.
How To Maximize Off Peak Profits with your POS System
Though fashion retailers have to think carefully about addressing the specific problems that their industry faces, formulating strategies during slow periods can actually be quite straightforward.
Let’s look at how you can use your POS system to attract customers to your shop and increase off-peak sales.
Inventory control
The right POS system can keep track of inventory, and understand what needs to be restocked. This is important for understanding product cost and profit margins. With this component, you can also manage deliveries and update stock status automatically.
Additionally, with a sizable database, you can gain insights into the psychology and behavior of customers and discover current trends – or even forecast future trends.
With integrated POS features such as gift cards and incentive points, you can treat your customers better and keep them coming back.
Email campaigns based on purchase history
Marketing your brand or product in a segmented way is an excellent way to get customers’ attention and demonstrate the value of your product. When people see that your product can make their life easier, they are more likely to purchase it for themselves or as a gift for someone else.
A POS system that prioritizes the customer experience can help you identify previous purchases and target potential buyers more effectively.
Additionally, you can focus on content and include links to your website’s blog entries or videos. If you want to send some specific product recommendations, look at items they have already purchased and recommend similar or new items.
Promotions
Utilize advertisements that promote your off-peak times. Specials and combos can only be offered during those times and days when business is slow. To keep your fashion store crowd coming back, you can give them vouchers for the next purchase or award them with each shopping bill.
Use information from your sales records to determine which days are the slowest, and tailor reports from your fashion store point of sale to keep an eye on trends and changes. This can help you determine your best-selling items during off-peak periods and the best times to run these promotions.
Enhancing the in-store experience with technology
Retailers are using technologically sophisticated POS systems to provide their consumers with an exciting experience in addition to a positive purchasing experience.
Because of the AI component built into some POS systems, they can assist businesses with upselling and cross-selling. AI enables retail associates to review client shopping habits, wish lists, and other data. The team can provide appropriate, individualized specific recommendations for each customer based on the information.
Focus on convenience
Customers today enjoy having options. They may occasionally come into your store in person, but other times they may prefer to shop online. They have their products delivered or picked up later. Some of them may even be international e-commerce clients.
Regardless of how customers purchase, make sure you are providing convenience for them. You can offer window pickup, private shopping visits, phone orders, and video shopping through an omnichannel POS. Having these additional channels can really increase your potential fashion sales.
Consider upcoming local events
Use a local event as an opportunity to draw traffic into your fashion store. Instead of giving up and accepting that it’ll be a slow day, think about using the popularity of that event to promote your goods.
To encourage new potential members to attend your in-store events, you might invite some targeted groups like teenagers or Eva groups through social media. You may even organize a fashion show to display your newest line.
If a concert is taking place nearby, consider conducting an offer generated by POS software where anyone with concert tickets receives a discount on their shopping bill.
Staffing optimization
By training your employees and running your business more efficiently, you can increase profits gained during slow times.
Use an integrated scheduling system to manage minimum staffing levels and determine how many employees needed to cover each shift. Organize shifts so that more employees arrive immediately before peak times, or shift prep time to off-peak mealtimes rather than the beginning of the day.
Cross-training your personnel to perform additional duties as needed is a good idea. You might still find yourself dealing with a busload of tourists even when having fewer workers during off-peak hours. Therefore, it’s beneficial to have personnel you can move about to fill in as needed.
Plan a seasonal pricing strategy
Your point of sale should support your marketing efforts. The POS is crucial for any business transaction. You can use your POS to manage inventory, prices, and CRM – so make the most of it!
You can also reduce prices on clothing to increase demand during off-peak times. Don’t forget to advertise your price drops over social media and other channels to further increase your sales.
Final thoughts on increasing off-peak fashion sales
With a good POS system, fashion brand owners like you can run your business successfully even during the off-season.
You may transform your fashion businesses into off-peak gathering places that attract new consumers. Then you should increase fashion sales by engaging with them and integrating your innovation with a point of sale system.
Simply set clear deadlines and objectives for yourself so you can figure out what works best and establish yourself for future success.
