Run a profitable clothing store

Chapter 29 Main Pricing Strategies of Smart Stores (3)
A small owner in the south opened a small clothing store. At the beginning, the business was sluggish.Later, after careful research and calculation, he decided that as long as the customer spends 10 yuan, he can buy any product in the store at will, so he attracted a large number of customers, and the sales volume exceeded that of several large clothing stores nearby.Later, after he switched to silk business, he came up with a new idea. He decided that every purchase of 30 yuan silk in the store would give a white coupon, 5 white coupons could be exchanged for a blue coupon, and 5 blue coupons could be exchanged for a red coupon. One, five coupons, you can choose a product worth 5 yuan as a reward.The boss has made his business bigger and stronger through this magical promotion method.

There is a retail clothing store in the US with very flexible pricing so business is doing well.The store always makes discounts on the clothes displayed in the store next to each other, and there are about three or four clothes on sale each time.Clothing stores don't consider whether the price of this kind of clothing should be reduced, and whether they will lose money after the price reduction, but only use the price reduction as a means to attract customers.During the price reduction period, clothing stores advertise heavily, or post posters in front of the door, or distribute leaflets in the streets and alleys to attract customers from far and near.Wait until the price of this batch of clothes is almost sold out, or the interest of customers has diminished, and then change to other kinds of clothes to sell at a reduced price.

The store's price reduction sales are real, and they are not selling high prices under the guise of price reduction.All the clothes that are on sale in the store can only make a small profit, and some of them just keep their capital.However, after the price reduction was implemented, the number of customers who came to patronize increased greatly compared with usual, which led to the sales of other clothing.This is to increase the number of customers by reducing prices, and then drive the sales of other clothing.It can be seen that price reduction is not as simple as pricing, and it mainly reflects the word "clever".It may not be popular to lower prices casually, even if the merchants are unprofitable or even lose money.Therefore, you must master the scale, which will not only make customers feel cheap, but also make your business more prosperous.

The monthly price reduction method was formulated by Andre Guma, a broker of Guma fashion in Sweden, based on his years of experience in selling clothes.Guma is a person who knows how to manage. After studying the laws of clothing listing, she introduced this rule: the monthly price reduction ratio is 97% in the first month after the clothing is listed, 92% in the second month, and 90% in the third month. 85%, 80% in the fourth month, 65% in the fifth month, and 70% to [-]% in the sixth month.

This conclusion is drawn as follows: because the best and most popular clothing generally has a "lifespan" of less than 3 years; "short order" fashion generally only lasts for a few months, and it becomes a "yellow flower".

Guma company stipulates that within 10 days of listing, you can go to the company to pay a deposit to order clothes that may be reduced in price in a few months. In this way, anyone who likes to buy cheap clothes will come to Guma to pay a deposit and order a collection receipt for a certain month.However, the deposit paid is non-refundable and can only be deducted from the payment for goods.If you don't want to order, even if you give up the deposit.

In this way, Guma company can keep the price of a fashion at least 6 months from declining with the preferential price, so that Guma can stay young forever.

The price reduction must also grasp the customer's psychology. You must reduce the price without paying attention to the timing and method. Otherwise, the customer will feel that your product is very cheap and will be sold at a low price, which will make the customer feel discouraged.Making customers feel worthless will reduce their desire to buy.

Active price reduction
Through the survey of consumers, it is found that a large part of consumers basically think that the price reduction behavior of clothing stores is negative rather than positive.They don't think that the price reduction is a discount for themselves, but that the store has another purpose.Competitors of the store may also use the store's price cuts to launch a large-scale publicity campaign and negatively report the price cuts of the clothing you operate.Therefore, the price reduction of clothing should be particularly cautious.

1. Influencing factors of price reduction

Clothing shop owners must understand that price reduction is not the master key to cope with competition, get rid of unsalable goods, and increase operating profits.The price reduction strategy has its own applicable conditions and scope.The following three factors must be considered when clothing stores adopt price reduction strategies:
(1) The attributes of clothing.If clothing is classified according to the degree of price elasticity of demand, it can be divided into commodities with elastic demand and commodities with inelastic demand.Whether the demand elasticity of clothing is large or small is a prerequisite for considering whether the store can adopt a price reduction strategy for this product.Only clothing with high demand elasticity can increase sales volume and increase profits through price reduction.

(2) Types of consumers.Consumers are roughly divided into several categories: truth-seeking, profit-seeking, fame-seeking, beauty-seeking, and novelty-seeking.Among these types of consumers, only profit-seeking consumers are more concerned about the price of clothing.The price reduction of clothing can often stimulate the demand of profit seekers and prompt them to take purchasing action.But for consumers seeking fame, novelty, beauty, and reality, selling clothing at reduced prices will not only fail to arouse their interest, but will arouse their resentment, which will eventually cause them to withdraw from the ranks of buyers, thus making clothing stores lose those customers.Therefore, price reduction sales must take into account the type of consumers and implement them in a focused manner, otherwise it will be difficult to succeed.

(3) The status of the clothing store itself.Whether the clothing store can reduce the cost of clothing and realize economies of scale is a powerful economic guarantee for the success of the store's implementation of price reduction sales.The reason why many large stores can achieve the goal of reducing prices, increasing sales and increasing profits is that the stores can achieve economies of scale is one of the very important factors.

2. The price reduction strategy

Clothing price cuts must not only adapt to changes in internal and external conditions, but also consider consumer responses to price cuts, and use clothing price cut strategies scientifically.When operators adopt price reduction measures, they should pay attention to the extent of price reduction, the timing and frequency of price reduction.

(1) Appropriate price reduction.If the price reduction is too small, it will not attract the attention and interest of consumers, and the purpose of price reduction will not be achieved; if the price reduction is too large, it will cause consumers to be suspicious of clothing or clothing stores, and will also fail to achieve the purpose of price reduction.According to experience, consumers can normally perceive and understand the price reduction by 10% to 30%.Therefore, consumers objectively have a perception "threshold" for price cuts, and operators should cut prices within this threshold.Of course, this perception threshold is not static, it will vary according to the economic environment and clothing characteristics.Clothing stores should be grasped according to the specific situation.

(2) Accurate price reduction timing.For seasonal clothing, when the inventory is still too large at that time to the middle of the season, appropriate price reduction measures should be taken immediately; for popular clothing, a price reduction strategy must be adopted immediately after the peak of the popularity, otherwise, it will be difficult to reduce the price even if the opportunity is lost. Receive the expected effect; for general clothing, the best time to cut prices is when the peak after entering the mature period is approaching, because at this time consumers have a high evaluation of such clothing, and price cuts may stimulate demand, thereby making clothing The life cycle has been extended to a certain extent.

(3) Relatively stable price reduction frequency.Due to the inaccurate grasp of the reduction in clothing prices, multiple price reductions will cause consumers to have a psychological effect of distrust.In order to avoid this situation, operators must maintain a relatively stable price after the price reduction; otherwise, the store's price reduction plan will fail.

3. Ways to reduce prices

Keeping the original price unchanged is in fact maintaining the dignity of its own brand and keeping its sales position.However, in order to expand market share and to deal with competitors and must lower prices, stores can adopt certain methods.Generally speaking, there are two ways to reduce prices, one is open drop, and the other is dark drop.Ming drop is to directly reduce the price of clothing, such as from 200 yuan to 180 yuan.Here we mainly introduce the dark drop, because it is a more effective way than the open drop.There are mainly the following methods of dark drop:
(1) Issuance of coupons.That is to issue or publish coupons in the newspaper advertisement column, and tell consumers that they can go to the designated store to buy designated clothing with this coupon, and can enjoy a few discounts.This is also a method commonly used in promotional activities.This approach will make consumers feel that the clothing is not unsalable, outdated, or of poor quality, and it is not a price cut, but a discount for some people.Therefore, consumers will actively buy with coupons.It should be noted here that the distribution of coupons should not be too large, and the coupons published in newspapers should have a strong time limit and not be too long, so that people can be prompted to buy as soon as possible.

(2) Part of the purchase price is refunded.That is, if the consumer gives the certificate or label proving the purchase of specific clothing to the clothing store, the clerk can return a certain amount to the customer directly or by other means.

(3) Give gifts in kind.In order to increase the sales of paint, a British paint store adopted such a strategy: it sent 1000 customers free paint brushes, and added: "You seem to need to paint the house to make it look new. For this reason, I will give you a special gift." Take the paint brush. All customers who come to our store with this letter will get a 5% discount on paint. Don't miss this opportunity." The implementation of this strategy not only increased the sales of paint by [-] times, but also achieved a well-known effect.Therefore, sometimes you give a small gift in kind, but you can get a big unexpected harvest.

(4) Update the appearance of clothing.The so-called updating the appearance of clothing refers to simplifying the packaging and changing the brand to make it appear with a "new look".This updated clothing is cheaper than the original price and easy to sell.Some people may think that if the price is lowered, the price will be lowered, why bother to keep it secret?There is no doubt that the store has gone through a lot of painstaking efforts to come up with this or that idea and it is by no means a whim.The necessity of dark drop can be considered from the following points:
First of all, if the price of existing clothing is directly reduced, it will be very difficult to increase the price in the future.The above methods of dark drop are very flexible, and the value can be released or collected at any time, with ease.

Secondly, the low price, especially the low price after the price reduction, often gives consumers the feeling that the product cannot be sold as a helpless move.Lowering the price of existing clothing can damage the image of the product.Taking the above methods to reduce prices will not damage the image of stores and products in the minds of consumers.

Finally, adopting the method of dark drop can avoid direct conflicts with competitors and unnecessary price battles.

Clothing prices must abide by the rules
Clothing price reduction promotion refers to the promotion behavior that clothing stores use clothing price reduction to quickly occupy the market and increase market share in order to expand sales within a certain period of time due to market pressures such as consumers, competitors, and product replacement.Price reduction is a profound knowledge, not simply lowering the price.Aiming at the banner of price reduction and discount for many clothing merchants, what should clothing merchants pay attention to when bidding for promotion?
1. The price reduction must be "famous by teachers"

Some clothing stores put up price reduction signs with words such as "clearance sale", "price reduction treatment" and other words that give people a bad impression. store image.Even if the price is reduced, you should try to use words such as "discounted price", "commodity special sale", "profit and reward" to give people a better impression.

Therefore, we need to find out a suitable reason for the price reduction, and we must not let customers think that the clothing cannot be sold, or the quality is not good, or the style is outdated before the price reduction.The names and reasons for price cuts in actual clothing stores usually include:
(1) Seasonal price cuts.

(2) Reduced prices on major festivals.

(3) Clothing store celebrations cut prices.For example, the opening of a new store, the first anniversary of the opening, the 100th day of the opening, and sales exceeding tens of thousands of yuan or tens of thousands of pieces can all be reasons for price reduction.

(4) Price reduction for special reasons.Such as store demolition, clothing store changes in business direction, counter lease expires, and so on.Although some clothing stores cut prices continuously throughout the year, they are justifiable every time, and there are reasons for it. Although the number of price cuts is a little bit more, it does not damage the image of the clothing store.

2. Formulate a long-term price competition strategy

In order to get rid of the price war, we can formulate a long-term price competition strategy for ourselves, find a new alternative product for ourselves, participate in the price war, stop the spread of the price war, and effectively avoid damage to existing brands in a timely and effective manner.

3. In the operation skills of price reduction, we should pay attention to the following problems
(1) According to experience, when the price reduction is less than 10%, there is almost no promotional effect; the price reduction must be at least 15% to 20% to produce obvious promotional effects.However, when the price reduction exceeds 50%, sufficient reasons must be given for the substantial price reduction, otherwise customers will suspect that this is a low-quality clothing and dare not buy it.

(2) A large price reduction of a few types of clothing in a clothing store is more effective than a small price reduction of many types of clothing.Clothing with high popularity and high market share has a good price reduction promotion effect, while clothing with low popularity and low market share has a poor price promotion effect.

(3) Hanging price reduction labels directly on clothing is the most attractive way to attract consumers to buy immediately.Because customers can not only see the price reduction amount and range at a glance, but also see the price reduction clothing.The two phases are compared and weighed, and a decision to buy or not to buy can be made immediately.

(4) On the price reduction label or price reduction advertisement, the two prices before and after the price reduction should be indicated, or the amount and range of the price reduction should be indicated.Some clothing stores hang the front and rear price tags on the products to prove the authenticity of the price reduction.

Four main points of clothing price reduction

The price reduction is welcomed by consumers, because it caters to consumers' realistic and cheap psychology.Every consumer hopes to buy more consumer goods with limited income, even some people with relatively high or very high income hope to obtain more and higher enjoyment with their existing property.Here are some strategies to keep in mind when discounting clothing:

1. The price reduction should be appropriate
Psychological research shows that not all stimuli can arouse people's feelings, and the stimuli must reach a certain amount before the feeling can be produced.For price reduction products, what consumers are most concerned about is the extent of its price reduction.If the price reduction is too small, it will not attract the attention and interest of consumers, especially for some clothing that misses the supply season or out-of-date styles and clothing that has deteriorated in quality due to improper storage.

So, the bigger the price cut, the better?Nor is it.Because the price reduction is too large, consumers will have greater doubts about the value and quality of clothing under the price psychology of "ratio than quality", and they will also fail to achieve the purpose of promotion.According to the practical experience of many clothing stores, when the price of clothing is reduced by 10% to 30%, consumers will feel that these clothing still have value, and the purchase will not take a lot of risk.If the price reduction of clothing exceeds 50%, consumers will have guesses and concerns about the quality of the reduced price products, and lose confidence in purchasing.

2. The price should be relatively stable

Lower prices can stimulate purchases, which is only one aspect of the problem; on the other hand, if prices continue to drop, it will cause consumers to decrease their desire to buy.Because consumers already have certain concerns about price reduction products, if the price continues to be reduced in a short period of time, it will aggravate consumers' concerns and strengthen their sense of distrust.The more ideal way is to stimulate once, the stimulus is just right, and then let the price stabilize for a long period of time, so that the sales volume will pick up.At the same time, it can also allow consumers to have the psychological effect of "opportunity is rare" to a certain extent, so that they can cherish the opportunity and buy in advance or buy more.

3. The price reduction must be done in one step

If you want to reduce the price of clothing, one of the principles that must be followed is that it must be done in one step, and the price must not continue to drop.One of the basic mentality of consumers is "buy up and not buy down".Not many days later, and the price has been cut many times, consumers can't help but expect to wait for you to drop the price again, instead of scrambling to buy.If this is the case, the plan to promote sales through price reductions will be completely defeated.

4. To choose the right time
Now, some clothing stores are changing their patterns and reducing prices throughout the year.As a result, such a price has become a customary price, and it is difficult to play a promotional role.Therefore, a good choice of price reduction timing will greatly stimulate consumers' desire to buy, and a bad choice will fail to achieve the expected effect.In addition, for example, the best time to cut the price of popular clothing is just after the peak of the epidemic; the best time to cut the price of seasonal clothing with a large inventory is in the middle of the season; etc., may produce better promotional effect.

The impact of aggressive price cuts

We often see words such as "clearance sale" and "price reduction treatment" on the price reduction signs of some merchants, but if you see them too often, it is easy to derogate the storefront and brand image, making people feel that they are dealing with cheap and low-end products. commodity.Therefore, when merchants cut prices, they must also anticipate the impact of price cuts.Even if the price is reduced, you should try to use words such as "discounted price", "commodity special sale", "profit and reward" to give people a better impression.

1. Observe the customer's reaction

Whether it is to increase the price or lower the price, it will inevitably affect the purchase of customers, and then affect the sales of clothing.Generally speaking, when the price of clothing is reduced, the purchase volume of customers will increase, but customers may also affect the purchase volume because of the following views:

(1) This kind of clothing has some shortcomings, and the sales are not smooth.

(2) The style of this kind of clothing that has been reduced in price is old and will be replaced by new clothing.

(3) The quality of such garments currently on sale has declined.

(4) The price will fall further.

(5) The clothing store enterprise has financial difficulties and it is difficult to continue to operate.

A price increase usually results in fewer sales of clothing, but buyers may also buy in response to the price increase.The reason for this is that customers perceive:

(1) Raise the price, indicating that this kind of clothing is very popular, and if you don't buy it quickly, you won't be able to buy it.

(2) A price increase indicates that the garment is valuable.

(End of this chapter)