If you’ve heard me talk much about pricing you’ve heard me say that you don’t need to discount your handmade products if you can help it. This has a tendency to train your customers that the prices are arbitrary and can be changed or discounted at will. Your time and skill should be compensated, and you are running a business so it is imperative that you build profits into your pricing otherwise you won’t be able to sustain the expenses that come with it.
However, that doesn’t mean you never run a sale or a discount, but it’s important to know why you are doing and to pick the occasions wisely.
Overstock Sales
Once you have been creating for a while you will have a stash of products that either never sold, that you don’t make anymore, or that had slight defects and you never put them out. When that group of items is large enough, I recommend running an overstock sale. If you’ve been working to grow an email list, this is an excellent opportunity to demonstrate one of the benefits of being on your list!
Gather all of those items and assign the new prices. I don’t personally assign an across the board discount for these sales. I advertise “Up to __% off” based on the items with the deepest price cuts, but then I marks down items individually based on what I actually want to sell them for. Some items that have slight imperfections may get marked down 30%, while items that are in perfect condition, but that perhaps I don’t make anymore, may only be marked down by 10 or 15%
Once you’ve priced the items - and hopefully listed them on whatever web platform you are using - send an email to your list giving them a heads up on when the sale starts. And Email them as soon as the product is available for sale. Then announce the sale online and in your store once it’s actually live. This gives your email list priority to buy your items at a discount and rewards their loyalty as subscribers.
You don’t want the sale to run forever. Give it an end date (through Friday or while items last) and once the deadline arrives, remove the display and the listings.
Thank You Discounts
When you want to use discounts to boost sales I always encourage using that as a way to say Thank you to your existing customers. I heavily promote these sales to my email list and usually choose a gift with purchase option or some kind of volume discount (Buy One Get One 30% off or $10 off a purchase of $60 or more, etc)
These are great to advertise as customer appreciation sales, and once again you should promote them with a clear start and end date. They also serve to pull in traffic during specified times..
Last Chance Discounts
If you have items that have been in your area for a long time and you have the ability to change them up if they don’t sell (painted furniture, embellished decor, jewelry designs, etc) You can offer your customers a last chance sale. Tell them you are going to be pulling those items from the space to create something new on ____ date. If they’ve had their eye on a piece now is the time to get it. You don’t actually have to discount the items to use this marketing method, but if you do, I recommend only discounting 10% or so. Afterall, you can change the pieces up and bring them back in with a brand new look and maybe sell them at full price!
Appreciation Days
There are so many professions that are frequently recognized in Retail, you can use this to your advantage. As I write this article Teacher’s Appreciation week is coming up, and we plan to offer a free gift with purchase to anyone who shows a teacher’s ID. A GWP is a great way to get customers to shop with you and move products that don’t cost a lot in time and materials, or that you have an excess off and are ready to move. I’m not saying choose junk, you still want it to be appealing, but this is a good way to move product and reward shoppers.
Another option here is to offer a Volume Purchase discount (BOGO___% off deal or $__ off of a $__ purchase). This ensures that your sales are enough to support the discount without cutting too deep into your profits and it’s still a great gesture of thanks.
Some Examples; Teachers, Law Enforcement, Administrative Professionals, Non-Profits. If it’s not a national appreciation week you can always choose your own time and let local schools, LE Departments or offices know what you are doing to increase traffic for these sales.
After Season Discounts
When you have holiday or seasonal items that you don’t want to save for the next year, running a short sale the following week for 30-40% off can be a great way to move that product. This is the only time I would suggest discounts this deep, or maybe in an overstock sale. Remember though, if you can repurpose those items for another holiday, or change them up for the following year, it may be worth it not to discount them. But that decision rests solely with you as the artist or maker.
One thing that we do at my store is a Christmas in July Week. We pull together a huge Christmas Display and for one week in the middle of summer we give out customers a chance to get ahead of the crowds and shop for Christmas Decor. It’s also an opportunity to test new ideas and encourage our customers to start thinking of the customizable gifts that our vendors offer so they will hopefully place those Christmas Orders Early!
Class and Demonstration Discounts
When a customer has already paid for a class with me I often offer a 10% discount that day. This is essentially a thank you discount for a paying customer. On demonstration days I will usually offer a volume discount. I know they are coming to see a paint demonstration, so they are likely to buy paint. I’ve offered 50% off a paint brush of your choice when you spend $65 in paint products. I’ve also offered $15 off a $75 Paint purchase. This is just a way to encourage them to spend more and thank them for coming out to the event.
So as you can see there are lots of reasons you could offer sales or discounts but they don’t have to be huge to be effective, and when used to reward existing customers or encourage volume, they don’t give the impression that prices are simply slashed at will.
When you choose to offer discounts be sure you communicate clearly with the store you are in. I suggest sending them an e-mail. Tagging them in all your social media posts about the sale and dropping a flyer with all the details at checkout and talking with the people who will be ringing up those discounts. This is courteous so that the store employees aren’t caught off guard, but also allows them to help promote your sale. The more they know and understand what you are doing, the more they can talk with customers about it!
