The dust has settled, the payouts are done. So- How did you fair? Was BFCM a hit or a miss for you?
The Baby Bird Boutique always loves mixing sales and promotions up to give a good indicator of the behavior of their customers in that moment. Oddly enough, what worked in 2016 was a BUST when replicated this year. The #1 thing to remember is to BE FLEXIBLE if you notice something isn’t working out!
Last year, THEBBB made ALL Rompers $15! Results? $1692 in sales in mere hours! This year, they tried the same sale and only raked in $381!
What gives?
The behavior of their customer base noticed that there was a 50% off sale coming later that day. Although 50% off rompers still left the best deal at $17.50, most of the customer base deemed that the better deal. A shop owner will never know this behavior in the moment without first trying the sale.
Although there was quite a lot of confusion about if one should run crazy deals on BFCM {The answer from this blog will always be YES!}, it seems most of you knocked it out of the park and had record breaking days. *cue prideful smile*
For one of our clients, the record breaking moments exceeded all goals she had set. Below, you’ll see her plan laid out as well as the results. If you didn’t run any sales, this might just change your mind.
Chelsea, the owner of Crochet Co shares all of her details about the amazing weekend she experienced in November listening to the advice given at BHUB, and following her instincts.
Plan-
- Exclusive Items
- Freebies
- % off VIP & E-mail list
- Flash Sale
- Flat Price Sale
Schedule-
- Friday: Exclusive items & Freebies (email and post to VIP with %)
- Saturday: $18, $20, $23 items + first 20 get freebies
- Sunday: 50% Flash Sale (9-10a.m. & 7-8PM) + Grab bags (2for1 RTS)
Please keep in mind with the tables below that Chelsea was flexible and changed/modified/extended her plan and schedule throughout the weekend according to the goals she had for herself.
Dorie- What is your average item cost?
Chelsea- $25-$35
Dorie- How long have you been in business?
Chelsea- This is my third year online.
Dorie- Can you show us an example of your graphics and email?
Dorie- Where did you share the posts?
Chelsea- My Facebook business page, VIP page, E-mail list, and I even decided to post on my personal page about the flash sale to push sales.
Dorie- How many total freebies did you give away?
Chelsea- I had a total of 40 freebies- some shop credits to other small business, some small items from other small businesses (like these bath salts) and some ready to ship items I had leftover from shows.
Dorie- On Friday, you did % off to each special audience. Can you specify?
Chelsea- Sure- my e-mail list got 35% code & my VIP page got 25% off. By making each code unique, it’s easier to track which avenue is bringing in more traffic!
Dorie- YAY! You’re nailing it! That’s exactly right. You said you had a goal in mind- what was that?
Chelsea- I had a number in my head- I just wanted to have 50 sales for the weekend.
Dorie- Well- what did you end up with?
Chelsea- 77!!! After our first flash sale Sunday, I realized how close to $1,000 I was, and noticed a lot of people were sad that they missed it: So I decided, let’s have one last go round.
Dorie- It sounds like you did exactly what I teach: roll with it, and push on and modify to reach those goals. It doesn’t seem there’s much to critique there. Rather than ask you what worked and what didn’t, I must ask what this has taught you? Has this brought forth any unknowns about your audience or what you might like to try on your audience in the future?
Chelsea- For Sure! I want to do a live sale soon, and now I know that my audience really likes unique and exclusive items.
Thanks so much to Chelsea Wales with Crochetco.com We are so happy to see tangible success by rolling with the punches.