May 19, 2025

SAMPLE SALE SERIES: Evaluating Sale Success & What Comes Next

The Main Event

You did it friend, sample sale complete! The racks aren’t the only thing that’s lighter these days. That’s a huge weight lifted off your shoulders…and that pep in your step that you thought was a lost cause? It’s back and better than ever! But before you pop the champagne, it’s time to hit pause, look back, and figure out what really worked—and what you’ll tweak for next time.

First Things First

Get ready to calculate and analyze. You may have a feeling that your sample sale was a success, but unfortunately, feelings aren’t always rooted in truth—numbers don’t lie. I know it’s not the part you’re looking forward to the most, but it’s important to look at your data before doing any further analysis or sales talk.

What numbers do I need to pull?

Total revenue generated
Total appointment count
Number of dresses sold vs. number of dresses still available
Average sales ticket
Average event budget vs. average spend
Event-wide closing ratio
Top performing designer
Compare to past sales/events
What markdowns performed best?
What day of your sale had the highest total sales?
How did your brides hear about your sale?

If you want to go a step further, consider also looking into your sizes sold during that period of time and accessory sales. If your eyes are growing at this list, don’t stress, Poppy’s here for you.

All of these numbers are quick and easy to find in the Poppy Reports feature—just click a few buttons and we’ll do the calculating for you. If we’ve sparked your curiosity, check out the Top 10 Fan Favorite Poppy Reports blog for more.

Utilize Poppy’s 41+ reports to keep a pulse on performance—we’re all about making it easy to see what worked and what’s worth repeating so you don’t have to.

Return to Your 5 Ws

Who, what, when, where, and why? Let’s have a full circle moment here. This is often one that gets skipped over, but it’s a crucial part of measuring the success of your sample sale—it’s time to analyze your customer behavior. It’s highly encouraged to grab your team for this one. Each staff member noticed and experienced your customers differently—you want to get a full scope of your brides, not just the ones you personally interacted with and witnessed.

Jumping off points for your discussion:

If you held appointments, how many showed up vs. how many no-showed?
- Pro tip: look into whether or not these brides interacted with you prior to their appointment and what their response/engagement level was.
Was there a rush at a particular time?
- Pro tip: use this information for your next sample sale timing.
What questions or concerns came up most often?
- Pro tip: jot these down so you can pinpoint why these questions/concerns were popular—was clarification needed in signage, marketing, or staff training?
Were there common styles or sizes in demand?
- Pro tip: use this to give you insight into current trends in the industry and shape your future inventory.

The more you understand how your brides shopped, the better you can tailor the experience next time to meet them right where they are—literally and emotionally.

Staff Check-In and Feedback

You held a quick debrief with your team while things were fresh, but you need to check in with them on a more individual basis. This means talking about the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Opportunities for feedback:

What went well? What stressed them out?
What feedback do they have for smoother operations next time?
Was there enough staff available for support?
Did the roles you assigned work well?

This is a great opportunity to see your staff in a different light—take them out to coffee or lunch and encourage them to be honest with you. Their responses can give you great insight into their investment in your business and future career aspirations.

Marketing and Advertising Recap

Follow suit from above and individualize a separate meeting devoted to talking all things marketing and advertising. Whether this is a small group or an individual meeting, it’s important to keep your focus on the topic at hand.

Talking points:

What channels drove the most traffic and conversions?
What locations populated the most brides?
What content received the most engagement (Facebook, Instagram stories, email)?
How much did you spend in advertising efforts compared to total revenue earned?
If you ran paid ads, which ads in particular performed best?
What should you double down on next time?

This meeting serves many purposes—it helps you reflect on your sample sale, evaluate your current overall marketing strategy for your boutique, and gives you ideas for future content promotion. So discuss it at length because it gives you insight to your past, present, and future marketing and advertising efforts!

Follow-Up Flow

Although it’s true that your event is complete, you haven’t quite crossed the finish line. There’s always more that you can do. One of the benefits to hosting a sample sale is lead generation.

If you collected contact information from your brides that didn’t purchase, outline a follow-up flow for connecting with them.

Thank them for coming into your store and express your excitement for continued support.
Did their favorite dress miraculously make it through the sale? It’s a sign!
Are you expecting any new arrivals that fit their vision?
Do they want to book a traditional appointment to look at special order gowns?

It’s said that brides often say yes to their dress within TWO WEEKS of beginning their wedding dress shopping journey. Don’t wait to reach out, connect quickly and genuinely.

Brides that purchased deserve a follow-up flow too. This is how you set yourself apart as a store that cares about their brides and not just the sale.

Thank them for coming into your store, congratulate them on their dress, and let them know that you’re here for them throughout wedding planning.
Send pictures of accessories that pair well with their gown or encourage them to book an accessories appointment.
Let them know about any services or packages you offer—the more they work out now, the more they’ll thank themselves later.

Personalized follow-up is a process, but it’s totally worth it. You exceed expectations by investing in your brides and ideally, see a little kickback from your efforts. If you’re a Poppy user, you can use Poppy to automate and track follow-up texting and email communication through automated flows.

Check out the full how-to here! HOW TO: Create a Contact Auto Flow.

Inventory Reconciliation

If your racks are more bare and your dresses are fewer in number, that’s a sign of sample sale success! Take a peek around to see what’s still left and create a plan for each item. Whether it’s going back to your stock room, out on your off-the-rack wall, or receiving an additional markdown, get it where it needs to be!

Desperate times call for desperate measures—if you haven’t already, take a look around to make sure that nothing is damaged, altered, or missing. I sincerely hope this is not the case, but if it is, you have some investigation to do before turning over your store.

After you get your ducks in a row, it’s time to update your system (like Poppy!) to reflect what’s still available. Head over to Inventory Management to adjust item availability (in-stock or out-of-stock) and adjust pricing if needed. This is a must-do to keep your staff and system up to date before it’s too late.

View these how-tos in the Poppy Training Library:

Celebrate and Plan for the Next One

You pulled off a successful sample sale—now it’s time to celebrate the wins, learn from the rest, and start dreaming even bigger for next time. Share those ‘yes’ moments with your followers and shout out the success of your sample sale. Whether you focus this celebration on social media and/or a blog post on your website, let everyone know the fun that was had—and tease that you’ll do it again!

Speaking of the word, again, when would you like to host your next sample sale? Get those wheels turning now before it gets moved to the back burner—future you will thank you. With Poppy by your side, the next one’s going to be your best yet.

Thinking that your next event is going to be a trunk show? Check out our TRUNK SHOW BLOG SERIES for all you need to know.

Let’s grow your store together. Book a demo or fill out the Get Started form to learn how Poppy can help.

Categories:

Sample Sale Series