SAMPLE SALE SERIES: Planning Your Sample Sale for Maximum Impact

Wait, but I woke up like this?

After reading our last blog, SAMPLE SALE SERIES: Sample Sales 101, you’re probably waking up with a “let’s do this, I’ve got this” attitude. I can practically hear your inner dialogue from here: I slept on it…a sample sale is a no brainer for my store and sounds easy peasy. Reality check: You don’t just wake up and run a flawless event—unless you’re Beyoncé. For the rest of us, pulling off a successful sample sale requires purposeful goal setting, detailed planning, and impeccable timing. 

Ground Yourself in Goals

Once you’ve reeled yourself back in from cloud nine, grab your notebook, appointment reports, and calendar. The first step in planning a successful sample sale is purposeful goal setting. You have to know what you’re working towards before you get the ball rolling on the event itself.

5 Goals You Need to Set

• Start with your overarching goal— is it shifting current inventory, generating revenue, making room for new arrivals, etc.? This is your primary purpose in hosting, your reason—why here, why now? A sample sale shouldn’t be a bandwagon event that you jump on. Make it make sense for your store!
• Revenue generation—you’re a business owner so money is always on your mind, as it should be. Whether this is your primary goal or a supplemental one, ask yourself what numbers do you want AND need to see from this sample sale?
  • Poppy makes this easy with our reports feature!
• Customer acquisition—more appointments mean more customers and more customers mean more money…business owner math. See how many of these goals are linked together? Ask yourself how many appointments you want to book during this event. Keep in mind we’re talking about a long weekend.
• Closing ratio—you have your revenue number in mind and your ideal appointment count, but let’s take it a step further. How many of these sales can you capitalize on and what’s your performance outlook? Look at your sales data averages for that specific weekend in the past years, that month in the past years, and your recent customer closing ratios.
  • If you’re a Poppy user, run a closing ratio report to save some time!
• Inventory movement—there’s a good chance that you have new inventory on its way to you, so it’s out with the old and in with the new. Although this goal area has more flexibility than others, especially for stores that sell dresses off the rack, it’s still a good idea to set a goal for how many dresses you’d like to sell at your sample sale. It’s a team motivator and promotes camaraderie amongst your staff.   

Now that you know what you’re working towards, you can make data driven decisions with calls to action.

How should I structure my sample sale?

 We briefly touched on the ‘when’ of a sample sale in our previous blog, SAMPLE SALE SERIES: Sample Sales 101. If you’re new here, the timing of a sample sale is everything. Most bridal boutiques host sample sales twice a year—when spring turns to summer and when fall turns to winter. Naturally, these times of year coincide with new dress arrivals from March and August bridal markets and slower sales seasons, allowing you to make room for new stock and maximize sales during historical dips.

Most sample sales take place on a single weekend—yes, that’s right, all this work for one weekend. But trust me, it’s worth it! The weekend you pick depends on your staffing, current event calendar, etc., there’s no secret, sample sale weekend that’s better than the others. As long as you give yourself enough time to market, advertise, and prepare, you can’t go wrong.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: how will I ever meet my goals in just two days?! You have a problem, and I have a solution: pre-sale access appointments. Pre-sale access appointments give your brides the opportunity to shop the sale before the event. This means they will have the largest selection and avoid the crowds. Of course, you can call them something more creative like first dibs, earlybird, VIP, etc., but the incentive is the same.

Ideas for structuring your sample sale:

• Open up your pre-sale access availability on Thursday and Friday. This gives you two extra days to meet your goals! Go a step further and extend your weeknight hours to accommodate your 9-5 brides. You can choose to run these as self service appointments or incentivize with private suites and an assigned bridal stylist. Focus on booking these appointments first!

• Run Saturday and Sunday as a traditional sample sale. Customers line up at the door, pull a ticket, and shop the sale when their number is called. If you choose to run your event this way, remember to still add structure to the fun—limit the number of people in the store at a time, limit the amount of time that someone can spend in the store, and limit the number of dresses someone can take into a fitting room. If you’re someone who likes surprises, it can be exciting to see how many people show up on the big day.

• If the above method isn’t your jam, consider structuring Saturday and Sunday differently and independently. Book hour long appointments on Saturday and let Sunday be the first come first serve day. Scheduling appointments is similar to an RSVP, you know how many people to expect and can plan accordingly. This is especially helpful for staffing, space organization, and goal progression.        

Is your notebook filling, hand cramping, and head on the verge of a migraine? If yes, you’re doing amazing sweetie! Let’s move to the next phase of planning—casting the stars of your sale.

What should I include in my sample sale?

The answer to this question is a little subjective. Start by re-asking yourself what your goal for your sample sale is—clearing out old stock, making some fast cash, or an obligatory annual sale. It’s possible that your goal could be a combination of all three. In any case, let’s break down what should go on the rack and what should stay in the back.

Go on the rack:

• Discontinued Styles
  • Whether soon-to-be discontinued, recently discontinued, or old news, put those dresses out on your sample sale. If you’ve seen them on a list from a designer, they don’t belong in the back of your store. They are no longer available for special order so they are the definition of a sample in a sample sale.
• Non-Performing Gowns
  • Every store has those dresses that are still waiting for their debut, or maybe they were a one hit wonder and are dreaming of a comeback. Disassociate emotionally and look at the evidence, their showtime, may in fact be now…at your sample sale. 
• Older Collections
  • Gowns that have overstayed their welcome should go on the rack. There’s a difference here though—some gowns are oldies but goodies. I’m talking about the dresses that have been living rent free in your stockroom. If they peaked a while back, put them on the sale rack.
• Gowns With a Little Wear and Tear
  • Some of your samples have received a little more love than the others. If a gown already fits one of the reasons above and has slight wear and tear, it goes on the rack. Slight wear and tear = minor imperfections that could be easily fixed by a seamstress or improved by a dry cleaner—think used but like new or used but good conditions. Remember, you still want to sell this gown for a profitable price.
• Variety of Sizes
  • As best as you can, be sure to include a variety of sizes. Since options are already limited at a sample sale, you want to accommodate for brides of all shapes and sizes. Of course the above factors should come into play, but be mindful that you have several dresses at each size interval.

If you were to summarize what should stay in the back, the list is clear and concise—your top performers, newer collections, and pristine, on-trend special order gowns. Keep in mind, the ultimate goal for your stock is that every dress is a performer in some capacity.

Don’t forget to add accessories to your sample sale! Think: veils, jewelry, and headpieces. Use the same rubric to evaluate whether those accessories go on the rack or stay in the back.

What markdown strategy should I use?

Like we touched on earlier in the blog series, you can discount your gowns one of two ways—on a percentage basis or a flat pricing tiers. We recommend calculating both to maximize your marketing reach and impact. 

Generally speaking, sample sale gowns are discounted between 20%-70% off depending on their condition, designer, trend relevance, and past performance. It’s a tedious process, but you should ask yourself “realistically, what could I sell this dress for?” To answer that question, you should take into account your profit margin on each dress. 

• How much have you made on that dress over its life in the store?
• Is that amount an overall profit or a loss?

Again, map this out with your goals—no feeling-based decisions! Although you may be using a percentage basis to calculate the new price for each dress, it can be beneficial to use the flat pricing tier method. This way, you are doing the heavy lifting for your customers, and they know exactly how much they are paying. 

You want your sample sale to be easy to understand. If a bride has any other top contenders, she can instantly compare and contrast those styles. Flat pricing helps brides instantly spot the savings compared to the original price—both the bride (and her mom) love to see a great deal.

If you want to learn more about ways to make your checkout process smooth and simple during your sample sale, jump to our SAMPLE SALE SERIES: Prepping Your Store & Staff for Success blog.

You’ve had a solid brainstorming sesh and have a goal-oriented plan, it’s time to get the word out about your sample sale! Next up: SAMPLE SALE SERIES: Marketing and Advertising Your Sample Sale.