With the Future Uncertain, It’s Time To Do This

By Mr. Retail

I don’t know if you have noticed, but things are slowing down all around us. We aren’t in a recession yet, but it sure looks like it is coming. At the same time, many of us have more inventory than ever before. So, what should we do?

My money is on running promotions while people are still spending.  Major retailers say consumers are going to pull back on spending.  So why not take advantage of that extra inventory and run a private sale, tent sale, truckload sale in case the economy heads south?

I know it will take months to run through my current stock on some models at my current sell rate.  So, I’m running a sale in the coming weeks to generate cash to help weather the economic storm that may be coming.

For many of us, our inventory has only gotten more valuable as vendors have gradually increased prices, so we are in a better place than ever to offer a discount.

If I give you any more wisdom, it would be to target categories and/or products that are slowing down the most with the biggest discounts.  If you are really lean on motorcycle audio and that category is hot, the promos might not exist at all. But if you have loads of $300 CarPlay radios, that may be a good category to promote. In the end, you want to accomplish three outcomes:

1. Generate cash for your store to help you weather an economic slowdown.
2. Create excitement in your marketplace as clients haven’t heard the word “sale” in our industry in a while.
3. Work to lower inventory levels AND get each category more in line with seasonal selling patterns.

If I am wrong, you took a little hit in profitability. But if I am right, and lots of economists think I am, you are putting yourself in a stronger position moving forward. I look forward to hearing how your promotions worked for you. Good luck!

To contact Mr Retail, email [email protected]

About Mr Retail
Mr Retail offers opinions and information on car audio retailing for CEoutlook. He wishes to remain anonymous. He has owned a retail store in this country for over 20 years now. Mr Retail loves what he does and loves the 12 volt industry and is happy to share his hard won expertise.

Photo credit: http://municipaltruckct.com