Promotional Sale Tips for Drug Store Owners

High Impact Promotional Sale can do many great things for your drug store. It can create fantastic cash flow, move old inventory, give great customer perception about your drug store and increased your sales and profitability long-term. The key to having a high impact promotional sale is to be priced right and to create curiosity and excitement.

First, it is best to price as much merchandise as possible. The more you price, the better your sales will be. Whatever you don't get price before the sale starts, continue to price when you have the opportunity. Most customers don't have a clue what the sale price is except perhaps 10% and half off. Let the customers see the regular price and the sale price. Here are several tips for a high impact promotional sale in your independent drug store.

The best time to run is before one of your peak periods. For example, you can have a sale in November until Thanksgiving. You should have the high impact sale for at least 3 weeks and 4 or 5 could be even better depending how much old inventory you have. You should have at one high impact sale a year. This is addition to any regular sales you currently run in your drug store.

Everything on the store should be on sale. If you are at keystone, the minimum discount should be 10% off. Here is a suggested breakdown of ad prices:

12% off - Should be about 10-15 % of the store

20% off - Should be about 70-80 % of the store

50% off - Should be about 10-15% of the store

Your best-sellers should be 12% off. The reason to use 12% is some people can figure 10% and many will think your discount is 15-20% off. Perception is more important than reality.

You should run 2-3 items for added discounts during the promotion for one week at a time. Normally, I would take some of the 20% off items and run them half off. Good items to run on sale are items with special costs or generic brand items especially HBA's.

Normally, taking discounts of 30-40% do not produce more in sales. That is why; the discounts go from 20-50% off. Also, if you make signs, studies have shown that ½ off sells better than 50% off. If you had some old items or slightly damaged, you might want to consider 75% off regular retail. Most likely, you will be losing money, but the benefit is turning dead inventory to cash. With this cash, you can buy better selling items. The key to running a successful drug store is turning the merchandise.

If your products have a lower gross margin than keystone, you may need to make some adjustments to the discount amounts, but try to have most of your items still at 20% off. You may want to use a lower discount, but if you dilute it too much, the promotional sale will not be effective. Too many retail owners get hung up with gross profit percents than gross profit dollars. The purpose of having this sale before a peak period is to gain new customers for your peak period, liquidate old inventory and create cash to use to buy your best items during a busy time period.

What is the best time to start this sale? I would say for most stores, it is Tuesday. Many stores can use Sunday & Monday for pricing. Many stores are closed Sunday anyway, but there is no way, many store owners are going to give up a day's business. If you stay open trying to price on Monday, it will never get done. Many customers on Monday will come back for the sale and will spend much more than originally planned. Otherwise, your high impact sale will be a waste of time and money.

I would price all the 12% and half off merchandise first. In case, you do not get finished, you can have signs and tell the customers anything not priced is 20% off regular retail. Make sure you signed anything that is marked half off and would be wise to have a display of something right near the entrance. You want the customer's to get a perception of great pricing. Also, do not put signs on merchandise that is 12% off unless, it is a high ticket item showing regular and sale price.

How do you advertise this sale? I would either have a banner in front of your store or several signs that say" Everything on Sale". You would be able to reuse these for future sales also. Even though it's gaudy, colors such as Hot Pink can be seen far away and drive curiosity. Using black & yellow signs are not quite as eye catching but more professional looking.

You could place an ad in the local paper Monday and have radio advertising Monday. Also, send a direct mailing to your store mailing list on Saturday. Basically, tell them everything is on sale for a limited time and when the sale starts. You could also say there are free prizes. Have them put their name and address on the letter or just take the postcards returned and do a drawing perhaps a week after the sale starts. You could give 2-4 $25 Gift Certificates as the prizes. The direct mail would be more effective as a postcard. Using door hangers and placing them on homes the day before the sale starts would be great way to generate more traffic at a low cost.

Holding special events or advertising free medical tests during the promotional sale will draw traffic to the store. I would have at least one special event, medical test, or charity event weekly during the promotional sale. Each week the promotional sale must be advertised by one or more of the methods mentioned previously.

High impact promotional sales ran correctly can help a struggling drug store create cash for the busy season ahead. Go ahead and have a high impact promotional sale for your drug store, you may be surprised how beneficial this is to your drug store.