subject: Bargain Bucket Or Lucky Dip? [print this page] As a retailer youre always looking to stay ahead of the game in the price war by finding ways to attract those all important new customers and to retain your beloved existing customer base. As a result, new marketing techniques, products and display materials can become your best friends or your worst enemies.
Point of Sale (POS) advertising is seriously lucrative and youll notice that every high street store does it in one form or another, from chewing gum, chocolate bars and cut price DVDs in the large supermarket chains, to belts, socks, tights and clothes de-fuzzers in clothing stores. Theres no escaping the constant temptation of our consumerist society and to be honest the little things youll be roped into buying at the till arent going to break the bank.
Quite often the POS merchandise is a great way to help you pass the time in a long queue and theres a delicate balance between that long queue tempting you to buy something you dont need to deciding to buy it, then thinking about it for a few minutes and then putting it back shop managers have to be careful that they dont alienate shoppers by skimping on cashiers and causing lengthy queues.
Good old fashioned POS included the bargain bucket and the lucky dip, essentially the same principle with a different name and these were a great way to tempt people to buy small, low value products or to clear end of line stock and make space for new. These techniques might be old but done right they can still generate great revenue, after all if 500 customers buy a pair of socks for 2.99 at the till of a high street clothing or department store, that store will make a tidy 1,495.
Seasonal products are also popular POS items, with gadgets and gifts for Fathers Day, Mothers Day, Christmas and Easter as well as the heavily marketed and commercialised Valentines Day. These are items that we probably wouldnt even think of buying but as we are presented with them at the point of sale and if we are done so in an attractive and appealing way, we just cant resist.
Stores have become savvy when it comes to using snap frames, A boards and pavement signs as ways of luring customers in from the streets and directing them around the store to the new or latest products and the best deals. Using signage in this way is simple but astonishingly effective at generating revenue so next time you go shopping, look out for the ways in which youre directed. We may think were browsing and doing our own thing but we are puppets on a string.
