Dance retailers experience several busy seasons throughout the year, including the “back to dance” rush and the lead-up to summer intensives. Just as important, however, is the start of fall and winter holiday shopping season. During this time, there’s a powerful trifecta of sales opportunities: Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday.
Bob Phibbs, CEO of The Retail Doctor, says that it’s important for small businesses to recognize the value of these shopping days and not assume that they’re only for big-box retailers. “It’s the kickoff to the holiday season,” he tells DRN. “So any day that you can get someone to come into your store and be thinking about purchasing is a good day.”
Of course, being ready for these shopping days takes a lot of planning. Alaina Kimsey, owner of The DanceWEAR Shoppe in Sarasota, FL, says her store offers an in-person and online discount of about 20 percent beginning Black Friday and extending to Cyber Monday. To prepare, she makes sure that she orders enough of the most popular items—in her store’s case, Nikolay’s StreamPointe shoe, which “flies off the shelves,” especially through online orders. She also expects legwarmers from warm-up brand Rubia Wear to be in high demand.
“It’s important to try to have [products on hand] to give to them that day, because convenience is everything,” she says. She uses Lightspeed as her inventory-management software, and makes sure to look at her sales numbers from the previous year to make sure she’s ordering enough. She also suggests writing down all of the most popular styles from throughout the year, as well as the most popular sizes, to create a checklist to ensure you have enough for the three shopping days.
The importance of having enough inventory is a lesson that Arturo Espinoza, managing director of The Dance Boutique in Philadelphia, learned during this year’s summer intensive season. It was the outfit’s first time operating as a public-facing retailer, having previously served exclusively as the store for The Rock School for Dance. “One of the things that we’ve been working on is gauging the demand and how we are going to be able to service the community and provide them what they’re seeking,” he says.
A Different Approach to Pre-Holiday Sales
Margie Wildason, owner of Motions Dance & Fitness Shoppe in Drexel Hill, PA, says her store isn’t open on Black Friday. Instead, she kicks off the shopping season the week before with what she calls “Pink Friday,” an idea she got from one of her reps.
On Pink Friday, the store offers a discount of 15 to 20 percent. Everyone gets a goodie bag, and they have a draw at the end of the day for prizes. Two days later, on the Sunday before Thanksgiving, the retailer hosts a private shopping event. Customers go in after hours, from 6 pm to 8 pm, and shop for regular items as well as bundles, which contain everything from tutus and tiaras for younger dancers to skirts and leotards for pre-professionals. The discounts last through the entire next week, up to Small Business Saturday. The last two years have been tremendously successful, with sales up 25 percent on previous years, according to Wildason.
The Dance Boutique also plans to offer bundles, according to Espinoza. These will include dancewear items suitable for both dancers and gift giving. He also sees this time as “gift-certificate season,” and he plans to offer limited promotions that provide gift certificates when a minimum purchase amount is met.
Getting the Word Out
Offering sales, discounts, and special items doesn’t mean anything without the proper promotion. “I think the key challenge for every retailer right now is if you’re not visible on a regular basis, you’re invisible,” says Phibbs.
Espinoza says that The Dance Boutique will start promotions in early October, aiming to get prospective customers teed up for some of the sales that might be coming. They then have a real push through November.
Kimsey has found that Facebook ads are the most successful way to get customers, so she has focused her efforts there. She typically does a promotion a few days before Black Friday to build up excitement. “Because dancewear is very expensive,” she says, “it’s definitely important for [customers] to know there’s [a sale] coming, so that they’re excited and they know that they can come in that day and expect to save [money].”
Wildason has taken a different approach with Motions Dance & Fitness Shoppe’s marketing plan, starting with email blasts and Instagram promotion in November and communicating very often. She’s been doing a combination of weekly text messages and emails, as well as daily social media posts. The store posts three times a day on Instagram, both posts and stories, two of which are inspirational quotes and one that is a product reel or promotion announcement. “I’d rather over-advertise than under-advertise,” she says.
The Bottom Line
The holiday season is a time for retailers to boost sales by offering different products, as well as discounts. But it takes careful planning, creativity, and promotion to be successful.
Erica Iacono is a writer living in New York City who often writes about marketing and small businesses.