An opportunity for a "Buy one - get two free" deal

Most retailers will know that the collections they stock for the spring and summer have generally been ordered around August to September the previous year. This is par for course.

Having been awarded the current fashion house contracts we now hold far too late in the year to make the sales for this spring - summer we always knew things would be slow until the next exhibitions in August. This has been the case as expected. Too many shop-owners are saying they don't have any budget left to buy further stock, and that their shop is bursting at the seams already.

I empathise with them and know from experience that they are telling it the way it is.
What is happening every day though, is that the customer who visits a shop today was in the one down the road yesterday looking at the same collections. Tomorrow they will be in the next shop up the road, also looking at the same things.

It's one big merry go round. Every potential customer visiting a shop is presented with all "the usual suspects" they have seen elsewhere or will see later. There's little in the way of individuality. There's little difference in prices, one shop to another either. Sometimes I think a customer spends hours trying on things just for a day out. Let's face it; if they try on all the styles in one shop they won't see much more in the next one but they rarely come back to the earlier shop do they? I think they often just buy in exasperation more than preference.

So many of them have fictional sisters they need to consult, and the coffee shops must do a roaring trade from them as that's where they supposedly go to mull things over before they come back to buy. Which is how often?

So, Maggies Boutique (fictional name of course) down the road which has the same collections as you, was visited yesterday. That means you have little new to offer that they haven't already seen.

Then comes Antonio D'Errico. OK, you don't have it in stock but they can be ordered and delivered within 30 days. No commitment to a large order is needed either as the collection is in production all year so you can take it steady and buy to top up as the season progresses.

So, what about the" buy one - get two free"

Quite simply, we get quite a few enquiries for an outfit directly through our agency emails that we cannot fulfil directly. An agency really isn't the point of sale to an end customer. We always prefer to pass on sales leads to the nearest retailer who has the stock enquired about. That's what the business is all about isn't it?

So, taking an example from today, we had an enquiry from a lady asking about a full outfit including hat and bag. She had seen the style in Italy and was seeking the nearest UK retailer.

The style she asked about wasn't one that had been bought yet by any UK retailer though. The price of the outfit in Italy was very much the same as in the UK for a normal retail business.

So, my offer to a local shop who hadn't seen the collection, was that she buys the outfit the lady needed along with another two styles to make a first order of 3 pieces. The second and third styles would be free depending on her taking the sale of the 1st outfit.

Simple. Take the sale for one, buy three, deliver the one that has already been sold and the shop is left with another two for nowt. That's a damn good deal in my books.

2nd and third styles chosen for free:

This deal depends on someone asking for an outfit not in a location already serviced by an existing retailer of Antonio D'Errico so won't happen to more than a handful, but if I come knocking on your door you can bet there's a good opportunity awaiting.

Good luck with the rest of the season ladies.