SELLING DEAD RETAIL PROFESSIONAL INVENTORY IS NOT LIKE RUNNING A CLEARANCE SALE. Dead professional inventory is different than clearance merchandise; it's generally older and lacking a current demand. If you find with any layer of dead merchandise to which customers are not responding, pull it back and bring something else forward, then bring the first layer back forward at a later time at a greater discount. If you attempt to move it merely by taking an additional markdown without remerchandising it, as you might with clearance merchandise, you only reinforce in the customers mind that it may not be desirable even at that new, lower price.
DEVELOP MERCHANDISING AND SELLING STRATEGIES TO MINIMIZE THE IMPACT ON YOUR REGULARBUSINESS. The last thing you want your store to look like is that it's going out of business. You want to protect the brand integrity of your store. This is why a slow, steady approach works best, so that your dead professional inventory never represents more than a small piece of your overall offerings. For some salons/spas, it may be a small feature just off the front of the store, or perhaps a dedicated table or rack on a traffic aisle further back in the store.
PRICE IT TO BE IRRESISTIBLE. Forget what you paid for it, or are carrying it on your books for. It's not relevant! Let me repeat this, because it's an easy point to get hung up on: Forget what you paid for it, it's not relevant; that was then, this is now! What is relevant now is the price your customers will pay for it, now! And like most everything else in retail, your customers will tell you very quickly whether you have it priced right or not.
When you are confronted with a buildup of dead professional inventory, it's critical to make a clear-headed but realistic assessment of what it's going to take to move it through. It's losing market value every additional day it's sitting there. It represents cash that is likely needed for other critical business purposes, such as paying vendors, reducing debt, fleshing out assortments or stock levels of key items or opening additional salons/spas!
The time to get started is now.
Call MIKAL for more details on how to make your inventory more profitable.