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Retail Observer: P.O.P. Quiz

Furniture World Magazine

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The choice is yours. Will you have holiday sales this summer or holiday events? The difference is how you make your store POP!

It’s the Super Bowl, the Masters, Black Friday, and the Rose Bowl Parade all wrapped up in one package. The summer selling season has started!

The season already kicked off with Memorial Day and by the time you receive this Furniture World edition, it will almost be Independence Day. These are the two hottest holidays on the mattress-selling calendar. The season winds down with Labor Day. Many of your shoppers wait for these holidays to order their new beds.

Think of all the special days in the next couple of months: graduations, weddings, Father’s Day, and back-to-school. The summer is also the time when many families move into new homes, which is prime mattress-selling time.

Your advertising will bring in lots of foot traffic. Your shop needs to look ready. The choice is yours. Will you have a SALE, or will you have an EVENT?

Your Event

If you’ve decided to have events, it’s the Point-Of-Purchase displays that you use that will make your store ‘POP.’

July 4th and Labor Day are times when your customers decorate their homes and yards. Flags, bunting, grilling, fireworks, music, parades and more! That’s what turns a holiday into an event!

Setting the right point-of-purchase material lets your shoppers know that something special is going on.

Your event should start outside your building: Set out fresh flags and banners, and lots of balloons. They are inexpensive and fun.

Add in the summer sounds of music—even in the parking lot if the landlord will let you. It’s okay to decorate your delivery vehicle, too.

Next are the window banners. Keep them simple—six words or less. Holiday Sale—Special Savings. 60-Month Financing. Mattresses as low as $199.

“Your shop’s interior is a blank canvas! Keep the summer soundtrack going. Pin colorful helium balloons to your best sellers.”

Your shop’s interior is a blank canvas! Keep the summer soundtrack going. Pin colorful helium balloons to your best sellers and those you want to move out. Use a sharpie to add “$49 a month” or “Hot Buy.”

Get your factory reps to send tent cards or tri-folds. There is no need to place them on every bed, but place enough so they are noticeable. Be sure that every mattress has a printed price tag with the holiday savings price. Use kickout cards if you have them.

Add bunting, crepe paper streamers, and small flags to get that holiday feel.

No event is complete without the proper wardrobe. Just like you may dress in costume for Halloween or wear green on St. Patrick’s Day, this is the time to don the good ol’ red, white, and blue!

Canadians have plenty to celebrate, too! This summer, there are at least eight national and regional observances, including Victoria Day and Canada Day.

Play it right, and your store will look like a fun party, not just another vanilla box with fluffy white rectangles. Put on your holiday smile and rock it this selling season.

“Think of all the special days in the next couple of months: graduations, weddings, Father’s Day, and back-to-school. The summer is also the time when many families move into new homes, which is prime mattress-selling time.”

About Gordon Hecht: Gordon Hecht is a business growth and development consultant to the retail home furnishings industry. You can reach him at Gordon.hecht@aol.com