Retail Slow Season Provides 5 Ways to Grow Business

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One reason investors choose to go with a pet retail franchise is because shops are not limited to seasonality. Meaning that yes, there is a spike in retail sales during the holiday season, but sales remain constant for pet retailers throughout the year. Christmas might be over, but Fido still needs his haircut and kibbles.

Splash and Dash Groomerie & Boutique shops also offer the convenient unlimited monthly membership which is beneficial for customers and creates recurring revenue for shop owners.

Although pet retail franchises are not reliant on seasons, there can still be a lag in sales figures during January and February. This is inevitable for retails across sectors. The key is to use the post-holiday slowness to your advantage.

This article outlines 5 ways to bolster your shops aggregate gain when customer traffic is not high in your shop.

Plan for the Summer

Align your marketing efforts with summer trends for pet owners. Your inventory should reflect your marketing efforts and now is a good time to make some preemptive adjustments. Summer traveling products for pet parents, and summer coat styling, are examples of trends affecting the pet retail franchise.

What products will sell best in the next following months as temperatures rise?

This is also a good time to think about re-merchandising your store. Holiday merchandising is devoted to Christmas and creating a warming ambiance; in contrast, your store merchandising should be “cooling” during the summer.

E.g artwork showcasing dogs playing in water.

Focus on Expansion

Complacency on slow sales figures and clientele rates will only draw out shop slow periods. Each Splash and Dash shop business model is designed to offset gaps in shop income, but shop owners can profit during these times through expansion.

Don’t use recurring revenue as a crutch; use it as a catalyst.

Promote your business with data collected during the holidays. Target new and prospect customers collected from holiday marketing. Use this as a source to grow your customer base.

Liquidate any surplus inventory. This frees up precious retail space for back-to-school and summer oriented products. The pet retail franchise can grow in both services and product sales simultaneously.

Refine Your Social Media

Social content marketing requires fluidity.

Constantly re-evaluating your approaches and strategies by using social media for advertisement is key. The busyness of the holidays most likely developed your Yelp reviews and drove more customers to “friend” your shop’s Facebook page. Take the time to evaluate these.

What needs to be improved? What is working?

Even if there is less traffic within a shop, this doesn’t mean that internet traffic has died down. By maintaining your social media platform you can ensure that your shop is always an overtone with your customer base.

Host Events or a Pop-Up Sale

Rescue events or other charitable events hosted by your shop are a win-win. Animals win by getting a chance for a loving home, and you win by promoting your business with a philanthropist agenda.

Pop-up sales are also a good way to get more customers into the shop. “Random” sales concentrate customer attention. Customers begin to continually check in to ensure they don’t miss out on a sale. It gives the sale a sense of urgency.

If you decide to host an event or pop-up sales make an event on your Facebook page and Yelp.

Follow up on Referral Programs

Your current customer base is one of the best sources to garner new clientele.

Built-in holiday referral programs are often forgotten by customers. Remind them. Sometimes a customer could have promotional coupons and points and not even remember to use them. This will encourage sales while promoting your shop.

Referral programs gain new clients and reward your current customers for their loyalty.

Slow the Roll

There is a natural slow period that takes place after the holidays affecting every sector. This is the ebb and flow of the marketplace but can be alarming for first-time small business owners.

Pet retail franchise shops will veer from the holiday madness back to a steady drift of customers before picking back up again in the summer.

The trick is to use this slowness as an advantageous time, not one of discouragement.

 

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