Summertime can be an excellent time to take advantage of fun events to keep your store hopping and drive some extra sales at the same time. Seasonal events throughout summer tend to be themed, and can be incredibly fun and playful compared to more traditional holidays throughout the year.
May and June nontraditional holidays to consider include Masturbation May, Women's Health Month, No Pants Day, Mothers Day (for spa and body treats), Scavenger Hunt Day, Wine Day, Chocolate Ice Cream Day, Best Friends Day, Loving Day, Ros Day, Martini Day, National Selfie Day, National Kissing Day, National Pink Day and National Bingo Day. These are just a few of the many opportunities you can use to your advantage and utilize as store promotions to drive traffic in.
Events keep the sales floor fresh, and give you genuine reasons to reach out and connect with your customer base without it feeling like they are being solicited.
May and June are also the key months for Pride, especially June, which is National Pride Month. There are so many ways to be involved with Pride, whether you host in-store events, raise funds, or volunteer at events. There are so many ways to show our support for this important community. Mid-April is a great time to start looking at Pride-themed merchandise for your store, or other products and novelties you may not carry throughout the rest of the year.
There are also general themed events you could look at promoting that cover longer periods of time, which may be easier for your store to manage. Think Masturbation May, Anal August, Pride season, “Hot Girl Summer,” “Suns Out’ Buns Out,” and “Summer of Love.”
Why do events matter? Events keep the sales floor fresh, and give you genuine reasons to reach out and connect with your customer base without it feeling like they are being solicited, as well as keep your customers coming back to your store. You end up spending more money than you intended, and also gain loyalty towards the store.
Themed events do not need to be expensive productions to be successful. We are all working with different budgets and constraints; hopefully this article inspires you to find ways to incorporate some incremental income. Ways to engage with your audience that are cost-free include: social media engagement, eblasts, and event phone calls. If you have extra budgets for signage in the store or external marketing — great, but do not feel dependent on these avenues to promote your event.
One of the greatest pieces of information that I have ever been given when it comes to sales is: it costs twice as much to get a new customer as it does to keep one. This can be an immensely powerful thought if you think about all the work you do to maintain relationships to help grow your business, plus all the time and money you put into getting new customers. The wheel does not need to be reinvented; it just needs to be looked after and given some proper maintenance.
The goal is to provide a warm and fun place for customers to enjoy themselves, get the product and information that they are looking for, and generate strong sales for the store. Having fun doing what you do can be infectious for customers, and people spend money when they are happy. Events are also a great time to bring in some new product that you may want to test, and let customers know you are looking for their specific feedback. Not only do they feel like VIPs for being at your party, but now you are looking for their direct feedback and that says you value their opinion as a customer.
These are just a few suggestions to get you started for summer. Now is the time to plan for these events and hopefully this guide gets you headed in the right direction. May we all have the “Hot Girl Summer” we have been waiting for.
Danielle Seerley, aka America Sex Toy Sweetheart, is the senior sales executive for Shibari Wands and Voodoo Toys.
