There is a visible lifestyle overhaul after COVID entered the centre stage. At that time how retailers can tweak their strategy. Read a few tips.
What to do and what not to do with promos is the main worry of retail businesses. The segment is wide and varied where thousands are involved in selling and reselling. In this heightened competition what sounds perplexing is there is a great difference in marketing due to the corona effect. All on a sudden business feel they need to do some tweaking to make promotions more practical.
This is May 2020 and corona ensured that Aussies had a lifestyle overhaul. Now the marketers need to understand the change in lifestyle and come up with a new approach to sell their goods.
Understanding lifestyle changes
No need to tell that pandemic has lessons for humanity. Citizen movements are limited and we see an unprecedented behavioural change like we have ceased to shake hands and connections are possible only through digital means, emails, or virtual meetups. So, now the question before us is when we have confined ourselves to homes, what is the need for a bag as we seldom go outside. Let us ponder.
Businesses that are widening their reach have already tasted success by promoting cotton bags. They have been doing that for decades together in various trade shows like new car launch or new mobile launch etc., impacting the delegates or visitors.
Now already there are fewer chances of automobile sale in a saturated market like Australia where most of the people have cars. The purpose of telling this is to understand the gravity of the situation as in a country like India the sale is zero in April 2020. That means one should be double cautious to invest and choose the right product for the promotions and should not think cotton bags wholesale alone can do a miracle.
There are reasons to think so. Because in the earlier scenario many businesses were successful in promoting their brands with bags and now also people like bags expecting the corona will be over some time or later. At that time bags, they can use the bags anyway for their outdoor activities to carry their essentials to their favourite places.
But the scenario is changed and we should create new models. Let us see how.
Promoting kids wear store
Retail is a big segment, where transactions taking place in millions. People have children they buy kids wear online as offline stores are closed. Now, what the kid’s store should do? The right way to promote a kid’s wear store is by keeping a thermometer as a gift and place all dresses inside a cotton drawstring bag, bulk purchased for sales promotions. It can be the other way also by filling the goods in a thermal box and place the bag on the top as a giveaway.
What we need to understand from this? Kids fall sick often and a thermometer is a must for homes to detect fever not only to their children but to the parents also. So, while ordering kid’s wear they get dresses, then a bag where the goods are neatly packed and alongside a thermometer also. This is how a retailer like dress shop should handle the promotions. We also need to understand that people are willing to pay a premium for good service. When online stores do like this, customers will be happy to become regular customers thereby helping that store to become a brand.
Toilet goods promotion
In the post COVID scenario, there is a heightened demand for toilet goods stores. Many hypermarkets have their toilet essential sales division. But unfortunately, people cannot go now and the only way is to buy from a toilet items supplier. Now people are working from home and as a result, there is more turn over in the toilets. Due to this the demand for cleaning items like Harpic, liquid soap, toilet papers, napkins etc., have high demand.
Now that we have sensed the demand our next focus is to create value for the customers. They may buy from Amazon but the supplier will the small traders on the roadside who are supplying the products through Amazon or E-bay. Their next concern is order fulfilment providing maximum value to the customers. One way to do it is by offering bags alongside the pack.
Toilet items can clear their inventory with little effort and they should reward bulk purchases with custom shopping bags wholesale. Now the question may arise, why to do promotions when there is more demand for toilet items. Yes, toilet supply retailer can indeed do away with promotions but you should think about the future also. Imagine a scenario where COVID threat recedes in Australia by 2021 January. It has to be noted that compared to Europe and America Australia has fewer death toll also. So, there is a chance that COVID threat will disappear fast in Australia than Asia, Europe and America.
Integrating IT
Think about the post COVID scenario. A good marketer will do predictive analytics. In the case of toilet suppliers, they should have a concern for scenarios like demand dwindling after the lockdown when offline stores open. So, cultivate a loyal clientele well in advance during the COVID season. It makes sense to buy cotton tote bags and stock them in good numbers. This will help you tide over the crisis like post lockdown demand fall.
Likewise, we can think and segregate many items. The reason for singling out an item called toilet item is to inform readers, how lifestyle changes create demand surge for toilet items. When we apply the same wisdom on other products also, we can come up with the right strategies like — do we need to combine gifts or we can do promotions with just bags. Our success depends on going deep into the customer psyche. When we analyse it with the help of data science tools, we can do effective promotions. Do it.
