With retailers offering discounts 24/7, for any time or reason, seasonal sales events such as “Back To School Daze” and “Black Friyay” could be losing steam.

However, recent data indicates that the concept of “everyday’s a sale day” can peacefully cohabitate with traditional retail holiday events, as long as retailers remain flexible.

The traditional retail calendar is evolving as data-driven insights and shifting consumer behaviors reshape the industry.

Evolving Retail Strategies: Flexibility and Personalization

Retailers are creating strategic sales events throughout the year, providing consumers with more opportunities to save and engaging experiences that drive loyalty.  Even behemoths such as Amazon embrace “Prime Day” events twice a year, which are not tied to any holiday or season.

However, retailers can be rest assured that not all customers want to do all their gift shopping in July.

According to the National Retail Foundation, customers are still accustomed to spending money seasonally, and retailers are ready to deliver safe, convenient and affordable shopping experiences with the products and services consumers want.

Further, they expect retailers to entice them with special pricing to kick off the spending season.

However, retailers are expanding the length of these seasons – for example, Black Friday is no longer just a one-day event but now encompasses the entire weekend as well as Cyber Monday.

The NRF reported that last year, a record 200.4 million consumers shopped over the five-day holiday weekend from Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday. That’s a 1.8% increase from 2022.

Historical data shows that Thanksgiving shopping has trended upward, although the COVID pandemic did adversely affect 2020 and 2021.

Today’s shoppers are looking for deals and special offers outside of traditional holidays. In response, retailers are creating sales events throughout the year, often tied to specific product categories or customer segments.

Omnichannel Operations & Promotion Planning

In addition, retailers are taking those targeted campaigns and focusing their reach on individual customer preferences and behaviors.

Businesses have successfully promoted omnichannel retailing, which has led to an expectation of flexibility, not only in how shopping occurs, but also when it happens.

As the lines between online and offline shopping have blurred, traditional event-based sales have become less relevant – as well as when those take place.

Retailers are increasingly leveraging advanced analytics and visual analytics tools, such as Retail Pro Decisions and Retail Pro Reporting, to identify optimal sales periods and personalized experiences to provide more sales opportunities.

Software solutions like Retail Pro Reporting help retailers get valuable insight into their business that can be customized endlessly to identify seasonal trends that might lend themselves to a new promotional opportunity.

A visual analytics software like Retail Pro Decisions, on the other hand, can alert retailers in real time to deviations that will be helpful in considering the timing to launch a sale.

No longer bound by traditional sales calendars, retailers are making more data-driven decisions to optimize sales and foster loyalty and retention.

While the retail landscape is evolving, traditional seasonal sales events remain relevant, albeit with a twist.

By embracing flexibility and data-driven strategies, retailers can harmoniously blend everyday discounts with iconic events such as Black Friday and Back to School.

The Benefits of Consolidating Point of Sale Data

The Opportunities in Your Data

Measuring ROI of relationship building with loyalty programs

The goal for many retailers is to provide a shopping experience that meets – and possibly exceeds – customers’ needs, while generating an attractive profit.

Success depends on accurately understanding and responding to customer trends, which requires gathering and analyzing shopper data.

Traditionally, obtaining that information is done by tracking website engagement and point-of-sale data, which only offers retailers part of the story.

Ask for the data you wish to receive

Asking shoppers specific questions about their buying habits is one of the most effective ways to not only learn more about customers’ preferences but also to increase loyalty.

And shoppers – eager to have a more personalized retail experience – are increasingly willing to provide details about their purchasing habits.

By asking for relevant information and limiting the amount of personal information requested, customers are more likely to respond.

They understand their answers, referred to as “zero-party data,” are targeted at specifics, which can ultimately yield a better customer experience.

Such a focused approach offers retailers high-value data and is considered by customers to be thoughtful and minimally intrusive.

Evolution of attitude towards data collecting

Years ago, at the dawn of the info-gathering age, when the emphasis was too often on just collecting as much information as possible, customers were skeptical about providing information, fearing a constant barrage of marketing material.

Retailers were reluctant too, not wanting to use data insights too readily as they worried about appearing too “creepy” in their attempts to provide personalized experiences.

Today, those sentiments are reversing. Customers are willing to provide data, especially if they benefit.

For example, bargain hunters will sign up for promotional texts for discounts, while shoppers who are enthusiasts about a brand or particular market may subscribe to a newsletter or blog.

Using OptCulture for Retail Pro makes it easy to market to your customers through any and all channels are best for your business once they agree to share their information.

Savvy retailers offer an enticement, and customers offer select information in exchange for that valued item.

The retailer receives data that helps inform about appropriate future product selections, store locations, etc.

With OptCulture for Retail Pro, you can do this seamlessly by using a digital receipt to cross-sell or upsell.

Increasingly, customers are willing to provide details to brands when they can clearly understand the reason behind the request.

They will answer surveys or quizzes that help their favorite retailers create more tailored shopping environments, and they are eager to provide the names of brands they are enthusiastic about.

When a retailer is upfront about what information they want and how they’ll use it, it builds trust, and that builds loyalty: A recent Harvard Business Review study reported that companies with high loyalty grow revenue 2.5 times faster than their industry peers.

Analysis makes the most of zero-party

Collecting targeted data allows retailers to provide a more relevant shopping experience, and customers respond by offering their loyalty.

Long-term, that loyalty significantly affects revenue and profitability, as brands experience repeat purchases and no incremental acquisition costs.

After harvesting that information, retailers must be able to analyze it effectively.

Retailers use an average of five to six tools to collect feedback and data, but far fewer businesses invest in solutions to aggregate all that data.

Using business intelligence to analyze the information makes it significantly more useful in providing insights.

Business intelligence that is baked into software and happens automatically takes it to an even greater level of convenience. Retail Pro Decisions is one such POS business intelligence software that offers insights automatically, from every channel.

Ensuring every department uses the same CRM helps to create complete customer profiles, with data accessible among the entire business.

A unified view, augmented by customer-supplied data, supports content optimization and more relevant customer journeys.

Zero-party data, in unison with a focused CRM and targeted marketing strategy, improves the effectiveness of personalization efforts – benefitting brands, retailers and customers.

The Benefits of Consolidating Point of Sale Data

The Opportunities in Your Data

Pop-ups are increasingly becoming popular among established retailers looking to inject some fun and excitement into their retail routines.

Often thought of as vehicles for direct-to-consumer and start-up brands, they are making inroads as a means of attracting new customers, as well as for trying out products and services.

Additionally, because pop-ups are temporary, they naturally project a sense of urgency, so products are differentiated from others found in brick and mortar outlets.

This urgency also necessitates the vendor’s ability to have their system run smoothly. Retail Pro Prism is able to run sales without internet, ensuring you won’t miss out on sales and technical difficulties won’t take away from the experience Here are some reasons established retailers are investing in pop-up strategies.

Building excitement for a special-issue product

Pop-ups give an established brand the opportunity to go “off-script” a bit, and provide a platform from which they can build buzz.

They can be tied to a celebrity endorsement, or to the launch of a product that had previously only been offered direct to consumers.

Further, pop-ups can be creatively presented and shared on social platforms to further increase engagement.

That appeals especially to Millennials and Gen Z, which comprise 2/3 of the population as well as the majority of active social media users, who frequently share “in-the-moment” experiences.

Retailers often provide rewards to encourage social sharing as well.

Gathering customer information via pop-ups

Many brands use pop-ups as data-gathering tools for iterating on ideas such as curbside pickup and contactless payment.

Mobile POS are also a helpful tool to have available for these smaller store settings where staff may be limited, so associates can seamlessly transition from interacting with customers to completing a transaction.

Retail Pro Prism is one software for all of your devices and is designed to be used on all operating systems for your convenience.

They can also test product ideas to see what is popular and trending, as well as easily get feedback from shoppers about selections.

Changes to how a brand traditionally operates can also be test-run — and adjusted — successfully.

Testing in this type of intimate setting helps build customer rapport.

In addition, pop-ups may attract new, non-traditional shoppers, who can now be added to future marketing campaigns.

Pop-ups respond to seasonal trends

Many retailers can provide specific products for a particular season, but may not want to transform their entire retail space for that purpose.

For instance, winter pop-ups at trendy ski resort towns cater to slope-side shoppers, while summer pop-ups in quaint seaside villages appeal to sun seekers.

Retailers are able to maintain their traditional brick and mortar branding while providing an exclusive flair outside that domain.

Pop-ups can strengthen the customer relationship.

Pop-ups are smaller, more intimate affairs. They often generate publicity simply because of their temporary nature, and especially when they are a limited engagement.

It’s often more practical to try new trends in a pop-up rather than in an expensive retail space.

Some clothing pop-ups roll out inventory on racks daily to see what sells, and that informs their traditional stores of merchandise trends.

Success relies on the retailer really understanding the customer segment they are targeting and being dedicated to developing that relationship.

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