You can also use catalogs as a tool to promote an event that only happens at your store during the summer . Store events are another way to entertain and motivate your customers to walk through your door , keeping your store busy all summer long . Here are a few activities your fellow retailers host each year to beat the summer slump :
Dog Days of Summer
New Life Christian Bookstore in Murray , KY , is housed in a building from the 1880s . Although the place was gutted and remodeled , there were some old signs that owner Karen Welch kept , one of which said , “ Dog Days of Summer .”
“ It ’ s an old concept , but I picked it back up ,” Karen says , quite literally .
Little , unique things make a big difference
Three Great Danes later , Karen now has a standard poodle named Journey . And the dog section which started as one shelf has grown to three sections in the store . For her store , the Dog Days of Summer just made sense .
The Dog Days of Summer typically runs from Father ’ s Day through July . Karen will kick off summer with a sale she knows will draw people into her store : “ Half Price Christmas Sale .” Karen sells Christmas products year-round , so the sale also helps clear out inventory and gets the store ready for the Hallmark ornament launch that happens in July .
The Dog Days of Summer concept started as one shelf in her store . Every employee got to have a shelf in the coffee bar area with their product picks , so Karen decided that Duncan should have one too . Duncan was Karen ’ s Great Dane and official store greeter . For “ Duncan ’ s Picks ,” they made a coffee blend that Duncan “ created ” called “ Dog Tracks .”
“ He outsold everybody ,” Karen said . “ That ’ s when I learned that little , unique things make a big difference .”
In her Father ’ s Day section , she includes dog-themed products , like “ Dog Dad ” gifts and a shirt from Kerusso that says , “ Lord , help me be the kind of person my dog thinks I am .” Karen likes to give her customers ideas to help them think outside of the necktie box .
“ I ’ m constantly rebuilding displays ,” Karen says . To see how something sells , she ’ ll put the same pieces in different sections . If they sell better in one section , then she moves the products from the other displays to that section . “ We cross pollinate ,” she says .
16 CRA today / www . christianretailassociation . org