What Retailers Need to Know About National Bargain Hunting Week
National Bargain Hunting Week is one of those shopping events that fly almost completely below the radar. Unless a friend has brought it to your attention, you are unlikely to know the event even exists.
Running for approximately a week in August, the event has, nonetheless, been running for more than two decades now.
Below, we bring retailers up to date on National Bargain Hunting Week. While this is an event with a small footprint, retailers can definitely take a page from these tips to sell more effectively to bargain hunters all year round.
Why Buyers Care About Bargains
National Bargain Hunting Week is an annual, week-long shopping holiday started by Debbie Keri-Brown. Debbie Keri-Brown is the author of two books on bargain hunting:
- Bargain Hunting in Central Ohio: A Shopper's Guide to Savings and Values
- Bargain Hunting In Columbus
According to her Amazon author bio, Keri-Brown was born in Brooklyn, NY.
With family connections to the New York Garment District, Keri-Brown gained an appreciation for how to find good bargains. She launched National Bargain Hunting Week in 1996 in recognition of the growing importance of bargains in a challenging economy.
Two decades later, buyers still flock to bargains, as the success of deals-based sites such as Groupon has illustrated.
How to Celebrate National Bargain Hunting Week
In 2019, National Bargain Hunting Week will take place from August 5 through the 11th of the month. The week-long event takes place annually from the first Monday of August through the following Sunday.
It’s unlikely you will get many potential buyers spontaneously walking into your store or visiting your website looking for National Bargain Hunting Week sales.
As this is a low-key event, the initiative is on you as a retailer to educate buyers and run your discounts on the back of that awareness. If you can create awareness about the event, you can get discount-conscious buyers to engage with your brand.
You could announce, for example, that you will be offering special discounts during the first two weeks of August in recognition of National Bargain Hunting Week. The more you can spread the word, both online and offline, the more sales you can generate during the event.
Improve the Effectiveness of Your Discounts
The results you get during events like National Bargain Hunting Week depend on how well you prepare. One helpful approach is to have a calendar of important retail events and occasions you can use to plan promotions around. Prepare marketing campaigns in advance, then roll them out when the time is right.
You can also use market intelligence and customer segmentation to run more effective discount promotions.
Arm Yourself with Data from Market Intelligence
Running a discount promotion is a good time to apply insights from market intelligence. In the data-rich world we live in now, it’s costly to make decisions blindly.
According to BetaNews, though, up to 30% of businesses are missing out on the benefits of using data analytics due to a lack of skills.
Using market intelligence solutions, you can solve this by accessing data in a form that makes decisions easy. Market intelligence on what prices others are charging, and what promotions they are running, helps you time your own discounts to maximize sales.
Segment Customer Groups and Promote Differently
Another way to improve your discount promotions is to segment your customers into distinct groups. You can then customize the discounts and messages you use for each segment of customers. Tailoring your discounts in this way can boost buyer participation in your promotions.
Smart Insights reports that brands like ASOS and the San Antonio Spurs have used segmentation successfully to boost the effectiveness of their ads.
ASOS, for example, isolated a segment of buyers who preferred to shop from the company’s mobile app.
It turns out this segment was especially receptive to viewing ASOS ads on Facebook, and the company could reach 35% more views by targeting this segment.
Spreading Awareness About Your Discount Deals
As alluded earlier, the online discounts phenomenon has spread far and wide. While platforms like Groupon face their fair share of criticism, they can still help to spread awareness about your discounts.
Using Discount Platforms
Daily deals platforms with a broad audience can help your offer get seen by a lot of discount buyers.
Competition on such platforms is steep, but if your offer breaks through, you can see a flurry of buyers at one go.
Getting Buyers to Try Your Discounts
Succeeding on the deals sites starts with designing your discount to appeal to deal seekers. Use good product photography to draw viewers, and write copy that persuades them to give your product a try.
Next, you will want to promote your deal page. You can send the link to your email subscribers and encourage them to use the discount for themselves or friends. You should also use social media platforms and any groups you might be a member of to promote your discounts.
How to Maximize Revenue With Upsells and Cross-Sells
Running discounts is a good way to acquire new customers and get them to try your products. However, in the long run, you need to maximize revenue generation. Upsells and cross-sells help you achieve this.
Brands Like Dollar Shave Club Use Upsells to Improve Revenue
As reported by Econsultancy, Dollar Shave Club is one of the online retailers that have used upsells to advantage. The company gets users with the promise of a low-cost, $1, blade, but upsells them on a slightly more expensive device instead.
Not every user will be right for the upsell, and you need to keep this in mind if you decide to offer upsells.
Cross-sell to Encourage Users to Buy Other Items
Similar to upsells, cross-sells encourage buyers to spend more money in your store.
Where they differ is that cross-sells are not necessarily upgrades of the same kind of thing the buyer ordered. Rather, they can be other items in your store that the buyer might find useful.
A good example is if you are selling phones in your store. You can also sell phone cases, chargers, earphones, and other accessories that can serve as cross-sells for each order.
As with upsells, use cross-sells with caution since some buyers don’t like being distracted with something they do not want to buy. When you use them right, however, cross-sells can increase average order value and overall store revenue.
Be Prepared for National Bargain Hunting Week
While giant shopping events like Black Friday are popular with retailers, there are opportunities hardly anyone notices. Smaller events like National Bargain Hunting Week can be perfect for retailers who don’t mind doing the extra work to create buzz, educate buyers about the event, and earn some extra sales. Since National Bargain Hunting Week focuses on discount shopping, you want to bring customers a compelling deal. Prepare your discount promotion in advance and use the power of deals sites to spread awareness about your discounts.
