The summer had ended, the season is almost finished and the number of clients playing at your golf course is starting to decrease. But it does not mean that your job as a golf club manager becomes easier. On the contrary, fewer golfers’ means that it is that time of the year when you still have a bunch of work to do.
You have now to coordinate the maintenance of golf carts and other vehicles at your service, start to prepare rates, promotions, and schedules for next season, and, above all, face the difficult end-of-season task to liquidate (along with your pro shop) your golf equipment and apparel.
You need to liquidate your pro shop inventory for two main reasons: to get some extra cash in order to contribute to pay the offseason bills; but also to free up shelf/rack space for next season’s newest products and merchandise at your pro shop. So let us give you a couple of ideas to think that will assist you to increase your end-of-season liquidation sales.
Offer Pro shop only deals
Of course, every one of us loves a good deal. So do not hesitate to lower the price of those items that have been seated on the shelf your too long, especially if there is a client that would like to make a large purchase of equipment. It could seem that you are losing money, but in fact, it is a great way to move the inventory and ensure that your happy member is going to return next season. Therefore, reducing a little bit your profit margin can become a true win-win deal.
If your pro shop has also an associated on-line store, you can cut the listed prices and offer a good discount on slow-rotating products you want to clear from your inventory. Of course, in this kind of offer, the client should pick up the product over the counter. This situation will give you the chance to catch the eye of the customer with some extra bargains. Remember: during the end of the season, it is much better to clear the on-store inventory rather than having it drop-shipped from the manufacturer.
Temp golfers with special promotions
At this time, you surely know which items from your store have not been as profitable as you expected for the season. Then, rather than try to sell them in the normal way, you should think about making special promotions centered on these products.
There are many ways to promote the sale of a slow-rotating item. Rather than giving it for free or at a drastically reduced price, you may try to apply some smarter promotions such as Buy-One-Get-One, give a free item if a certain amount is spent, or throw some mix-and-match deals into the pot.
Clearly, these are just some ideas of the many promotions that could be useful, so get creative! Remember that only you know how your members are going to react, so the best promotion will be the one tailored to their needs and tastes. If you run out of ideas for effective promotions do not hesitate to ask to the staff of your pro shop.
And do not forget to offer the same —or other more specific— promotions on your online store. Especially, the ones that compromise the use of coupons: some recent consumer research had revealed that up to 90% of consumers use coupons or promotional codes in online stores. You can release those promotional codes on your social media, or to specific audiences segmented on your email marketing campaigns.
Put items on clearance
Dropping prices on products is not as easy as it seems, but it is a great and fast track to liquidate your inventory. Placing products on clearance is not a guarantee that they will sell easily, so let’s review a couple of tricks to generate great clearance sales.
The first thing you need to do is draw attention to the products on clearance. To achieve that, it is probably that rearranging the pro shop layout for the end-of-season, in a way that the client will be attracted to the clearance area.
Then, you should carefully select which is the most suitable type of product for a clearance style of sale. Some of the best items include seasonal items are accessories, golf balls, golf clubs, shirts & pants, and shoes. Anyway, always remember that some manufacturers place strict MSRP limits on their products and that applies to golf clubs. Therefore, you have to remember not to run afoul of these price limits when you place an item on clearance.
Do not be afraid to use price promotions: if you think it carefully, even with a significant reduction, you will always get some profit as long as your sale is over the manufacturer’s price. It will be good for your brand, as a study on consumer marketing published in the International Journal of Research in Marketing supports.
Some final words about end-of-season liquidation sale
We hope that our ideas on how to liquidate this season’s items will help you have an End-of-great Season Liquidation Sale. Most of them are very easy to implement, and actually can move your slow rotation products.
But always remember, you are not limited to the techniques portrayed in this article: creativity is your best friend, and you need to adjust your sale promotion according to your customer base and profit margins. Then, always try to avoid selling items for a loss while maintaining some profit (even if it is tiny). Anyway, your main objective is not to get rich with the end-of-season liquidation sale, but to move your merchandise and clear room in the store for new, more profitable products.
Do not wait till the last minute to start the end-of-season sales, or you may find that your old products lie still in the racks. The faster you clear your inventory, the easier it will be for your pro shop to start selling at the beginning of the year.
