THE IDEA
Offer Doorbuster Deals
Bill Warren, owner of the Gold Mine Fine Jewelry and Gifts in Hudson, NC, has people lining up to get into his store — down the street, around the corner and into his parking lot — on Black Friday morning. How does he do it? By jumping into the Black Friday fray — offering and comprehensively promoting doorbuster specials.
The Gold Mine sends postcards like the one above to 5,000 clients.
THE EXECUTION
Price Point Lures
Warren sends an inexpensive, 8-by- 6-inch postcard from Postcard Pros to approximately 5,000 clients — everyone who has purchased something in the past five years, with special offers/doorbusters for the first two hours of the morning. The cost of the postcards is $250 plus postage. Warren chooses items with price points at three very low levels: Usually $9.99, $19.99 and $29.99, and includes photos of the items on the postcards.
“After careful testing, I have found that this is the price point that creates an absolute frenzy,” Warren confides.
Warren chooses items that have a high-perceived value, such as freshwater pearl studs, bracelets and necklaces
“Do we sell other higher priced items? You bet, but this is the draw and it’s price-oriented, which is what makes Black Friday tick,” he says
Warren also programs a telephone blast to go out a few days before the event as a reminder. He records the call and delivers it directly to voicemail. The cost is 8 cents per successful call.
He follows up with email blasts to his email mailing list of about 3,500, along with Facebook posts. Leading up to the event, Warren displays the doorbuster items in a special showcase to amp up interest, but doesn’t allow them to be purchased in advance.
Customers line up outside The Gold Mine before crowding in to take
advantage of doorbuster deals.
THE REWARDS
Big Traffic, Big Volume
Warren says he usually makes double to triple keystone on the special items.
Within the first two hours of business on Black Friday, he normally sees gross sales of between $15,000 and $20,000.
“We sell other things as well,” Warren says. “I sold a Rolex President one year, so don’t think this is just a lowball event, but hey, I’ll take $20,000 for the first two hours of the event at key to triple keystone. Best of all, our clients have been trained to look forward to this every year.”
Do It Yourself: Don’t Ignore A Big Shopping Day
- Reconsider your approach to Black Friday. Jewelers tend to throw up their hands and cede the Black Friday battleground to the big discounters, but this can be a peak time for sowing seeds for sales that will be made later in December
- Establish a doorbuster event, and shoppers may make your store their first stop on Black Friday, forgoing that mad scramble for a giant-screen TV at the big-box retailer down the road.
- Do everything you can to promote it, from special in-store display cases to email blasts, direct mail and social media campaigns.