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With the changing of the seasons comes the hardest and most stressful period for any merchandising manager: the end-of-season sales.

The Covid-19 pandemic, lockdowns, and store closures we’ve experienced in Central and Southern Europe over the past 15 months make this period even more important, as it’s the last chance to offload retailers’ inventory.

During the preparation period, merchandising managers and directors calculate the best average discounts, according to the maximum budget dedicated to summer or winter seasonal sales. Additionally, merchandising managers have to develop their strategies and present them to merchandising directors.

To decide what strategy to implement, one needs to look back at previous end-of-season sales. It’s essential to understand what your competitors did to beat them during this crucial sales period and avoid discounting too much — and losing margins. 

Let’s assume that your end-of-season sales for 2020 didn’t perform well. You might be wondering: What are the reasons behind this? Was it because the offerings were not appealing to the consumers? Could it have been the lack of availability, or that the discounts were not attractive enough? 

With Retviews, you can log into your dashboard and instantly see that your competitors were a lot more aggressive than you during the sales period. This information allows you to better position yourself for upcoming seasons and adjusts your stock and discounts accordingly.

Time-to-market is an important element for businesses. It can be not easy — especially for e-commerce and online businesses, which cover several markets — to adhere precisely to the various launch dates during the discount period. This can often make a decisive impact on your end-of-season sales results.

For instance, let’s assume your brand’s e-commerce platform covers France, Italy, and Spain, but you are based in Paris. All three countries have different starting dates — but you missed out on that crucial piece of information. 

Using Retviews data, you discover that you started your end-of-season sales four days after your competitors — which means you missed out on opportunities from a customer point of view to get great deals, but also for your brand to offload its backstock.

End-of-season sales are always tricky, and strategies can undergo many changes. However, fashion retailers and wholesalers need to be on top of their game and stay agile. So start optimizing your sales strategy and boost your margins by understanding your competitors’ data. Your journey toward achieving your goals and increasing sales begins now — with Retviews.