Feature Article
How Mid are Mid-Season Sales? [05/2009] Ellen Bramwell
As we jump quickly through Spring and strive towards Summer, we begin to notice some stirring in our environment. No, it’s not just the green shoots of plants and the yellow daffodils but the massive red SALE posters in our high street windows. Mid-season sales have become as much a part of our shopping habits as the Christmas rush or the January scramble.
Some believe that with consumer goods and clothes getting cheaper (as competition from high-volume low-price retailers drives prices down), shoppers are becoming less likely to wait for the sales. This should mean that people have little incentive to splash their cash at sale-time as they can pick up great buys at any time of the year. However, most dedicated shoppers would disagree with this and, in fact, surveys suggest that nearly three-quarters of us have bought a sale item in the past year. The joy of finding the last £5 dress on the rail or the perfect trainers at half-price will always trump a simple, full-price purchase. Getting to it first and picking up a bargain appeals to the hunter in all of us. For serious sale-aficionados nothing less will do.
However, the sheer number of sales now available throughout the year has led to them losing their excitement for some shoppers. When shops always seem to be having a sale, why go in especially for it? One attempt to combat the sales-fatigue felt by some has been the rise of one-off events, known as ‘micro-clearances’. This is when a retailer goes all-out for an eye-catching event over one or two days, discounting heavily and clearing excess stock in the process.
Large department stores, such as Marks & Spencer and Debenhams, have led the way in this type of flash-sale, with high profile advertising campaigns and one-day spectaculars. This also benefits the retailer in other ways, as it allows for more regular changes in their collection.
With some retailers hard-hit by the recession, this is one way in which the shops on the high street are fighting back hard with sales and promotions. Mid-season sales, whether micro-clearances or more traditional stock clearances, are an important part of this fight-back. By offering sales and retail mid-season events, it is hoped to sustain retail spending throughout the year rather than it being focused squarely on the Christmas period.
Alongside the mid-season sales, discount promotions are also helping retailers to attract shoppers to their store, and helping shoppers to decide where to spend their money. All this price-cutting seems to be paying off for both shops and shoppers – figures from the Centre for Economic and Business Research show that annual growth in retail sales rose between December and February. This follows the government’s VAT cut on 1st December, which is also thought to have had a significant effect.
So it remains to be seen whether this year’s mid-season sales will contribute to the same upward trend and provide some green shoots of growth.
