How to Run the Best Pet Retail Clearance Sale Ever

If you’re an independent pet retailer, chances are you have old, slow-moving or excess inventory you’d like to unload. The timing couldn’t be better, because January and February are great months to hold a clearance sale! If you’ve never done it before, it may be because you’re worried about looking like a discount store or you don’t want your customers getting used to deals. But the faster you turn inventory, the faster you make money! After all, your pet store is not a museum!

And if you’ve ever put your pet shop merchandise on sale, you know it’s not as simple as marking down your prices. That’s why I’m sharing my best tips to turn more inventory and put more money into your pocket! Follow my five easy steps below to make your clearance sale a profitable success.

Step 1 – Choose the Right Pet Merchandise

It’s important that you take a close look at your pet retail inventory and make a thoughtful selection of merchandise to put on sale. You can refer to your POS system and pull reports of what hasn’t sold well in the last year. Pay attention to product age, expiration date, price, quantity and over-assortment. Perhaps you over-inventoried a pet product due to concern about supply chain issues, or are holding first-time merchandise in your pet boutique that’s already over six months old and not just holiday specific. Export these reports as excel files and PDFs for reference.

Step 2 – Strategically Discount Pet Store Products

Now that you have a list of products to put on sale in your pet store, it’s time to categorize them and discount accordingly. I like to separate them into diamonds, deals and dogs. Diamonds are your money maker products that may be in demand and customers are eying that you can discount and still get a good margin on them. Deals consist of most of the remainder of your pet retail inventory, and dogs are the items that you will heavily discount because nobody really wants them and are hard to sell.

Step 3 – Hold Multiple Rounds of Pet Retail Promotions

Ideally you want to sell out, and the best way to do that is to hold multiple rounds of discounts so buyers take action before the items they want are gone. Your first round of pet retail discounts can look something like this:

• Diamonds – 25% off
• Deals – 30-40%
• Dogs – 75%

Rounds can go on for days or even a whole week. After your first one, you can promote “New Markdowns” or “Additional Deals” in your marketing. You can stretch your pet shop promotions across 3-4 weeks!

Step 4 – Make It an Easy Purchase for Your Pet-Loving Customers

Your shoppers love deals, and the easier you can make their purchase decisions, the more they’ll buy! Do the math for your customer by grabbing a calculator and writing the discounted prices on signs in red pen or marker or by using color-coded tags. You can even export your sale inventory into a spreadsheet and punch in formulas to calculate the prices and have them handy anytime a customer asks you the price of a discounted pet product.

Step 5 – Promote Your Pet Shop Clearance Sale

Bargain shoppers are out there looking to tap into hot deals, but if they don’t know you’re having them, they won’t come. Treat your clearance sale like any other pet retail event, which means promote, promote, promote! Go big with a theme with balloons and great signage, send emails to your list, and post on social media. You may find new shoppers or people who just come for the bargains, and that’s okay. Just have fun with it!

Learn more with us!

• Need 1:1 support to make massive action now? Book a discovery call with us to see if working 1:1 with Candace is the right fit for you.

• SAVE THE DATE! Pet Business Coaching Week is coming February 20, 2022! In this pop-up experience, discover 20+ promotions that the best pet businesses use in their shops and online. Learn how to easily bring them to life to meet new customers and increase visit frequency of your regulars. Hear the specific marketing techniques to make all your events a success and practice first hand, how to execute them. Join pet business coach, Candace D’Agnolo, and her awesome community of pet professionals for a week of inspiration, taking action and true connection.