Summer sales holidays have taken on a newfound importance in the bedding industry as everyday foot traffic has decreased. This is according to several sources Bedding News Now spoke with during the Las Vegas Market.
“Covid changed holiday buying habits,” said King Koil CEO David Binke. “Bigger retailers tend to do better, and some smaller retailers struggle. And when there are macro challenges in the world, smaller retailers get hurt the most.”
Derek Leishman, national sales director of Mlily, agreed, saying “consumers are looking for a deal now more than ever, and they have gravitated to buying more during sales holidays.”
While Memorial Day was strong this year, July 4th left something to be desired for some retailers. That leaves Labor Day as a final chance for retailers to give it their all.
To prepare for a solid Labor Day, Leishman said retailers need to talk to their suppliers in advance and place inventory orders to prepare for these holidays. The key to winning during the holidays is differentiation.
“Lean into your strengths—service, price, your story—and refresh your showroom,” Leishman offered. “Retrain your sales staff on key items so that you have prepared, confident salespeople.”
Binke also offered advice on preparing for the upcoming holidays: “Smaller retailers need to store up funds to compete with bigger retailers on holidays. The overflow from bigger retailers ads that used to drive traffic to smaller retailers is not there anymore.”
Nick Bates, CEO of Spring Air, has long been a proponent for the importance of sales holidays, even before Covid. He also says the overflow of advertising from bigger retailers is not the answer for smaller retailers, and that they can compete against bigger retailers.
“You’re not going to get free business,” he said. “The bigger guys are increasing their ad spending, and that’s what smaller retailers need to do as well. Use social media, streaming and geofencing and you can get your name out there.”
Both Binke and Bates suggested using storytelling to cut through the noise, and shared a similar view with other executives Bedding News Now spoke with that a bad holiday could make or break a retailer’s quarter, or even their whole year.
Richard Fleck, president of Paramount Sleep, pulled numbers from his company’s reports and found that summer sales holidays make up about 45% of a retailer’s whole year’s business, which means having too many bad holidays could significantly hurt a retailer’s year.
“Retailers should advertise ahead to get in front of the other ads that will go out for the holiday,” he said. “Build a better buying experience with lighting, signage and refreshed merchandising and POS. Compare your numbers year over year and plan for the year ahead. It’s a continuous improvement process.”
Just for fun, we asked several executives to rank the summer sales holidays from most important to least. This is the list based on averaging the answers of all participants.
- Labor Day
- Memorial Day
- Black Friday
- Presidents Day
- Fourth of July
What do you think? Let us know!
