- Joined
- Jun 21, 2011
- Messages
- 704
I see a pretty nasty trend developing. It has always been present, but with the continuing bad economic conditions and advancement in communication between couponing and bargain groups on the internet....Ebayers. Yes, I know it has been around for ages. Yes, I know there always those people that come in buy out all of **insert "hot" item here**, just to put it on Ebay. Yes, I know that some stores have no Ebayers and some have multiple.
Today, we had a honest to goodness guest come into the store and say that they were disappointed that we were out of the Missoni stuff. They were unaware of the madness that had ensued the prior day. She just wanted a Missoni dress. Target marketed Missoni to spur "extra" sales in the store. I.E. you come in to buy a Missoni dress and while you are there you buy some milk, shampoo, and toliet paper. Yes, Missoni had good markup on it. HOWEVER, Target was counting on the Missoni sales to include some of these "extras." Come to find out, many of the stores entire Missoni collections were sold to a select few people in giant heaping carts. Target spent alot of money on advertising, signing, payroll, etc., in order to sell the collection and those all important "extras." Come to find out they could have saved all that money and just keep the junk in boxes and sell it the ebayers straight out of the DC.
Want to drive profitable sales? STOP selling to Ebayers. Simple as that. The collection will still sell and you will have a shot at getting the "extra" items. After a month (or whatever), open the store to Ebayers and resellers. If they still feel the market is there to make money on Ebay, more power to them and the store just got rid of some extra inventory. Win win. If cutting out the ebayers keeps inventory high, then marketing better get their butts in gear and find some better stuff to sell.
So here is the point....sell to the guests. The stupid Mickey's that rolled out 2 weeks ago. My store sold all of them to an Ebayer. There are already several items that are being MEGAhyped on the internet for the upcoming holiday season. The time to nip this is right now because it is just about to get out of hand.
I could go on and on, but I won't.
Today, we had a honest to goodness guest come into the store and say that they were disappointed that we were out of the Missoni stuff. They were unaware of the madness that had ensued the prior day. She just wanted a Missoni dress. Target marketed Missoni to spur "extra" sales in the store. I.E. you come in to buy a Missoni dress and while you are there you buy some milk, shampoo, and toliet paper. Yes, Missoni had good markup on it. HOWEVER, Target was counting on the Missoni sales to include some of these "extras." Come to find out, many of the stores entire Missoni collections were sold to a select few people in giant heaping carts. Target spent alot of money on advertising, signing, payroll, etc., in order to sell the collection and those all important "extras." Come to find out they could have saved all that money and just keep the junk in boxes and sell it the ebayers straight out of the DC.
Want to drive profitable sales? STOP selling to Ebayers. Simple as that. The collection will still sell and you will have a shot at getting the "extra" items. After a month (or whatever), open the store to Ebayers and resellers. If they still feel the market is there to make money on Ebay, more power to them and the store just got rid of some extra inventory. Win win. If cutting out the ebayers keeps inventory high, then marketing better get their butts in gear and find some better stuff to sell.
So here is the point....sell to the guests. The stupid Mickey's that rolled out 2 weeks ago. My store sold all of them to an Ebayer. There are already several items that are being MEGAhyped on the internet for the upcoming holiday season. The time to nip this is right now because it is just about to get out of hand.
I could go on and on, but I won't.
