September 12, 2023 • 33 mins
Imagine transforming your jewelry store's old inventory into cold, hard cash. With us today is James Porte from Porte Marketing, who offers to reveal the potent role of flash sales and limited time offers for effective inventory management. By employing strategic flash sales, he highlights how your store can improve its cash flow, attract more customers, and raise impressive funds quickly. Deep dive into the various types of flash sales and learn how to implement these effectively to maximize the benefits.
Learn more about Porte Marketing: portemarketing.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome back everybody to In the Loop.
What is up everybody?
My name is Michael Burpo.
Thanks again for listening toIn the Loop this week.
I'm joined by James Port fromPort Marketing and he talks
about these flash sales or thesekind of limited time offers
that you can run at your ownstore and that he specializes in
(00:22):
where you offer, for example,60% off the store for six hours
or something like that.
It's really interesting how hekind of has like a specialized
strategy that sort of surroundsthis, but he also talks about
why you should run one of thesesales and why it might be a good
fit for your store.
We talk a lot about ageinventory, which I'm learning is
a very hot button topic.
(00:43):
When it comes to running yourown jewelry store.
I didn't really understand howmuch of your cash flow can be
locked up in some of theseproducts that haven't moved for
over a year, for example, andwhen I started talking with him,
I really could see why a storewould start to have one of these
sales.
Let's hope you learn something.
(01:05):
This episode is brought to youby Punchmark, the jewelry
industry's favorite websiteplatform.
Whether you're looking forbetter e-commerce performance,
business growth or campaignsthat drive traffic and sales.
Punchmark's website andmarketing services were made
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(01:27):
Design it for your free demotoday at punchmarkcom.
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Thanks, and now back to theshow.
(01:48):
Welcome back everybody.
My name is Michael Burpo.
I'm joined by James Port.
James, you're kind of like theking of these flash sales.
These I've been calling themhyper sales or fire sales.
How do you refer to these?
Like 60% off the store salesthat you're well known for.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
I refer to them as basically a sale that is, an
urgency-based sale.
It's got a time limit, it's goturgency to it so that a person
just says I got to get into thestore.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
I see, so would it bother you if I call it a fire
sale, or would you prefer tocall it?
Speaker 2 (02:30):
a emergency sale.
I think most people would referto it as a flash sale Flash
sale, Okay, Nice.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
So I mean, like we were talking about, I found you
on one of the jeweler Facebookgroups these closed groups and
you had posted something aboutsome success from a couple of
your different shows and yourstores that you've done, and it
sounds like this is somethingthat you've done in a few
different stores.
Can you kind of set up whatthese flash sales are and how
(03:00):
you go about executing them?
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Basically, the question becomes why do I need a
flash sale?
Why do I need to reduce myinventory?
And that's the essence.
Everyone has some differentreasons, but the problem is that
this industry, the jewelryindustry, suffers from a big
cancer and it's too muchinventory.
(03:25):
Okay, so we're in a fashionindustry, so styles change.
So, rather than if you look atthe car industry, if they don't
get rid of a car in 90 days,it's off the lot.
Electronic stores if they don'tget it rid of some of their
inventory within a six-month, ayear period, it's outdated.
Same thing with clothing stores.
(03:46):
Jewelers, for some reason, havethis love affair with jewelry.
They buy it, they look at it,they love it.
They can't keep their eyes offit or their hands off it.
The problem is, some of themhave it for five, 10, 15, 20
years.
They reach a certain point nowthat cash is king.
(04:07):
You need cash to run a business, you need cash flow to run a
business, and a lot of retailjewelers have reached the point
where they say, hey, I have nomoney to buy inventory.
Well, it's not really true.
They have the money, they justhave it tied up in inventory.
That's not selling.
So here comes the flash sale orthe urgency-based sale.
(04:29):
I use two of them that are mostpopular right now, and it's
either a six-hour 60%off-store-wide sale or it's a
five-hour 50% off-store-widesale.
Some people use a 60-minute 60%off-sale, which really drives a
lot of people to the store earlyin the morning if they're going
(04:52):
to have it at 10, 11 or 11 to12.
And they line up for it to bethe first ones.
They don't want to missanything, and I think that's
what the sale is all about.
It works on one word, and it'scalled greed.
Nobody wants to miss out on agreat buying opportunity, and
especially when people come homeand they buy it and they call
(05:12):
their friends and they say, wow,what a great deal I get.
So nobody wants to miss a deal.
The question becomes why have anurgency-based sale?
And, as I said, the firstreason is cash flow.
The next is people need moneyfor remodeling, they need to put
new carpet, they need to putfresh paint on the walls, they
(05:36):
need to pay off debt, they needto.
Maybe they're tired of lookingat the same jewelry for 15 years
and they say I got to get ridof this.
I think the emphasis today ishow to buy inventory and how to
manage inventory that isconstantly turning over through
your best sellers, and if itdoesn't sell in a particular
(05:59):
timeframe, then it's time tolook at it as non-performing
inventory and get rid of it andconvert it.
Imagine a jeweler needs toraise cash in a day.
All right, they're able toraise 50, 100, 200, $300,000 in
one event in a short period oftime.
(06:20):
Nobody even remembers the eventa week later.
So the beauty is it's not thatit sticks in someone's mind that
you're holding an event andit's going on for two months and
three months and four monthswhere all they remember seeing
is that your store was on sale.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
Yeah, it just makes it nice and succinct, seems like
something that you can kind oflike plug into a month when you
don't really have a ton going on.
But I would like to ask how doyou kind of go about diagnosing
that?
This might be the issue?
I've heard of the edge having acouple of features in it where
it identifies aged inventory or,you know, slow sellers.
(06:58):
I know that the number onething I've learned from a ton of
vendors and from the edge andfrom different retailers I've
spoken to is that the best wayto drive business is to ensure
that you always have in stockyour best sellers.
But how do you go about kind ofidentifying hey, this store has
an aged inventory problem.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Well, that's you know the edge, and different
companies out there areeducating jewelers on how to
start to look at what ageinventory is.
Is it a year, is it two years,is it five years?
And it seems that the normaltime now is about one year.
If it hasn't moved or left yourstore in a year, it's time to
(07:39):
at least consider it to be deadinventory or non-performing
inventory, which is now.
They look at their sales andthey look at their inventory and
they see that they have 50, 100, 200, $300,000 worth of
inventory that's just sittingthere gathering dust.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Yeah, I mean, I talked to a jeweler kind of
relatively recently and theywere talking about how there's
this massive shift from Halo,halo engagement rings and how
they were all the rage aboutmaybe three years ago or two
years ago and now that's not thething, and you know if you've
got some halos in your store.
One thing I've realized isjewelry is not just expensive
(08:20):
for a consumer but it's alsoexpensive for a retailer to
stock and having you know,several Halo engagement rings,
for example, in their store, itreally would lock up quite a bit
of cash flow just in a fewproducts.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Jewelers are always shocked at after a sale.
When they start seeing thatthey have moved 50, 100, 200,
300 old pieces that they've hadfor the last two, three, four
years, they're almost shocked.
They almost can't believe thatsomeone came in and bought that
(08:54):
ring that they felt would never,ever sell.
Yeah, there's always a buyerfor something and it's always if
it's at the right price they'rein.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Yeah, I mean that's, if I see anything for the right
price, it's like, ah, do I needthat?
I kind of need that.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Exactly right.
It's like they say you knowyou're trying to sell a home,
you can't sell it for X, but youdrop it 30, 40% and it sells
the next day.
So it's all based on whatsomeone perceives as a good
value and a good deal or, inthis case, a great deal.
What?
Speaker 1 (09:29):
products do you find are most commonly the source of
age inventory, or does it justrun the whole gamut Age?
Speaker 2 (09:36):
inventory can be anything to any jeweler, because
some jewelers specialize inengagement rings.
You know we sell a lot ofengagement rings.
Those stores are more apt tohave engagement rings as older
inventory.
Some stores don't carry as muchand rely more on fashion
jewelry.
So it really doesn't matterwhat it is.
It's just a question of how doyou get people into the store.
(09:59):
All right, and what is the wayto hold a sale like this?
And the first thing that youneed to do if you're considering
a sale, an event, is to pick adate that does not conflict with
any other things that are goingon in the town.
I've seen situations wheresomeone has done this event.
(10:21):
They plan for it only to findthat with something else going
on a football game or somethingthat kept people or more people
coming to the store.
So I always suggest to jewelerscheck if you decide on a date.
Check on that date.
Call up your Chamber ofCommerce, call up your newspaper
and ask them if there'sanything going on that they know
(10:44):
of in town right around thatperiod of time.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
That's a great first step.
Yeah, because you know you wantto be the only show in town and
, when it comes to, you knowwhat's worked best for you.
I'm sure that the strategyneeds to shift at least a little
bit.
When it comes to, you know,these smaller jewelers that are
in maybe a more smaller town orkind of space, and then there's
(11:08):
also major city Jewelers thatmight be dealing with a
different type of demographic.
Do you find that it'srelatively similar, or how do
you go about executing,depending on what the size of
these stores?
Speaker 2 (11:18):
The bottom line is we have done, over the last maybe
eight years, we've done sevenhundred inventory reduction
event, okay, throughout theentire United States, actually
some in Canada, and what I havefound is that we have put
together, after seven hundred ofthese babies, we put together
the ingredients that make theultimate, ultimate urgency based
(11:42):
sale.
All right, some people try.
It's like anything.
If you're baking a dish, orparticularly in In the dessert
of some sort, and there'scertain ingredients that you
need to use, you use less sugarthan you're supposed to, the
thing doesn't taste the same.
It's not the award-winningdessert that you thought, it
would be same.
Here the philosophy is is thatwe try to communicate to the
(12:06):
customers of the jeweler thatthey are having this special
event.
If a customer walks in a coupledays or a week or two weeks
after the event and they're notfamiliar that they had this
event, we've lost, we've made amistake because we've created
this whole event and noteverybody knows about it.
(12:27):
That's the scenario that wedon't want to have.
We want to know that, whetherthey come to the store or not,
that they are aware that thissale existed or exists.
And the way we do that Is thatwe look at different ways to
communicate to the customer andwe use direct mail, mail to the
(12:48):
customer, to the Jewelerscustomer base.
We use digital, we use socialmedia, we use Facebook, we use
Instagram, we use texting, weuse radio, we use TV.
Now, each of those changes alittle bit because some areas
don't need you know they.
They have a newspaper but it'snot.
It's not read like it was tenyears ago.
(13:11):
Yeah, some people still favorradio and they have a radio
contract, so we incorporateradio into the mix.
So that's really what it's aquestion of is looking at it
from.
Everybody uses the term calledomnichannel, of course, and
that's just a question of usingthe point of using a number of
different things All designed tohit at the same time to create
(13:35):
a buzz in the community wherethe jeweler is having this thing
.
Some jewelers right now lovetexting and find the texting
their own customer base andletting them know to come in for
this sale Works great.
Others find that the customerloves the personal phone call.
All right, where they call up,they're reading from us, they
have their sales people readfrom a script and all it is.
(13:58):
It's not really, even thoughsome people confuse the sale in
that they think it's just a sixhour 60% off sale or it's a
one-day sale.
Actually, it's a six-day salebecause five days prior to the
event, the jeweler is calling ortexting their best customers to
(14:21):
come in and get the bestselection, get the discount, so
they don't have to wait in line.
Wow is open to the public.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
So that's clear.
You're offering the discountahead of time.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Yes, that is correct.
Wow, special customers, or wecall them VIP customers, vips
okay, get this text and get thiscall and they can come in at
any time that's convenient tothem and they could make an
appointment and they can takeadvantage of getting the best
selection.
Wow, I love that.
Customers, customers love it.
Mm-hmm, I would love that.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
I'm I anybody wants to, everybody's up in the
upstate New York area.
I want to have one of these andthey want to shoot me a tax.
I'd be happy for that.
That sounds amazing and thatwhat a great way to Client tell
as well and start to build thesedeeper relationships.
And also I mean that person,that client, that VIP is going
to feel like man.
These guys really hooked me up.
(15:15):
I owe them one almost.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Absolutely, and that's exactly what it's meant
to do, even though the personsays I'm out of town, I can't
make it.
But thanks so much for thinkingof me.
That's great, and it doesn'tmatter where it is.
In other words, we've done thisin big towns, little towns, big
cities, small cities, and itdoesn't matter what time of the
year.
We've done it in November.
(15:37):
We've used it for Black Friday.
It has been a tremendoussuccess.
All right, we're.
Some retailers feel that theycan't compete against the big
guys.
Well, they can.
If they have the rightpromotion, they can compete and
win against big guys.
So it doesn't matter what timeof the year the greed comes out,
365 days a year, all right.
(15:59):
And when these consumers smellblood, they're out there, coming
in buying and they're happy.
That's an incredible thing towatch is that when you have
customers and they're allgetting great deals, there's a
certain smile on their face.
I got a deal.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
We're gonna take a quick break and hear a word from
our sponsors.
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Let them know that in the loopsent you thanks back to the show
and we're back.
(17:40):
So, when it comes to promotingthis, it sounds like you're
using, yeah, the omni channelsolution.
So one thing when we talk aboutomni channel, we have, of
course, punch mark.
Does websites One thing I'veseen in the past Do you
recommend that people put up alanding page for, you know, the
six days leading up to it, orwhatever that says, hey, we
can't guarantee that they're allproducts will be available for
(18:03):
this time because we are havingthis sale in store.
Or how do you make it so that,if these products are on sale in
the in the store, that theyaren't double purchased online?
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Oh, we don't really have that problem.
Most people are finding thatthey want to come into the store
, pick it up, feel it and see itrather than buy it.
It's not really sold as anonline sale.
All right, maybe once you knowa couple times someone.
It hasn't been able to comeinto the store and the jeweler
can list it on their Shopify oron their on their products to
(18:35):
offer, but normally that's notthe case.
Normally people want to come inand and there's a frenzy that
happens in the store.
It's going to Las Vegas andsitting down at a blackjack
table.
Nobody's there.
You don't want to play at thattable.
You walk in and you see peoplebuying, laughing, you know
Scrammling for certain pieces,and it puts you in the mood to
(18:58):
buy more definitely.
That's what it's all designed.
I mentioned the buzz and moreimportantly than any of this is
the attitude of the jeweler.
Attitude plays a key componentof the success of this program.
If the jeweler is going intothis saying this will never work
, okay, I don't know why I'mdoing this.
I can't.
I can't see people coming infor this.
(19:19):
60% is too much for me to puton my discount and 50% doesn't
work for me.
They can come up with all theexcuses that they want.
The bottom line is is that ifthey have an attitude, they
share it with their employees.
Everybody's excited, thecustomers become excited and
everybody wins.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Definitely so.
It sounds like this can have agreat long term and tail effect
when it comes to increasing orboosting sales at the store.
Not just.
You know we've already outlinedall the benefits when it comes
to freeing up cash flow, freeingup all the various benefits of
getting rid of aged inventory,but what about the tail end of
(20:01):
it?
Because you are, you can onlywear so many bracelets, you know
, or so many watches orsomething like that, and I
sometimes wonder if this mightcut into a buyer's you know
budget for the year when itcomes to that, and at its core
there is that benefit, but theyare probably taking a little bit
of a hit when it comes toprofit margins, or maybe they're
(20:24):
just getting their money backor maybe they're even losing a
little bit.
Do you worry, or is there anyinformation when it comes to
potentially what it's doing fora VIP or a client's budget for
jewelry for the whole year?
Speaker 2 (20:40):
And that's a great question.
Okay, and in most instances andspeaking to the jeweler that
they do not have any impact onholiday sales as a result of
this particular event.
Again, it's a short sale, it'sa quick sale, it's a flash sale,
so they don't even remember itthree or four or five months
down.
All right.
(21:00):
But does it conflict sometimeswhere a person might buy a piece
six months ahead of time?
That's always the case.
But the benefits of gettingmore people into the store we
have jewelers doing this programnow six and seven years in a
row, all right, so that itbecomes an annual event.
It's not just let me do a sale,but I'll only do it once every
(21:25):
three years.
We have once people getfamiliar with it.
Do the consumer, do someconsumers wait to the sale?
Yes, they do.
Does it help the jeweler, freeup cash flow and enable them to
buy fresh, new merchandise tosell?
That's the key.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
Yeah.
So I still see the benefit ofit, even if it does take a small
hit on a different type of partof the line item.
I do see why you would stillwant to do it, especially yearly
.
It does sound like I've been.
You know, I talked to retailers,we did a retail roundtable a
couple of episodes ago and onething I asked them I was like
hey, what kind of projects.
(22:02):
You guys got going up and theyall had a project every single
month for the rest of the year.
And I realized that it's aboutplugging in these kinds of
offers or having something goingaround, instead of just having
months where it's just like,yeah, we're going to open up a
store at 9am every day, we'regoing to close it at six.
You kind of got to switchthings up every now and then.
(22:24):
And this seems like one ofthose things.
Hey, every whatever June, we'regoing to have this, this crazy
sale, and it's going to reallyget people going and it's far
enough away from the, from theholiday season that it's going
to allow for people to kind ofget that that hunger back.
But it does sound like a reallynice kind of plug and play that
that you can start to implementin your calendar for the year.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Well, julia is just, you know, it's amazing just the
success that we have had with itin terms of the numbers.
In other words, it's very, veryrare that we see an event that
is not successful.
And sometimes people I, I posttestimonials.
After every event that we do, Icall up the customer and I
asked them to write how theevent went for them All right,
(23:08):
and whether they had a goodevent, a great event or a
terrible event.
I want to know about it and Iwant to share it with customers
because that's how we learn.
All right, if someone said, hey,I didn't have a great event, I
want to know why.
It happens very, very seldomly,because most jewelers follow
the ingredients of a successfulevent and I get involved with
(23:31):
every event that goes on.
So I am, for six days, tied inwith that retailer, by calling
them every morning, finding outif they posted the Facebook post
, finding out if they made theemail, finding out how many
phone calls they made that day,finding out how many texts they
sent.
This goes on for six days andit creates a coach like effect.
(23:53):
So they have a coach that theyknow every day is calling up and
watching out for them, so that,should something come up, that
they can get an immediate answer.
I love that.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
I think that sometimes you need a little bit
of coaching, even when we areexperts on something.
I've learned that even expertsgo and get some coaching on even
their field, and it just allowsthem to see slightly
differently.
And I've noticed that with,especially with like CEOs.
I find that CEO summits are athing I mean shouldn't we all be
experts?
(24:24):
If we're, if we're CEOs, weshould probably all be experts
on our various fields.
But what you can learn is a lotof things can be done better,
and I think that kind of puttingyourself in the student seat
occasionally is definitely oneof those things that it just
kind of allows you to well,first of all, humble yourself,
but second of all, I do think itallows you to pick up new
techniques, new strategies, newor just even kind of switch
(24:48):
things up a little bit.
I definitely agree.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
And I think what makes our program unique is
really the cost of the program.
It's the cost is available andis accessible to anyone who
wants to get rid of theirinventory.
When merchandise is sold, wedon't get any commission off of
the sale All right.
We don't bring in fillermerchandise All right for the
(25:11):
sale.
All we do is concentrate andfocus on the jeweler's inventory
that they want to get rid ofand because of that it's very
inexpensive, it's very costeffective and again, being able
to convert 50, even $25,000today.
Try going to the bank andgetting $25,000 from a bank
(25:35):
today.
They look at you like you havethree heads, so this is just a
great way of seeing your bankaccount rise and your cash flow
improve.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
Nice.
And now James, you run Ibelieve it's James Port
Marketing.
Where can people find moreinformation about you if they
want to follow up and if theyare interested in kind of maybe
testing the waters with one ofthese?
Speaker 2 (26:00):
You can go to our website.
It's portmarketingcom.
That's P-O-R-T-E marketingcom.
You can call me on the phone,954-817-3911.
You can email me atportmarketing at gmailcom.
All you have to do is, if youhave the desire, to look at your
inventory and say I got to getrid of some of this stuff.
(26:23):
I've got to convert some ofthis to cash.
The thing is, we're just aphone call away of them
embarking on being a moreprosperous retail jeweler.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Now, james, one thing I kind of want to end with is,
when it comes to these shows,one thing I've learned is that
every jeweler store kind of hasa couple of relics that are
hanging around or some peoplelike they bought something back
and they swear they can flip it.
Have you ever seen one of theseshows sell a product or an item
(26:56):
that is just, that reallystands out Like any?
I don't know any samurai storesgetting sold or anything like
that, or anything that kind ofis memorable.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
Yeah, we always.
You know, we always ask thequestion what was your oldest
item?
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Oh nice.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
We get the conversation started and I mean
some of these people say thatthey, they sold an item that was
20 years old, 25 years old.
It's almost like some of theseretailers have just kept a lot
of their merchandise in the safe.
They the reason that theyhaven't brought it out into the
showroom is because they don'thave the capacity and the room
(27:35):
to bring out some inventory.
So it frees up a lot of spaceand a lot of the you know as far
as the showcase is concerned,so that again they can get rid
of it.
They can bring in fresh, moresaleable jewelry.
And that's the key to successtoday, of having the right
product at the right time at theright price.
(27:57):
You're going to be successful.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Yeah, and you know, especially when you start to
compare the price of taking oneof those antique pieces I don't
know why, but I just kind ofthink of these like really
classic rings that might be a astate piece.
That is just a classic goldring and it's kind of dated and
not that many people are goingto wear it.
But if you were to go and sellit to like a refinery and just
(28:21):
melt it down and get the valueof the gold back, well, there's
that value.
And then let's compare it,though, to what it was going to
be priced at.
That you thought of when it was20 years ago, and now you're
discounting it 60%.
The value is has got to bequite a bit more substantial to
even if you're getting getting,you know 40% of the value, you
(28:44):
know after 60%, it's just somuch more than just flipping it
to a refinery and getting theprice of gold.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
I mean, the cost of a program is about 5% of the
gross sales.
Wow, okay, in terms of whatyou're doing, you know it's
really not 5% to 7%.
Where can you, you know, wherecan you go to spend 5% to 7% and
and convert 50 to $100,000?
That's a good point.
(29:11):
You can't, you know?
Just just not out there.
I've combed the map.
I mean I, I speak to jewelersall the time and I asked them do
you see anything else out there?
Is there anything else working?
Is there anything that you havefound that can get rid of old
inventory?
And from what I can see,there's nothing out there.
(29:31):
That's why we're always andconstantly asking how can we
make a better program?
What can we learn from ourexperiences of dealing with all
these events?
And so far, until someone comesup into, or until something
shows a greater success rate,then we will look into that.
(29:53):
I love it.
I wish, I wish I could look atwhat would be more successful.
But sometimes you look atsomething and say hey, if it
works, it works.
If you've created a greatcheesecakes, keep making a great
cheesecake.
Don't try to, don't try to messwith it.
You know that's good.
Sometimes people say if itain't broke, don't fix it.
(30:15):
I've always had the philosophythat if it ain't broke, you know
, let's try to make it better.
So we're always striving tomake it better, that's for sure,
James.
Thank you so much for joiningus.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
This is really inspiring.
I think this kind of reminds meI did an interview with
national rarities back in theday and it kind of seems like
this is almost kind of the flipside of it, where they do a
state buying, so they'rebringing in customers and they
are providing these, thesechecks, back to the customer,
and it's kind of supplementingthe ecosystem with, you know,
(30:48):
new money.
And then this one is kind ofthe opposite removing some of
this age inventory and kind ofagain finding new ways to
re-energize and activate yourbase and I think that that is
everybody is always kind ofincluding that in their metrics
is how activated is your base,how involved and in touch are
your VIPs or just even just thelayman you know, and I think
(31:10):
that this is a seems like agreat option.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
And you mentioned a good point Even if you don't get
someone into the store, justthat contact with the customer
from a myriad of omnichannelprograms, all right.
It's something that puts yourname in front of the customer,
and with something that's moreunique than up to 60% off.
(31:34):
A lot of retailers do sale andthey say up to 60% off.
Everybody does that up to 80%off, up to 90% off.
But that's why the power of a60% off store-wide sale or a 50%
off five-hour store-wide saleis so powerful, because
(31:55):
sometimes people don't thinkthat they're going to walk into
the store and there's going tobe five pieces for sale.
The words mean a lot.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
James, thank you so much for being on.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Thank you very much, everybody, everybody listening,
thanks for having me, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
I have all the information in your contact
information in the show notesbelow.
So after you finish this, maybego check that out.
Let them know that in the loopsent you and I really appreciate
you coming on.
Maybe if we hear any moresuccess stories we could have
you come back in the future.
Thank you so much.
I appreciate it.
Cheers everybody.
We'll be back next week,tuesday, with another episode.
(32:30):
Bye, well, everybody.
That's the end of the show.
Thanks so much for listening.
This week's episode was broughtto you by Punchmark and
produced and hosted by MichaelBurpo.
My guest this week was JamesPort from Port Marketing.
You can find more informationabout him in the show notes
(32:50):
below.
This week's episode was editedby Paul Suarez with music by
Ross Cockroom.
Don't forget to rate thepodcast on Apple Podcasts and
Spotify, as well as visitpunchmarkcom slash loop that's
L-O-U-P-E for more informationabout the show.
Thanks everybody.
We'll be back next week,tuesday, with another episode.
Cheers.
Welcome back everybody to In the Loop.
What is up everybody?
My name is Michael Burpo.
Thanks again for listening toIn the Loop this week.
I'm joined by James Port fromPort Marketing and he talks
about these flash sales or thesekind of limited time offers
that you can run at your ownstore and that he specializes in
(00:22):
where you offer, for example,60% off the store for six hours
or something like that.
It's really interesting how hekind of has like a specialized
strategy that sort of surroundsthis, but he also talks about
why you should run one of thesesales and why it might be a good
fit for your store.
We talk a lot about ageinventory, which I'm learning is
a very hot button topic.
(00:43):
When it comes to running yourown jewelry store.
I didn't really understand howmuch of your cash flow can be
locked up in some of theseproducts that haven't moved for
over a year, for example, andwhen I started talking with him,
I really could see why a storewould start to have one of these
sales.
Let's hope you learn something.
(01:05):
This episode is brought to youby Punchmark, the jewelry
industry's favorite websiteplatform.
Whether you're looking forbetter e-commerce performance,
business growth or campaignsthat drive traffic and sales.
Punchmark's website andmarketing services were made
just for you.
It's never too late totransform your business with a
user-friendly, point-of-saleintegrated website platform
designed for growth and results.
(01:27):
Design it for your free demotoday at punchmarkcom.
While you're enjoying thisweek's episode, take a moment
and leave us a star rating onthe Spotify mobile app.
Or, if you're, on ApplePodcasts, leave us a star rating
and a review.
It's the best way to help usgrow and to show that you're
really enjoying the show.
Thanks, and now back to theshow.
(01:48):
Welcome back everybody.
My name is Michael Burpo.
I'm joined by James Port.
James, you're kind of like theking of these flash sales.
These I've been calling themhyper sales or fire sales.
How do you refer to these?
Like 60% off the store salesthat you're well known for.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
I refer to them as basically a sale that is, an
urgency-based sale.
It's got a time limit, it's goturgency to it so that a person
just says I got to get into thestore.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
I see, so would it bother you if I call it a fire
sale, or would you prefer tocall it?
Speaker 2 (02:30):
a emergency sale.
I think most people would referto it as a flash sale Flash
sale, Okay, Nice.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
So I mean, like we were talking about, I found you
on one of the jeweler Facebookgroups these closed groups and
you had posted something aboutsome success from a couple of
your different shows and yourstores that you've done, and it
sounds like this is somethingthat you've done in a few
different stores.
Can you kind of set up whatthese flash sales are and how
(03:00):
you go about executing them?
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Basically, the question becomes why do I need a
flash sale?
Why do I need to reduce myinventory?
And that's the essence.
Everyone has some differentreasons, but the problem is that
this industry, the jewelryindustry, suffers from a big
cancer and it's too muchinventory.
(03:25):
Okay, so we're in a fashionindustry, so styles change.
So, rather than if you look atthe car industry, if they don't
get rid of a car in 90 days,it's off the lot.
Electronic stores if they don'tget it rid of some of their
inventory within a six-month, ayear period, it's outdated.
Same thing with clothing stores.
(03:46):
Jewelers, for some reason, havethis love affair with jewelry.
They buy it, they look at it,they love it.
They can't keep their eyes offit or their hands off it.
The problem is, some of themhave it for five, 10, 15, 20
years.
They reach a certain point nowthat cash is king.
(04:07):
You need cash to run a business, you need cash flow to run a
business, and a lot of retailjewelers have reached the point
where they say, hey, I have nomoney to buy inventory.
Well, it's not really true.
They have the money, they justhave it tied up in inventory.
That's not selling.
So here comes the flash sale orthe urgency-based sale.
(04:29):
I use two of them that are mostpopular right now, and it's
either a six-hour 60%off-store-wide sale or it's a
five-hour 50% off-store-widesale.
Some people use a 60-minute 60%off-sale, which really drives a
lot of people to the store earlyin the morning if they're going
(04:52):
to have it at 10, 11 or 11 to12.
And they line up for it to bethe first ones.
They don't want to missanything, and I think that's
what the sale is all about.
It works on one word, and it'scalled greed.
Nobody wants to miss out on agreat buying opportunity, and
especially when people come homeand they buy it and they call
(05:12):
their friends and they say, wow,what a great deal I get.
So nobody wants to miss a deal.
The question becomes why have anurgency-based sale?
And, as I said, the firstreason is cash flow.
The next is people need moneyfor remodeling, they need to put
new carpet, they need to putfresh paint on the walls, they
(05:36):
need to pay off debt, they needto.
Maybe they're tired of lookingat the same jewelry for 15 years
and they say I got to get ridof this.
I think the emphasis today ishow to buy inventory and how to
manage inventory that isconstantly turning over through
your best sellers, and if itdoesn't sell in a particular
(05:59):
timeframe, then it's time tolook at it as non-performing
inventory and get rid of it andconvert it.
Imagine a jeweler needs toraise cash in a day.
All right, they're able toraise 50, 100, 200, $300,000 in
one event in a short period oftime.
(06:20):
Nobody even remembers the eventa week later.
So the beauty is it's not thatit sticks in someone's mind that
you're holding an event andit's going on for two months and
three months and four monthswhere all they remember seeing
is that your store was on sale.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
Yeah, it just makes it nice and succinct, seems like
something that you can kind oflike plug into a month when you
don't really have a ton going on.
But I would like to ask how doyou kind of go about diagnosing
that?
This might be the issue?
I've heard of the edge having acouple of features in it where
it identifies aged inventory or,you know, slow sellers.
(06:58):
I know that the number onething I've learned from a ton of
vendors and from the edge andfrom different retailers I've
spoken to is that the best wayto drive business is to ensure
that you always have in stockyour best sellers.
But how do you go about kind ofidentifying hey, this store has
an aged inventory problem.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Well, that's you know the edge, and different
companies out there areeducating jewelers on how to
start to look at what ageinventory is.
Is it a year, is it two years,is it five years?
And it seems that the normaltime now is about one year.
If it hasn't moved or left yourstore in a year, it's time to
(07:39):
at least consider it to be deadinventory or non-performing
inventory, which is now.
They look at their sales andthey look at their inventory and
they see that they have 50, 100, 200, $300,000 worth of
inventory that's just sittingthere gathering dust.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Yeah, I mean, I talked to a jeweler kind of
relatively recently and theywere talking about how there's
this massive shift from Halo,halo engagement rings and how
they were all the rage aboutmaybe three years ago or two
years ago and now that's not thething, and you know if you've
got some halos in your store.
One thing I've realized isjewelry is not just expensive
(08:20):
for a consumer but it's alsoexpensive for a retailer to
stock and having you know,several Halo engagement rings,
for example, in their store, itreally would lock up quite a bit
of cash flow just in a fewproducts.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Jewelers are always shocked at after a sale.
When they start seeing thatthey have moved 50, 100, 200,
300 old pieces that they've hadfor the last two, three, four
years, they're almost shocked.
They almost can't believe thatsomeone came in and bought that
(08:54):
ring that they felt would never,ever sell.
Yeah, there's always a buyerfor something and it's always if
it's at the right price they'rein.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Yeah, I mean that's, if I see anything for the right
price, it's like, ah, do I needthat?
I kind of need that.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Exactly right.
It's like they say you knowyou're trying to sell a home,
you can't sell it for X, but youdrop it 30, 40% and it sells
the next day.
So it's all based on whatsomeone perceives as a good
value and a good deal or, inthis case, a great deal.
What?
Speaker 1 (09:29):
products do you find are most commonly the source of
age inventory, or does it justrun the whole gamut Age?
Speaker 2 (09:36):
inventory can be anything to any jeweler, because
some jewelers specialize inengagement rings.
You know we sell a lot ofengagement rings.
Those stores are more apt tohave engagement rings as older
inventory.
Some stores don't carry as muchand rely more on fashion
jewelry.
So it really doesn't matterwhat it is.
It's just a question of how doyou get people into the store.
(09:59):
All right, and what is the wayto hold a sale like this?
And the first thing that youneed to do if you're considering
a sale, an event, is to pick adate that does not conflict with
any other things that are goingon in the town.
I've seen situations wheresomeone has done this event.
(10:21):
They plan for it only to findthat with something else going
on a football game or somethingthat kept people or more people
coming to the store.
So I always suggest to jewelerscheck if you decide on a date.
Check on that date.
Call up your Chamber ofCommerce, call up your newspaper
and ask them if there'sanything going on that they know
(10:44):
of in town right around thatperiod of time.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
That's a great first step.
Yeah, because you know you wantto be the only show in town and
, when it comes to, you knowwhat's worked best for you.
I'm sure that the strategyneeds to shift at least a little
bit.
When it comes to, you know,these smaller jewelers that are
in maybe a more smaller town orkind of space, and then there's
(11:08):
also major city Jewelers thatmight be dealing with a
different type of demographic.
Do you find that it'srelatively similar, or how do
you go about executing,depending on what the size of
these stores?
Speaker 2 (11:18):
The bottom line is we have done, over the last maybe
eight years, we've done sevenhundred inventory reduction
event, okay, throughout theentire United States, actually
some in Canada, and what I havefound is that we have put
together, after seven hundred ofthese babies, we put together
the ingredients that make theultimate, ultimate urgency based
(11:42):
sale.
All right, some people try.
It's like anything.
If you're baking a dish, orparticularly in In the dessert
of some sort, and there'scertain ingredients that you
need to use, you use less sugarthan you're supposed to, the
thing doesn't taste the same.
It's not the award-winningdessert that you thought, it
would be same.
Here the philosophy is is thatwe try to communicate to the
(12:06):
customers of the jeweler thatthey are having this special
event.
If a customer walks in a coupledays or a week or two weeks
after the event and they're notfamiliar that they had this
event, we've lost, we've made amistake because we've created
this whole event and noteverybody knows about it.
(12:27):
That's the scenario that wedon't want to have.
We want to know that, whetherthey come to the store or not,
that they are aware that thissale existed or exists.
And the way we do that Is thatwe look at different ways to
communicate to the customer andwe use direct mail, mail to the
(12:48):
customer, to the Jewelerscustomer base.
We use digital, we use socialmedia, we use Facebook, we use
Instagram, we use texting, weuse radio, we use TV.
Now, each of those changes alittle bit because some areas
don't need you know they.
They have a newspaper but it'snot.
It's not read like it was tenyears ago.
(13:11):
Yeah, some people still favorradio and they have a radio
contract, so we incorporateradio into the mix.
So that's really what it's aquestion of is looking at it
from.
Everybody uses the term calledomnichannel, of course, and
that's just a question of usingthe point of using a number of
different things All designed tohit at the same time to create
(13:35):
a buzz in the community wherethe jeweler is having this thing
.
Some jewelers right now lovetexting and find the texting
their own customer base andletting them know to come in for
this sale Works great.
Others find that the customerloves the personal phone call.
All right, where they call up,they're reading from us, they
have their sales people readfrom a script and all it is.
(13:58):
It's not really, even thoughsome people confuse the sale in
that they think it's just a sixhour 60% off sale or it's a
one-day sale.
Actually, it's a six-day salebecause five days prior to the
event, the jeweler is calling ortexting their best customers to
(14:21):
come in and get the bestselection, get the discount, so
they don't have to wait in line.
Wow is open to the public.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
So that's clear.
You're offering the discountahead of time.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Yes, that is correct.
Wow, special customers, or wecall them VIP customers, vips
okay, get this text and get thiscall and they can come in at
any time that's convenient tothem and they could make an
appointment and they can takeadvantage of getting the best
selection.
Wow, I love that.
Customers, customers love it.
Mm-hmm, I would love that.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
I'm I anybody wants to, everybody's up in the
upstate New York area.
I want to have one of these andthey want to shoot me a tax.
I'd be happy for that.
That sounds amazing and thatwhat a great way to Client tell
as well and start to build thesedeeper relationships.
And also I mean that person,that client, that VIP is going
to feel like man.
These guys really hooked me up.
(15:15):
I owe them one almost.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Absolutely, and that's exactly what it's meant
to do, even though the personsays I'm out of town, I can't
make it.
But thanks so much for thinkingof me.
That's great, and it doesn'tmatter where it is.
In other words, we've done thisin big towns, little towns, big
cities, small cities, and itdoesn't matter what time of the
year.
We've done it in November.
(15:37):
We've used it for Black Friday.
It has been a tremendoussuccess.
All right, we're.
Some retailers feel that theycan't compete against the big
guys.
Well, they can.
If they have the rightpromotion, they can compete and
win against big guys.
So it doesn't matter what timeof the year the greed comes out,
365 days a year, all right.
(15:59):
And when these consumers smellblood, they're out there, coming
in buying and they're happy.
That's an incredible thing towatch is that when you have
customers and they're allgetting great deals, there's a
certain smile on their face.
I got a deal.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
We're gonna take a quick break and hear a word from
our sponsors.
Stay with us.
This episode was brought to youin part by national rarities.
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(16:37):
that not only attract newcustomers but also keep your
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And it's not just jewelerpurchasing.
They also buy designer handbags, artwork, antiques, stuff like
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These events frequently attracta different type of customer
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than your usuals, because whodoesn't love getting a little
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It's gonna be in the show.
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That's j u s t I n at Nationalrarities comm.
Let them know that in the loopsent you thanks back to the show
and we're back.
(17:40):
So, when it comes to promotingthis, it sounds like you're
using, yeah, the omni channelsolution.
So one thing when we talk aboutomni channel, we have, of
course, punch mark.
Does websites One thing I'veseen in the past Do you
recommend that people put up alanding page for, you know, the
six days leading up to it, orwhatever that says, hey, we
can't guarantee that they're allproducts will be available for
(18:03):
this time because we are havingthis sale in store.
Or how do you make it so that,if these products are on sale in
the in the store, that theyaren't double purchased online?
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Oh, we don't really have that problem.
Most people are finding thatthey want to come into the store
, pick it up, feel it and see itrather than buy it.
It's not really sold as anonline sale.
All right, maybe once you knowa couple times someone.
It hasn't been able to comeinto the store and the jeweler
can list it on their Shopify oron their on their products to
(18:35):
offer, but normally that's notthe case.
Normally people want to come inand and there's a frenzy that
happens in the store.
It's going to Las Vegas andsitting down at a blackjack
table.
Nobody's there.
You don't want to play at thattable.
You walk in and you see peoplebuying, laughing, you know
Scrammling for certain pieces,and it puts you in the mood to
(18:58):
buy more definitely.
That's what it's all designed.
I mentioned the buzz and moreimportantly than any of this is
the attitude of the jeweler.
Attitude plays a key componentof the success of this program.
If the jeweler is going intothis saying this will never work
, okay, I don't know why I'mdoing this.
I can't.
I can't see people coming infor this.
(19:19):
60% is too much for me to puton my discount and 50% doesn't
work for me.
They can come up with all theexcuses that they want.
The bottom line is is that ifthey have an attitude, they
share it with their employees.
Everybody's excited, thecustomers become excited and
everybody wins.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Definitely so.
It sounds like this can have agreat long term and tail effect
when it comes to increasing orboosting sales at the store.
Not just.
You know we've already outlinedall the benefits when it comes
to freeing up cash flow, freeingup all the various benefits of
getting rid of aged inventory,but what about the tail end of
(20:01):
it?
Because you are, you can onlywear so many bracelets, you know
, or so many watches orsomething like that, and I
sometimes wonder if this mightcut into a buyer's you know
budget for the year when itcomes to that, and at its core
there is that benefit, but theyare probably taking a little bit
of a hit when it comes toprofit margins, or maybe they're
(20:24):
just getting their money backor maybe they're even losing a
little bit.
Do you worry, or is there anyinformation when it comes to
potentially what it's doing fora VIP or a client's budget for
jewelry for the whole year?
Speaker 2 (20:40):
And that's a great question.
Okay, and in most instances andspeaking to the jeweler that
they do not have any impact onholiday sales as a result of
this particular event.
Again, it's a short sale, it'sa quick sale, it's a flash sale,
so they don't even remember itthree or four or five months
down.
All right.
(21:00):
But does it conflict sometimeswhere a person might buy a piece
six months ahead of time?
That's always the case.
But the benefits of gettingmore people into the store we
have jewelers doing this programnow six and seven years in a
row, all right, so that itbecomes an annual event.
It's not just let me do a sale,but I'll only do it once every
(21:25):
three years.
We have once people getfamiliar with it.
Do the consumer, do someconsumers wait to the sale?
Yes, they do.
Does it help the jeweler, freeup cash flow and enable them to
buy fresh, new merchandise tosell?
That's the key.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
Yeah.
So I still see the benefit ofit, even if it does take a small
hit on a different type of partof the line item.
I do see why you would stillwant to do it, especially yearly
.
It does sound like I've been.
You know, I talked to retailers,we did a retail roundtable a
couple of episodes ago and onething I asked them I was like
hey, what kind of projects.
(22:02):
You guys got going up and theyall had a project every single
month for the rest of the year.
And I realized that it's aboutplugging in these kinds of
offers or having something goingaround, instead of just having
months where it's just like,yeah, we're going to open up a
store at 9am every day, we'regoing to close it at six.
You kind of got to switchthings up every now and then.
(22:24):
And this seems like one ofthose things.
Hey, every whatever June, we'regoing to have this, this crazy
sale, and it's going to reallyget people going and it's far
enough away from the, from theholiday season that it's going
to allow for people to kind ofget that that hunger back.
But it does sound like a reallynice kind of plug and play that
that you can start to implementin your calendar for the year.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Well, julia is just, you know, it's amazing just the
success that we have had with itin terms of the numbers.
In other words, it's very, veryrare that we see an event that
is not successful.
And sometimes people I, I posttestimonials.
After every event that we do, Icall up the customer and I
asked them to write how theevent went for them All right,
(23:08):
and whether they had a goodevent, a great event or a
terrible event.
I want to know about it and Iwant to share it with customers
because that's how we learn.
All right, if someone said, hey,I didn't have a great event, I
want to know why.
It happens very, very seldomly,because most jewelers follow
the ingredients of a successfulevent and I get involved with
(23:31):
every event that goes on.
So I am, for six days, tied inwith that retailer, by calling
them every morning, finding outif they posted the Facebook post
, finding out if they made theemail, finding out how many
phone calls they made that day,finding out how many texts they
sent.
This goes on for six days andit creates a coach like effect.
(23:53):
So they have a coach that theyknow every day is calling up and
watching out for them, so that,should something come up, that
they can get an immediate answer.
I love that.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
I think that sometimes you need a little bit
of coaching, even when we areexperts on something.
I've learned that even expertsgo and get some coaching on even
their field, and it just allowsthem to see slightly
differently.
And I've noticed that with,especially with like CEOs.
I find that CEO summits are athing I mean shouldn't we all be
experts?
(24:24):
If we're, if we're CEOs, weshould probably all be experts
on our various fields.
But what you can learn is a lotof things can be done better,
and I think that kind of puttingyourself in the student seat
occasionally is definitely oneof those things that it just
kind of allows you to well,first of all, humble yourself,
but second of all, I do think itallows you to pick up new
techniques, new strategies, newor just even kind of switch
(24:48):
things up a little bit.
I definitely agree.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
And I think what makes our program unique is
really the cost of the program.
It's the cost is available andis accessible to anyone who
wants to get rid of theirinventory.
When merchandise is sold, wedon't get any commission off of
the sale All right.
We don't bring in fillermerchandise All right for the
(25:11):
sale.
All we do is concentrate andfocus on the jeweler's inventory
that they want to get rid ofand because of that it's very
inexpensive, it's very costeffective and again, being able
to convert 50, even $25,000today.
Try going to the bank andgetting $25,000 from a bank
(25:35):
today.
They look at you like you havethree heads, so this is just a
great way of seeing your bankaccount rise and your cash flow
improve.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
Nice.
And now James, you run Ibelieve it's James Port
Marketing.
Where can people find moreinformation about you if they
want to follow up and if theyare interested in kind of maybe
testing the waters with one ofthese?
Speaker 2 (26:00):
You can go to our website.
It's portmarketingcom.
That's P-O-R-T-E marketingcom.
You can call me on the phone,954-817-3911.
You can email me atportmarketing at gmailcom.
All you have to do is, if youhave the desire, to look at your
inventory and say I got to getrid of some of this stuff.
(26:23):
I've got to convert some ofthis to cash.
The thing is, we're just aphone call away of them
embarking on being a moreprosperous retail jeweler.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Now, james, one thing I kind of want to end with is,
when it comes to these shows,one thing I've learned is that
every jeweler store kind of hasa couple of relics that are
hanging around or some peoplelike they bought something back
and they swear they can flip it.
Have you ever seen one of theseshows sell a product or an item
(26:56):
that is just, that reallystands out Like any?
I don't know any samurai storesgetting sold or anything like
that, or anything that kind ofis memorable.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
Yeah, we always.
You know, we always ask thequestion what was your oldest
item?
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Oh nice.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
We get the conversation started and I mean
some of these people say thatthey, they sold an item that was
20 years old, 25 years old.
It's almost like some of theseretailers have just kept a lot
of their merchandise in the safe.
They the reason that theyhaven't brought it out into the
showroom is because they don'thave the capacity and the room
(27:35):
to bring out some inventory.
So it frees up a lot of spaceand a lot of the you know as far
as the showcase is concerned,so that again they can get rid
of it.
They can bring in fresh, moresaleable jewelry.
And that's the key to successtoday, of having the right
product at the right time at theright price.
(27:57):
You're going to be successful.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Yeah, and you know, especially when you start to
compare the price of taking oneof those antique pieces I don't
know why, but I just kind ofthink of these like really
classic rings that might be a astate piece.
That is just a classic goldring and it's kind of dated and
not that many people are goingto wear it.
But if you were to go and sellit to like a refinery and just
(28:21):
melt it down and get the valueof the gold back, well, there's
that value.
And then let's compare it,though, to what it was going to
be priced at.
That you thought of when it was20 years ago, and now you're
discounting it 60%.
The value is has got to bequite a bit more substantial to
even if you're getting getting,you know 40% of the value, you
(28:44):
know after 60%, it's just somuch more than just flipping it
to a refinery and getting theprice of gold.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
I mean, the cost of a program is about 5% of the
gross sales.
Wow, okay, in terms of whatyou're doing, you know it's
really not 5% to 7%.
Where can you, you know, wherecan you go to spend 5% to 7% and
and convert 50 to $100,000?
That's a good point.
(29:11):
You can't, you know?
Just just not out there.
I've combed the map.
I mean I, I speak to jewelersall the time and I asked them do
you see anything else out there?
Is there anything else working?
Is there anything that you havefound that can get rid of old
inventory?
And from what I can see,there's nothing out there.
(29:31):
That's why we're always andconstantly asking how can we
make a better program?
What can we learn from ourexperiences of dealing with all
these events?
And so far, until someone comesup into, or until something
shows a greater success rate,then we will look into that.
(29:53):
I love it.
I wish, I wish I could look atwhat would be more successful.
But sometimes you look atsomething and say hey, if it
works, it works.
If you've created a greatcheesecakes, keep making a great
cheesecake.
Don't try to, don't try to messwith it.
You know that's good.
Sometimes people say if itain't broke, don't fix it.
(30:15):
I've always had the philosophythat if it ain't broke, you know
, let's try to make it better.
So we're always striving tomake it better, that's for sure,
James.
Thank you so much for joiningus.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
This is really inspiring.
I think this kind of reminds meI did an interview with
national rarities back in theday and it kind of seems like
this is almost kind of the flipside of it, where they do a
state buying, so they'rebringing in customers and they
are providing these, thesechecks, back to the customer,
and it's kind of supplementingthe ecosystem with, you know,
(30:48):
new money.
And then this one is kind ofthe opposite removing some of
this age inventory and kind ofagain finding new ways to
re-energize and activate yourbase and I think that that is
everybody is always kind ofincluding that in their metrics
is how activated is your base,how involved and in touch are
your VIPs or just even just thelayman you know, and I think
(31:10):
that this is a seems like agreat option.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
And you mentioned a good point Even if you don't get
someone into the store, justthat contact with the customer
from a myriad of omnichannelprograms, all right.
It's something that puts yourname in front of the customer,
and with something that's moreunique than up to 60% off.
(31:34):
A lot of retailers do sale andthey say up to 60% off.
Everybody does that up to 80%off, up to 90% off.
But that's why the power of a60% off store-wide sale or a 50%
off five-hour store-wide saleis so powerful, because
(31:55):
sometimes people don't thinkthat they're going to walk into
the store and there's going tobe five pieces for sale.
The words mean a lot.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
James, thank you so much for being on.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Thank you very much, everybody, everybody listening,
thanks for having me, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
I have all the information in your contact
information in the show notesbelow.
So after you finish this, maybego check that out.
Let them know that in the loopsent you and I really appreciate
you coming on.
Maybe if we hear any moresuccess stories we could have
you come back in the future.
Thank you so much.
I appreciate it.
Cheers everybody.
We'll be back next week,tuesday, with another episode.
(32:30):
Bye, well, everybody.
That's the end of the show.
Thanks so much for listening.
This week's episode was broughtto you by Punchmark and
produced and hosted by MichaelBurpo.
My guest this week was JamesPort from Port Marketing.
You can find more informationabout him in the show notes
(32:50):
below.
This week's episode was editedby Paul Suarez with music by
Ross Cockroom.
Don't forget to rate thepodcast on Apple Podcasts and
Spotify, as well as visitpunchmarkcom slash loop that's
L-O-U-P-E for more informationabout the show.
Thanks everybody.
We'll be back next week,tuesday, with another episode.
Cheers.
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