So you’ve imbued your signage and displays with your personality and brand voice – what’s next? Here on the Firefly blog, we’ve talked about the importance of seasonal window displays, media campaigns and unique cross-promotional events. Now let’s think about the smaller details, because it can be these special touches that win over the customer.
For instance, how is your tagging strategy? Tags have an important job to do. They tell shoppers how much an item costs – but let’s make them work a little harder. Price tags and labels can be a key part of your sales strategy as they are often the first thing a shopper examines after a piece of clothing catches their eye.
Tags are a little detail that can go a long way toward a sale.Get creative with your tags
There are two clear options when it comes to good tagging strategy. You can purchase ready-made price tags or craft your own. Each route has it’s advantages depending upon your situation.
Ready-made tags are ideal for stores with a lot of merchandise. You may just want to grab your tagging gun and start a rapid-fire assault on that latest shipment of new products. But let’s pause a moment and think about how we can add a personal touch to these tags. Hand-writing price and size information automatically makes for a more personal feeling – but only if it complements your brand. If your store is ultra-modern, use a printed type with clean, sans-serif fonts. If you’re going for the boutique experience, rubber stamps might be a better fit.
Ready-made tags can also be modified to display earrings. Just poke two holes in the bottom, and you’ve got a display that is also informative.
Sale tags pop out at customers and can give the shopper a thrill when they see one on an item they’ve had their eye on. These should be more visible than regular price tags, so if you normally tag shirts around the collars, consider hanging a sale tag from the sleeve.
DIY tags work best for small shops or for high-end products in a larger store. By having a hand-crafted tag on a product, you will convey to the shopper a sense of quality, style and value. When creating your own tag, try to tie it to your store’s general theme – or to a particular seasonal sale’s theme – to create a feeling of cohesion. Go beyond typical shapes or styles. Instead, craft something with an interesting texture for a distinguished tactile experience.
Try creating different tags for each section of your store. Tags for children’s clothing should be bright, large and colorful. According to a study conducted by researchers at the University of Delaware, male shoppers are most attracted to the colors blue, black, brown, green and red while female shoppers respond well to blue, orange, yellow, purple, green and red. There’s no guarantee that a specific color will make the final decision for a customer, but it’s another little detail that contributes to your overall strategy. In this same vein, Firefly offers three gauges of tagging needles for all types of fabric.
Two tagging tips
Here are two quick tips to keep mind when tagging your merchandise.
1. Share more information
The typical price tag tells the shopper how much the item costs, the size of the item and occasionally the manufacturer. If you have the space, consider adding some information about the materials and costs that went into producing the product. A study conducted by Harvard Business School showed that customers were 44 percent more likely to purchase an item that clearly displayed a breakdown of its production costs than an identical item that did not have such a breakdown. If there’s not enough room for this information on your tags, you can turn that data into a graphic to display on your social media profiles.
2. Tagging gun safety
Replacing your tagging needles not only ensures that you don’t damage merchandise with holes, but it keeps you and your employees safe and healthy. The California Department of Public Health advised that store employees sharing a gun should always switch out the old needle for a new one before handing it off. When going through a large amount of inventory, slips and accidents can happen and fingers get pricked. Injuries like this are more annoying than they are dangerous, but they definitely should be treated seriously.
“When planning your tagging strategy, focus on creative designs and personal touches.”
Labeling before a sale or clearance
Promotional supplies can eat up a lot of your budget if you have frequent sales and clearances. To save money, apply sticker labels to clearance items only – if you’re going to revert the price back to its original amount, you’re better off using a tag that you can remove. Placing stickers on top of other stickers can look messy and might confuse customers if they start to peel off. Our single- and double-line pricing guns print characters quickly and clearly, which means you can label items effectively. Using our tamper-proof labels will give you peace of mind by safeguarding against unwanted removal.
There are a few more things to consider before labeling your products for sale. On his blog, marketing expert and author Bob Phibbs explained that customers don’t respond to a glut of sales tags in their field of vision. He cited pharmacies as the biggest culprits of over-labeling, but the problem could easily happen in any retail situation. Basically, if there are too many sales and discount labels, shoppers just stop seeing them. To avoid this problem, place your clearance items in one section, and discount items enough that customers will be pleased about the lower prices. If you draw customers to a rack only to show them that prices have been reduced by 1 percent, they’ll walk away disappointed.
When planning your tagging strategy, focus on creative designs and personal touches. Sales should feel like special events and markdowns need to be significant so as not to mislead shoppers. The little details can count for a lot and can’t be ignored.
