In Memory of Memorial Day - Two Lessons for Success

Another Memorial Day sale weekend is come and gone leaving our industry tired, but hopefully, with a few more dollars on the bottom line. While sales were strong when the dust settled there were some clear winners who chose wisely.  Here are two strategy lessons to help mitigate risk and still deliver increased sales in uncertain market conditions. Lesson 1: When times are uncertain keep inventory levels tight.

With concerns about the broader economy looming in the background many retailers took a cash conservative approach to stock-levels. Traditionally, we see a run up in wholesale orders beginning 1-2 weeks prior to the weekend sale.  Some retailers even go as far as doubling their stock levels to be able to meet the cash-and-carry needs of customers on the Memorial weekend.

While we saw strong orders throughout the month there was only a small build up prior to the weekend sale. It appears that most retailers took a wait-and-see approach.  With inventory levels low retailers ran the risk of losing sales if they were not able to deliver  on sold orders by the next weekend.

Lesson 2: Choose a strong manufacturing partner.

The week following the Memorial holiday our retailers looked to us to quickly fill sold orders and replenish stock levels. During that short week we built and shipped 900 pieces per day on average. We shifted order cutoff days and delivery days to ensure that orders placed were delivered in time to make weekend deliveries to keep our retailers and their customers happy.

With strong manufacturing support our retailers were able to keep inventories tight which allowed them to use cash for a strong ad spend that would have otherwise been tied up in inventory. With these two strategies, our customers reported finishing the month with strong growth over last year which helped our company reach the highest sales month in the company history.