I mentioned a progressive sale in a social media post and several of you asked what that means, so here’s a post about the different types of progressive sales. I reached out to one of my favorite retailers to see how they do it, so special thanks to Sara Villari at Occasionette for sharing her insights!
“I think we’ll keep playing around with it. It definitely feels like the kind of thing you need to keep tweaking to see what ends up being best for your shop in terms of all the little details.” Sara Villari, Occasionette
Occasionette hosted Come Early to Save More progressive sales on a Small Business Saturday, then again just for fun the recent weekend we lost an hour for Daylight Savings. For SBS, they offered 25% from 9am-10am and the percentages decreased by 5% each hour until 1pm. According to the managers at her stores, one hour windows were a little too quick, reports Villari, so they honored the higher percentage of discount for anyone who was in line at the end of an hour.
For the Daylight Savings sale, Occasionette customers received 30% off from 10am-noon, decreasing 5% every two hours. The change made things go a bit more smoothly. “The sales are fun since you get the die-hard fan out early and they get rewarded well for showing up,” said Villari. “Then we had people who weren’t aware of the sale in later, and they end up with a pleasant surprise.”
Amy Rutherford at Red Barn Mercantile and Penny Post in Alexandria, VA held a progressive sale on Plaid Friday in November of 2022.
Her sale started at 6am and the savings increased every two hours and ran the entire day. The progressive sale was in-store and online.
Another type of progressive sale is one where you get a larger discount based on how many items you buy. This type of sale is particularly effective if you need to clear out seasonal merchandise or to cull down your clearance racks.
At Lively Kids — which by the way, is an adorable shop in Newburyport, Massachusetts that we visited in 2023 — they had a Final Sale progressive sale ranging from 30% off 1 item to 50% off 3 or more items.
Read on for additional progressive sale ideas and how a last-minute sale can salvage a day that may otherwise be a bust due to bad weather, plus an early holiday incentive and cash flow generating idea…