By T. J. Reid

Offering a sincere “thank you” is part of the repertoire of every successful retailer. These two words go a long way toward creating the customer’s final impression of you and your store as she walks out the door and heads home. And a “thank you” can also be the two words that draw her back to your store.
Here are a couple of clever “thank you” promotions that are sure to generate goodwill.

Extending a Hand of Thanks
This interesting and successful promotion uses gloves to create goodwill and draw customers into your store. With this promotion, you can use either inexpensive or more expensive gloves—your call—and you can use one of several different messages in the letter you send to your customers.
Here’s how it works: Find a vendor at, say, the Off-Price Specialist Show and buy gloves for your best and most loyal customers. Divide each pair, put one glove into an envelope and send it to the customer with a letter saying, for example, “I’d like to extend a hand of thanks for all your…” or “Hand in hand we can build your fall wardrobe…” or “It takes two to make a great pair; your other glove is waiting for you at…”

For obvious reasons, this promotion works best in fall, just in time to generate sales on new fall/winter merchandise. It’s unique, creative and fun, and the retailers who have tried it have reported great results. If some customers do not come in to claim their other glove, you can always put pairs together and add them to your inventory or donate them to a worthy organization.

One upscale store used better quality gloves for this promotion valued at $18 a pair. She sent out 20 letters to her very best customers. The total cost of the gloves and letters with postage was $250. Fourteen people responded to the promotion and ended up spending $1,920 on their visit—that’s an average of $137/shopper.

Time to Say Thanks
Here’s another clever promotion that has been used successfully by many retailers I know. Select special customers who deserve a special thank you and send them a letter asking them to stop in to pick up a gift you bought them on a recent shopping trip. One retailer used the following letter:

Dear Susie,

While I was in New York on a shopping trip I thought about you and decided it was definitely TIME TO SAY THANKS for your friendship and support. Your business is always appreciated and we want to make sure you know that. Because of you we’re able to keep on TICKING!
Drop by the store soon and pick up YOUR GIFT OF TIME.

Thanks again,

Nancy

One store owner selected 30 of her best customers and sent them this letter. She had purchased 30 watches at $5 a piece for a cost of $150. Add $10 for printing and postage and this retailer had a total investment of $160.
Over the next 10 days, 26 of the 30 customers visited the store to pick up their gift. No purchase was required and no sale attempt made; the watch was strictly a thank you gift. Nevertheless, 25 of the 26 customers who came in to pick up their gift spent $3400 for an average of $134/customer. An impressive return on a small investment.

The bottom line is people appreciate being appreciated and it doesn’t take a lot to show our appreciation. Use your imagination—as a retailer you can never generate too much goodwill. Remember, customers expect a discount—they appreciate a gift.

T.J. Reid is a retail consultant and founder and editor of Fashion Advantage newsletter and author of What Mother Never Told Ya About Retail and What Mother Never Told Ya About Promotions. These books are available at www.tjreid.com or by calling 800-221-8615.