Fashion Sales

Welcome to the Fashion Sales hub here on HubPages. In this fashion hub we will be discussing issues relevant to the sale of clothing, accessories, and beauty products. Although we will not be providing information about specific sales events or promotions, we will be presenting ideas regarding where you can find them, learn about them, and participate in various money saving opportunities.

The holidays are when the majority of product is purchased at retail. Clothing stores and every other type of store is very eager to capture as many shoppers as possible during the holiday season. It is critical for any fashion boutique to conduct as much business as possible during a period of time when consumers are most active. If fashion boutiques don’t entice visitors to their store during key shopping cycles, they will lose business to other retailers which can literally put them out of business. Therefore, incentives, marketing, and promotions are very important during the active holiday shopping seasons.

There are various levels of holidays. Some of which are more important than others.

In addition to actual holidays, there are important season events that are important to the fashion industry. For example, although it is not a holiday, Back to School is an important selling opportunity for clothing stores.

Although it sounds crazy, it does appear that some stores “never” sell clothing at full price. The moment the clothing arrives at the store it goes on sale. This is because many consumers are conditioned to only shop for apparel or accessories when they are on sale. The store believes that if the garment does not have a for sale sign that presents a discount to the buyer, the consumer will simply wait to make their purchase. Do you buy clothing at full price?

The end of the season sales are created so that the apparel retailer can flow out seasonal merchandise to make room for the next season’s product. For example, when the summer ends, there is no need to be selling swimwear in a Boston boutique. It is time to sell off all of the warm weather product and make room for the winter jackets, sweaters, wool hats, snow boots, gloves, and scarves. It is understood that women may still want to purchase a bikini in December if they are planning a trip to Bermuda, but the stores in the North East truly must maintain a seasonal flow of product if they wish to stay in business.

As a consumer, if you are willing to purchase product out of season and store it away for the following year, you can find many bargains.

What is more exciting than finding a designer brand that you love on the clearance rack of your favorite store? The clearance rack is the last stop before last season’s clothing, that has not yet sold, is forced to leave the store. The item will either sell at clearance prices, or be removed by the retailer to make room for new merchandise. The clearance rack prices are typically the lowest of the season. The store will only move product to clearance when they have exhausted all other options to sell the garment at a higher price. The store realizes that it is better to sell the clothes at a reduce margin then to maintain ownership of the product.

Stores may have different levels of clearance sales. For example, the clothes may start on a table marked clearance for 30% off the original price. However, this may not yet be the final sale price. If you watch this item, it may move to 40%, 50%, 75% in subsequent weeks. If you are planning to watch a sales item in the hopes that the price will go lower, you should be aware that you may miss your opportunity to purchase the item at all. Either another customer will buy the item or the store may decide to simply pull the item from the store entirely.

Black Friday is the day following Thanksgiving Day in the United States, traditionally the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. On this day, many retailers open very early, often at 4 a.m., or earlier, and offer promotional sales to kick off the shopping season, similar to Boxing Day sales in many Commonwealth countries. Black Friday is not actually a holiday, but many employers give their employees the day off, increasing the number of potential shoppers.

Cyber Monday is the Monday immediately following Black Friday.

During the 2005 holiday season the term "Cyber Monday" emerged onto the retail scene. The term was used specifically within the e-commerce community. The "Cyber Monday" term was first coined based on research showing that 77% of online retailers reported a significant increase in sales on the Monday after Thanksgiving in 2004.

The Super Saturday sales weekend takes place the last weekend before Christmas. So in theory, this weekend actually provides clothing retailers with the highest sales volume for the holiday season. That is very important when we consider the fact that the holiday season is the most crucial retail sales time of the year.

In addition to holiday sales events, end-of-season sales, clearance sales, etc., there is an entirely different category of clothing sale that should be discussed. What happens to all of the samples that fashion designers create when they are testing and evaluating their new collection? Each season fashion designers create spring and fall collections so that they can present at fashion week or have salesmen samples to show to buyers at market week or trade shows.

When working with a factory, before production is place the clothing factory will need to make several samples to make sure the garment is perfect. At the end of the season it is possible that the brand owner is sitting with hundreds or even thousands of samples. Depending on the size of the clothing company, they may have production samples, showroom samples, traveling sales person samples, fit samples, etc.

Some companies will hold onto all of the samples and try to sell them to retailers, but other companies will hold a special event which they call a sample sale. This is a good opportunity for fashionistas to pick up designer fashion at a discount.

Do you prefer to receive a set dollar amount discount or a percentage discount? For example, do you prefer to receive a coupon in the mail that says, “Five dollars of the purchase of twenty five dollars or more”, or do you want a coupon to say, “10% off your entire purchase”. Well, this is sort of a trick question. In my opinion, I would like to receive a coupon book that has both options for the same store. Depending on the amount of money that I will be spending in the store, I would like to choose the coupon that would save me the most money. I assume that your thoughts are similar to mine. The best coupon is the coupon that will save you the most money for that particular purchase.

If you know other resources for clothing coupons, beauty product coupons, or accessory coupons, please share your resources in the discussion forum at the bottom of this hub.

Please note that although we will not be publishing information about specific discounts or opportunity, it is possible that promotions will appear in the sponsorship sections of the page. The ads that appear in those areas are not controlled by the author of this hub. However, we do allow the ads to appear because we know that they should be targeted to the subject of this page. In theory, the ads will present to you clothes purchasing opportunities.

If you have any comments or questions regarding our fashion industry hub, please share your thoughts in the discussion area below. We would very much like to hear your opinions regarding the subject of this page. Do you know of any upcoming or current sale opportunities? If you know of any great discounts please add details in the forum so we can all learn about the event and possibly take advantage of the discounted prices. As a reminder, please post only about clothes, fashion accessories, or beauty products.