Raffles Can Be a Valuable Tool in Generating and Retaining Business
If уþu ðrõ lþþkÑ–ng fþr a unÑ–Ô›uõ ðnd õxÑÂÑ–tÑ–ng wðу tþ Ñ€rþmþtõ уþur business, уþu’võ ÑÂþmõ to thõ right Ñ€lðÑÂõ! Alexandra Kennedy Szvoboda lays þut the “why’s†and “how’s†in her thþught Ñ€rþvþkÑ–ng “ImрðÑÂt a Life†ÑÂþllõgõ scholarship õѕѕðу.
Alexandra is a Behavioral Science student at the Utah Valley University. Thðnk уþu so muÑÂh Alexandra fþr уþur excellent õѕѕðу – ðnd bõѕt þf luÑÂk with your Ñ•tudіõѕ!
“Impact a Life†Scholarship contributor: Alexandra Kennedy Szvoboda
Yþu ÑÂðn hõlÑ€ Alexandra Kennedy Szvoboda’s pursuit þf a scholarship award bу ÑÂlÑ–ÑÂkÑ–ng the “sharing Ñ–Ñ• ÑÂðrÑ–ng†buttþnÑ• bõlþw.
Raffles can be an incredibly valuable tool in generating and retaining business in the retail market. The purpose of my essay is to relay the benefits of raffles in a retail environment.
Everyone loves to win free prizes, and if clients are already buying with you, raffles can be a great way to secure and increase client loyalty. I have learned this lesson for myself by working in the cosmetics department of a well known retail store for almost two years now. One of the most profitable days we have every year is a cosmetics and fragrance event called “scentsationalâ€Â. During the evening of “scentsational,†we promote our cosmetic and fragrance sales by providing the customer with free gifts with their purchase, and extra raffle entries with every $100 spent.
The prizes that we give away are worth anywhere from $150-$500. The customer feels excited to purchase their items because they have a chance to win prizes, and are more likely to buy their products with us than another store because of this. It also generates customer loyalty because they feel valued for being invited to a special event. In addition, we call many of our customers to remind them of the event, which further solidifies customer loyalty.
On days with events including raffles and prizes, sales in the store increases significantly. On a normal day we might sell around $2,000 in our department, whereas on our event days we can sell nearly $60,000. What we lose in giveaways, we more than make up in sales increase.
In cosmetics, we often receive more testers than we can conceivably use before the expiration date, so we often use these in our gift baskets. By using testers we don’t lose any money, and the customer is trying products that we still sell. By doing this, we hope to get our customer “hooked†on certain items so that they will return and buy from us when they run out of their product. For those who come to the event, we hope they will be excited about their chance to win free product and tell their friends about it, thus expanding our clientele by word of mouth.
During our most recent scentsational event, I was able to sell nearly five times the amount than I would have sold on an average weekend evening. As my sales expectations were raised significantly for this event, I was grateful for all the people that participated. Because of our event, I gained many new customers, and a few of them won gift baskets, which secures them as a customer for life. This experience has taught me that I can help businesses to reach their goals in the future by supporting their events. It has also taught me that I can wait for special promotions to buy things I need, and I may be rewarded for doing so.
Raffles are an invaluable tool in promoting and securing business. Not only will you bring back loyal customers, you will bring in people that may not have purchased with you without such a promotion. If more companies did special promotions and raffles on a regular basis, they would yield a larger and much more loyal clientele.
