Royal events create major sales increases

Having spent several days before, during and after the royal wedding in stores across London and regional parts of the UK, you can’t help but admire those manufacturers and retailers who harnessed this huge event.

It truly was huge at store level, no matter what line of retail business you are in. I knew this event would create a surge in sales – I used to work for Royal Doulton. Anything with ‘royal’ in it was a great fillip for a tired old industry selling expensive, highly decorated china competing with low priced white china made in, well, China.

During my time at Royal Doulton, royal anniversaries, engagements, weddings, even deaths were all thought about seriously by the teams in product development and retail. If the product development team and factories couldn’t make it, the retail division sourced it or bought it wholesale from competitors like Wedgwood. It was rare that we didn’t have huge sales at high margins and rarer still that we didn’t completely sell out of all this limited edition product.

This is what you would expect from a company with royal in its name that has made and sold giftware and collectables for over 200 years. But what about less mainstream gifting retailers, like clothing or telcos? How do they capture this huge increase in awareness?

Well I was both surprised and impressed to see Primark, the very low price, high volume clothing retailer selling royal wedding themed bras, well merchandised with Will, Kate and Crown all incorporated into the display. And one phone retailer was carrying a special edition royal wedding phone in the colours of a British Union Jack flag and “C&W 29-4-2011” on it. Beautifully displayed and selling well too.

Speaking to store staff, even before the wedding, sales were very strong. By the Thursday before the wedding Selfridges had sold out of that great British collectable staple, the tea towel.

It’s easy to be cynical of major events, no matter what type. However, if we don’t commit ourselves to using our best endeavours to harness the shoppers’ high spirits, with clever, time bound or limited edition products – that are well merchandised and positively sold by store staff –all we get to do is watch it on the telly and read blogs about just how high sales have been!

In his role as CEO of CROSSMARK, Kevin Moore looks at the world of retailing from grocery to pharmacy, bottle shops to car dealers, corner store to department stores. In this insightful blog, Kevin covers retail news, ideas, companies and emerging opportunities in Australia, NZ, the US and Europe. His international career in sales and marketing has seen him responsible for business in over 40 countries, which has earned him grey hair and a wealth of expertise in international retailers and brands. CROSSMARK Asia Pacific is Australasia’s largest provider of retail marketing services, consulting to and servicing some of Australasia’s biggest retailers and manufacturers.