We spoke to Dawood Pervez, managing director at Bestway Wholesale, to discuss how wholesalers can increase sales during festive periods.
What actions and steps do you take to capitalise on profitable periods throughout the year? Can you name examples?
At Bestway, we work from a 12 month rolling marketing calendar that highlights key occasions, events and activities that are relevant for our customers in order to drive footfall and sales. The calendar also includes New Product Developments from our suppliers and is based on supplier insights, trends etc.
In terms of what methods we use, these include a combination of – sometimes all – of the below:
- Segmenting our customer data – based on KPIs
- Targeting KPIs e.g. a distribution drive to attract new customers through personalised offers
- In depot displays and sampling to build theatre
- Staff and customer incentives
- Digital content to promote offers
How important is your work with suppliers during these periods? Do they advise and lead on how you should operate during specific periods?
At Bestway, we always work in collaboration with our supplier partners, but we also use our own business experience and knowledge when deciding what and how to lead on each type of activity.
Read more: Bestway retailers given access to depot network
Can you names specific examples of methods you’ve tried that have had a positive effect on your business for certain months?
At Bestway, we would build our activity for a particular occasion e.g. the Christmas season begins with a teaser campaign leading to the main event. This allows our customers to build stock over a period of time for the specific occasion, for example for Christmas this begins in October. Suppliers are involved in these activities.
We have learnt over the years which campaigns work best for us, and our customers, in terms of growing profitable sales. These also include occasions such as Ramadan and Diwali as many of our customers’ stores are located in demographic areas that heavily celebrate these occasions.
