How much do you blame the weather when footfall or sales is not as expected?
Yes, weather does affect footfall and sales, but a Category Manager I used to work with always said, “but is it just the weather, or could there be other factors at play?”
It’s a question I’ve never lost sight of. These are my top tips for when you’re thinking about the weather and how it’s impacting your sales.
1. Forecast for different scenarios & have a rough and ready plan for each one. What will you do if sales are too low? What will you do if the weather has driven a surge in sales?
2. Track your sell-through rate versus your targets and know which tactics you might employ when. We know sales will never follow forecast, but we can think about when to implement different retail tactics
3. Have your social media posts at the ready for when those rainy days or blazing hot days come. Follow the weather forecasts and publish your social posts when you think you’ll have maximum impact.
4. Don’t blame the weather. There are so many factors that affect sales. Yes, the weather can be a key driver, but what are the other factors at play within your shop, website, social media account. What factors external to you are at play (e.g. a road closure prevented footfall).
5. Run through your checklist of what else you can do to support sales. It’s always worth running through your retail toolkit to ask yourself what you need to tweak.
K Hulse Consulting 