Offering any kind of marketing sales promotion is a great way to drum up business with new and existing consumers. At the end of the day, people love a bargain. If someone’s already looking at a product but they haven’t quite made up their mind as to whether to buy it or not, a good sales promotion could make all the difference.

People buy bikes all year round as they’re used for different purposes. While some use them simply for leisure, others use them every day in their daily commute to work. So sales do happen quite regularly throughout the year. But that’s not the challenge. The real challenge lies in beating the competition. Because there is so much choice available these days when it comes to bike retailers, you need to really make your business shine and a good sales promotion will help you do that.

There are many different sales promotion techniques that can be used to secure new and existing business and here we’ll take you through some of the more effective ones for you to considering using at your bike shop this winter.

1. Social media contests: One of the most effective ways of marketing in this day and age is through social media. Millions of people have social media accounts and making yourself known on sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram will help boost your sales significantly. Here, you can showcase some of what’s on offer and entice people into your store, whether in-store or online. As well as letting people know who you are and what you’re all about, social media is also the perfect place to run a contest. Everyone likes the chance to win something, especially if there’s no cost involved. If one person enters, others will follow and share, and before you know it you’re ad’s been shared millions of times without you having to lift a finger. Sure, you may have to give away a bike every now and then, but the publicity that you’ll receive because of it will be worth it.
2. Free accessories/free shipping/free assembly: Everyone likes to get something for nothing, even if this may not really be the case. For example, by strategically pricing your bikes so that the customer gets free lights with their purchase but it’s not costing you too much, everyone's a winner. The customer feels like they’ve got themselves a really good deal and you’re selling extra bikes every week as a result. If you own a local bike retail shop one very good tactic for pulling in customers is to offer them free assembly with every bike purchased. It won't take you very long to do and the customer will feel much more valued and likely to recommend you for your excellent service.
3. Rebates: This is quite a popular option for many bike retailers as is a very effective way to grab a customer’s attention. Being offered money back for purchasing a product that you would have done anyway is a no-brainer, which is why customers like them so much. Retailers like rebates as not everyone remembers to claim and so for the retailer it hasn’t cost them anything in discounts. Retailers often do this to try and clear excess stock they may have of one particular item.
4. Special pricing: Another deal that customers find hard to pass on is limited time only deals. These are typically really good offers that can only be taken advantage of during a certain time. While some may say it’s a form of pressure selling, consumers are getting a good deal and no one is being forced to buy anything they don't want too. It just comes down to a person's willpower as to how much they can resist a bargain. One example of this type of deal in a bike retail shop would be to offer the latest bike model out at a reduced price for just one week only to boost sales.
5. Free finance: Buying a new bike and all the accessories to go with it can add up to quite an expense. So, being able to offer your customers interest-free finance is a great selling tool. It allows them to spread the cost and it allows you to pitch the price differently in an ad. Which sounds more tempting to you: £500 or 10 monthly payments of £50? For many people, £50 isn’t too hard to find, but £500 is another matter. By allowing people the opportunity to spread the cost will help secure a lot more sales year round.
6. Coupons: Offering money off a customer’s next purchase is another good sales promotion technique. Not only does it entice the customer to buy the goods now, but it also sets them up for another purchase later on as they now have a coupon to use. Coupons can be very cost effective for bike retailers too as is a good way of getting repeat business when you might not have ordinarily. Of course, you don’t have to just offer coupons for a customer’s next purchases. You can offer coupons to everyone on your emailing list, for example. This is a far more cost-effective way of promoting your products and will hopefully produce an influx of sales as a result.

These are just a selection of the many tried and tested sales promotion techniques out there that have so far proved to work quite well when it comes to bike retailers. However, rather than focus all your attention on one technique, you’ll get a much better result using a combination of them. At the end of the day, you know your product and you should know your audience. Now all you need to do is find a way to grab their attention and reel them in. The rest is down to your products. As long as you continue to make yourself known and offer customers good value for money, the sales will keep rolling in.