How to understand that a store promotion is really profitable

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

In order not to fall for the bait of marketers, you have to count, read and monitor prices.

Check the expiration date of the goods

Sometimes a promotion for a store is a way to quickly sell stale goods. There is nothing wrong with that. On the contrary, you buy a still usable product at a bargain price, and the supermarket avoids losses.

But there are factors that can negate the savings:

1. The packaging is too big. You simply won't have time to eat or use up all the goods until they go bad.
2. There is too little time left until the expiration date. If it expires tomorrow, you may not be able to use the product in time.
3. Incorrect storage conditions. The shelf life is determined based on the optimal temperature, humidity, lighting. If the conditions are not met, the goods may deteriorate before the expiration date.

Therefore, consider whether you will have time to use up the product, and be prepared for unpleasant surprises. You can return a damaged product.

As a result: if everything is in order with the product, and you manage to eat it or use it before the expiration date, the action is worth it.

Appreciate your own strengths

Clothing and footwear stores have long been using “three things for the price of two” promotions. But over the years, the numbers in the ad are increasing, and you can already find offers "six things for the price of three."

At first glance, the promotion appears to be profitable. And it will be so if you are delighted with the assortment of the store and can easily pick up six ideal items of about the same cost. Otherwise, you won't be able to save.

Typical story: you find great pants and a T-shirt, and you don't really like anything else anymore. But the promotion doesn’t let you just leave the store, and you circle around the trading floor in search of something else to “finish off” the number of products to the discount. As a result, you buy the things you like at full price, and as a gift for the promotion you get something that you would not have paid attention to in another situation.

You didn't spend too much, but you filled the closet with useless things - it didn't turn out so profitable.

With groceries, the idea of buying "three for the price of two" is primarily about shelf life. You have time to eat or use up - great. If not, then the benefit is questionable. For example, buying two fresh yoghurts for the price of one is a good idea. But getting five packs of baking soda for the price of three, if you only use it for baking pancakes for Shrovetide, is already dubious.

As a result:if each of the purchases is needed, important and dear to the heart, the action is worth it. In addition, it can be done like this if you team up with someone and hit six (or as many as is required under the terms of the promotion) things in one check for two or three people, and divide the spending.

Check the cost of analogues

This method does not work with clothing or in cases where you need a specific product from a certain company. But it is suitable for situations where you are only interested in the characteristics of the product.

Let's say there is a can of canned food at the stand worth 100 rubles with a 10% discount, and next to it - the same quality, but for 85 rubles. It will be more profitable to buy the second one even without any discounts. The more expensive the product, the more profitable it is to check the analogues.

As a result:if there are no analogues cheaper, the action is worth it.

Check the price before the discount

It happens that stores create the illusion of discounts in order to spur the interest of buyers and, at the same time, earn a little more on them. Today the goods are sold with a 50% discount for 100 rubles, and yesterday it cost 200. There is just a nuance: the day before yesterday it would have cost 70 rubles without any discount.

In online stores, price changes can be tracked using special extensions. It is more difficult to do this in offline outlets: you will not go to the same store every day to track price dynamics.

Sometimes you don't need to dig deep - just pry off the sticker with the new price on the label with your fingernail and see the old one.

If we are talking about a more or less large clothing or footwear store, the same Internet will come to the rescue. Go to the website and see the prices. Find reviews for a specific product by article on third-party sites - they often write what they bought and for how much.

For electronics, cosmetics and other goods, use price aggregators like Yandex. Market, Sravni.com, Price.ru. It's even easier with food: install the Foodil app. It will tell you if the price you are offered is profitable and in which stores the goods are even cheaper.

As a result:if earlier the price was higher, and not only yesterday, but in general, then the stock is worth it.

Read the information on the price tag carefully

It often happens that the cost indicated on the price tag in large letters is not intended for everyone. To do this, you need to comply with additional conditions: have a store map, take related goods. And the price for the average buyer is written in small print in the corner of the price tag and can be frighteningly high.

For example, an electronics store lures customers with a low price for a new smartphone. But it turns out that it works if you buy headphones, which cost 90% of the discount amount. For those who need headphones, the promotion is profitable. The rest will either have to pay the full price, or buy unnecessary headphones and save a small amount in the end.

As a result:if you have a store map or need related products, the promotion is worth it.

Calculate the cost per gram and kilogram

By default, it seems that the larger the package, the more profitable it is to buy the product. But even without any shares, sometimes it turns out that this is not so.

Let's say you come to a cosmetics store to buy a cream. It is available in 15, 30 and 50 ml jars. A 30 ml can costs 1,241 rubles, a 50 ml can costs 2,100 rubles, and a 15 ml can has a discount, and it will cost 600 rubles.

Let's recalculate everything in grams:

• The cost of 1 g in a 15 ml jar = 600 ÷ 15 = 40 rubles.
• The cost of 1 g in a jar of 30 ml = 1241 ÷ 30 = 41, 3 rubles.
• The cost of 1 g in a jar of 50 ml = 2100 ÷ 50 = 42 rubles.

It is obvious that from the presented it is cheaper. In addition, there is also a hidden intangible benefit: the smaller the jar, the more hygienic. This way the product runs out faster and the bacteria have less time to multiply.

What is the bottom line: a promotion is worthwhile if one gram or kilogram of the product is cheaper than in other packages.