Non-sale revenues expanded, while revenues across all companies grew 2.6%

When LUMINE delayed its store-wide summer sale by two weeks compared to the previous year, to run from 28 July to 6 August, non-sale revenues expanded as planned. While July-only revenues fell across all companies compared to the previous year due to the change in the sale period, revenues from 1 July to 6 August grew 2.6% versus the previous year. While most retail outlets, including department stores, and e-commerce sites started their sales from late June, the delayed sale launch achieved satisfying results. “Many customers kindly waited until the launch of our sale. The response from shops was also good.” (Hiroshi Suwa, Managing Director of the Sales Department & Head of the Sales Division)

Looking at revenues by product category in the period from 1 July to 6 August, in addition to 18.4% growth in cosmetics and 4.3% in food, ladies’ fashion also grew by a robust 1.1%. In revenues by location, LUMINE EST, Ikebukuro, Yurakucho, Omiya and Tachikawa were particularly strong.
While revenues dropped from 14 July, the start of the summer sale in the previous year, they rebounded from 28 July, the launch date of this year’s sale. Revenues from 1 July to 13 July beat those of the previous year.

At a time when most other retail outlets were in the midst of their summer sales, success was achieved by strengthening cooperation with stores to increase the volume of non-sale products introduced for late summer and early autumn, and enhancing stores’ virtual merchandising to promote the newness of products and their prices. While some shops used the label “Special Price” to mark down their prices ahead of the sale launch, the number dropped compared to the previous year. According to Mr. Suwa, if the number of shops marking down their prices in early July had been of the same scale as the previous year, an increase in revenues would not have been achieved.

As the 2017 sale period and length differs from 2016 (2016: 14 – 18 July), direct comparison is not possible, but results were overall robust compared to the previous sale. Shops consistently followed a policy of firmly selling their lead products instead of leftover stock, and in the five-day period in the latter half of the sale, the number of non-sale products was increased, and revenues were increased through enhanced virtual merchandising with mixed outfit proposals including both sale and non-sale products. Mr. Suwa explains, “Throughout the sale period, we did not have to fight a battle wholly devoted to the sale like previous years. There were many shops which were able to increase their average customer spend.”

Instead of simply increasing revenues, the primary aim of changing the sale period this year was to extend the non-sale period and introduce new products to customers to the greatest extent possible. This was supported by the customers, making the change a success. Mr. Suwa shares, “Many shops have told us that they would like to continue the same sale strategy going forward. We must continue, not only for ourselves but for the sake of the industry as well.”