Here is a tempting offer I saw in Croatia.
When I discussed this with one of the staff that I think was one of the owners what he assured me was that the sign worked fine. He went on further to state if your prices are reasonable and fair, do you really need to discount to get customers? This bar was full so it did not look like it did need to offer a discount.
Before running a sale or offering a discount you need to determine what you are doing it, for example, is it to gain new customers, or are you trying to get more out of existing customers, or perhaps you are looking to get rid of excess stock.
Our system can allow you to do all this, for example, to try to get new customers you may try a policy of loss leader by making a few items, particularly cheap (this is what often supermarkets do, their margins are not much different to anyone else, but they do have a $1 milk), if alternately you want to get more out of existing customers, you may need to look at running a loyalty programme to add that personal touch.
Above all, what you need to do is measure, so you can figure out how to improve. Three questions I would recommend you ask yourself are:
1) How much discount are you giving away? Industry figures are for loyalty programs are just under 1% discount for total sales.
2) How much of that discount is new business and how much is existing business you are giving away? If you do not know, I suggest putting in 50% for your initial estimate, half as new business and half as existing business.
3) How much profit is new business and how much is existing business that you are giving away? Again if you do not know, I suggest putting in the 50% for your initial estimate.
Now do your sums.
