How to organise a sample sale in New York City

It's a question we get almost weekly - I'm a brand or a retailer with some excess stock, how should I put together a sample sale in NYC? The New York sample sale scene is so vibrant, it's easy to get lost in a jungle of options and choices. A great sample sale can be a huge success - not only helping you clear stock, but also introducing new shoppers to your brand who otherwise would never have discovered you, but a poor sample sale can be bad business, loss making and damaging to your brand too, so it's vital to get it right.

The New York sample sale scene is very unique and different from the other markets that we cover. You essentially have three options here:

• Organise the sample sale yourself.
• Turn to a independent organiser of sample sales.
• Work with one of the established, dedicated sample sale venues.

What option you choose will depend on the scale of the sale, the resources you have available and the audience you want to reach.

Organising a sample sale yourself

Many brands in NYC do organise sample sales for themselves - and they are often extremely successful. If you already have your own showroom or store in the city, and the venue supports a large number of people turning up to shop, it can be a great success. There is a lot to consider, however, including:

• How easy is your showroom or store to find, and how easy is it to access?
• How much room do you have to present your inventory well and let people browse and shop?
• Will you need to allow for changing facilities, or will shoppers not be able to try on goods?
• How will you control crowds and deal with queues if the sale is very popular?
• How will you take payment? Is it cash only, or can you take card payments?
• How will you manage security and ensuring that goods are not lost, damaged or stolen?
• Do you have the staff available to man the store permanently during the event?

If these questions daunt you, then it may be best to seek help from an experienced third party. But if you feel you've got all of the resources you need already available then there's no reason not to go ahead.

Marketing Your Sale

A vital and often overlooked consideration for any sample sale is marketing - how are you going to reach out to people and bring them to your sale? Experienced sample sale organisers have links with media and sites like Chicmi to make sure that your event is covered in as many places as possible. Dedicated sample sale venues (which we'll cover further down) even have their own mailing lists, which they can use to attract sample sale devotees.

If you're producing the sale yourself then, you need a marketing strategy, which may include:

• Inviting people from your own mailing lists.
• A VIP night for high-value customers, press and influencers.
• Posting on your own social channels, if you think that the sample sale is appropriate for your audience. Some brands prefer to keep their social channels separate for brand reasons, or feel their social networks are too international to post a local sample sale event.
• Advertising online, using Facebook, Instagram or Twitter adverts.
• Local advertising with flyers.
• In-store advertising if you have stores.
• An events page on your website.
• Making sure that your sale is listed on Chicmi.
• Reaching out to local fashion press or even national press such as Racked or WWD.
• Talking to instagrammers, vloggers or bloggers who you have a relationship with to promote your event.

Whatever marketing methods you choose, there's a few things to bear in mind:

• The more time you give, the better the result will be. We know that many of you would rather announce your sample sale fairly late so as not to cannibalise other sales channels, but it will take time for your customers to organise their diaries, so give them at least a week.
• One of the biggest advantages of sample sales is generating buzz and attracting a new audience, so make sure you don't limit your exposure to just your customer mailing list.

Chicmi of course can help. We will list your sample sale on our site for free - and we also offer a very popular digital marketing option (we call it Boost) to help you reach more customers online too if you'd like. We're happy to embargo your event until it's ready so make sure you reach out to us at team@chicmi.com as soon as possible so that we can help you put together your plan.

Working with an independent organiser

There are specialist stock clearing companies in most cities, and many of them organise some of the most prevalent sample sales in their respective cities. This is especially true of LA for example, but less so in NYC - where it's far more common to use a dedicated venue or host the sale yourself.

However there are a few - and the most prolific of them are Shelly & Renee and Privé Designer Sales who organise a large number of sales in various venues across the city. If you need introductions to others then make sure you get in touch with us - just drop us an email at team@chicmi.com.

The advantage of working with organisers like these is experience - they know the pitfalls, they have contacts at the venues, they know where to reach out to to get your event organised. Some organisers work on a set fee basis, some work on commission.

Working with a dedicated venue

The most unusual feature of NYC is the number of dedicated sample sale venues in the city. These companies own one or more locations that are dedicated to hosting sample sales. They all have in-house logistics and marketing specialists, they have close connections with sites like Chicmi, and they all have mailing lists packed with sample sale lovers.

There are several of them in New York, but by far the most prevalent ones are 260 Sample Sale, Clothingline and Soiffer Haskin. These three companies all angle their services towards a slightly different set of verticals, with Soiffer Haskin organising many very high end luxury sales, 260 Sample Sale working regularly with high street brands, and Clothingline producing more multibrand events than the other venues.

Unlike a venue that you might hire and fit out yourself, these companies are highly experienced at producing sample sales - and will help you with everything from logistics to marketing. This expertise, their large mailing lists and their specialized venues do come at a cost - but if you've got a large amount of stock to shift, and especially if you need the event to be spot on perfect and have the budget to support it, then working with them is an obvious choice.

Collaborating with other brands

If you don't have a huge amount of stock or you don't have the budget or audience to run a sample sale by yourself, then collaborating with other brands is an option. It's very common for groups of brands with complimentary audiences to get together and organise a sale - they not only share the cost, but can also all invite their own set of dedicated fans, who can then discover the other brands on sale too.

As mentioned earlier, some companies like Clothingline will often bring multiple brands together for multibrand events themselves - and these can be very successful.

If you don't have a network of other brands to reach out to then make sure you check out our Collaborate network, where you can sign up as a brand and be notified when collaborative events are happening in the city that you can be part of. It's completely free to join the list or announce your event - so there's no reason not to get involved.

Need help? We can point you in the right direction

Although we don't organise sample sales ourselves, we're always delighted to help guide brands to the right place. And when you've got your sample sale together, make sure that you let us know, so that we can help send our dedicated fashion lovers your way! We're always here at team@chicmi.com, or you can use our event submission form here.