JCPenny: Lessons Learned From 'No Sale' Tactics

JCPenney all but did away with “sales” and rolled out an everyday, best-value pricing structure. They’d hoped to cut through the retail clutter by offering the customer a simple, low price that wouldn’t change regularly. They had calculated that buyers would respond positively to open and clear pricing. As it turns out, they couldn’t have been more wrong.

Apparently, doing away with sales may have been one of the worst marketing moves this retailer has made.

So let’s again circle back to the implications for your small business:

The Danger of Unproven Ideas
As a small business, it’s great to explore new ways to market yourself. However, you must be cautious when going “all in” on an idea that has yet to be proven. In the case of JCPenney, their new marketing strategy was not fully vetted. If you have a new idea, test it first or deploy it in phases so that you are not met with utter failure if things go south. If things happen to go well, you’ll have the time to fine tune things before going full scale.

Everyone Likes a Deal
You don’t have to have an advanced degree in marketing to know that sales work. Customers like knowing that they got a deal on their purchase. In addition, they like the excitement of snagging an item just before the opportunity has passed. In JCPenney’s case, they removed their ability to generate this kind of excitement for their customer. As a result, they experienced a significant decline in cash flow. As a small business, never become so evolved in your marketing that you forego the basic benefits of a sale.


Read more: Lessons Learned From JCPenney