Do clothes shops loose a lot of profit from the boxing sales coming up?

Question

Do they use tricks to fool people into thinking they have got bargains? Do they raise prices before the sales and afterwards sell them at a lower price? Do they bring in cheaper stock?

Answer 1

They don't mark up the prices before Boxing Day. They are trying to reduce their stock to get rid of autumn/winter clothing because the spring collections arrive in February

Stores have high mark ups on clothing So if a dress is selling at retail for £100, they paid £25-50 for that item. If they sell that dress on sale for £60 they are still making money. If they sell it for £50 and only paid £25 wholesale they are still making money. If they sell it for £35 and paid £25 for it, they are still making money. Even with sales, stores are not losing money. The price will usually not go below the break even point unless the rest of the department has done incredibly well and is profitable and they would rather lose money on a few slow selling items to clean out the stock

Answer 2

They're usually trying to not lose more by clearing inventory that didn't sell before Xmas. Winter is usually crap for retail, so they want to clear out what they can and make whatever remaining money is out there. Sales depend on stock - if they can sell you the same thing easily for full price, they won't discount it.

Answer 3

Clothing chains rarely lose money on sales. They just make less than they do when people buy at full price.