Covid-19 Impact on Weather Sales Promotions

By Anthony Osterrieth

As holiday season approaches, high street retailers would traditionally be inundated with customers eager to begin their Christmas shopping. This year, however, continues to be turbulent for businesses with local government restrictions forcing a second lockdown across some countries in Western Europe. 

For essential businesses who are allowed to remain open, enticing customers into their shops when many are urged to stay home could be an issue. For online retail, the challenge of encouraging shoppers to part with their cash, while many are struggling financially, will also be prominent.

This is where our weather-based promotions product can help. 

Saving high street sales one snowstorm at a time 

It’s no misconception that us Brits enjoy to talk about the weather, so, with other sources of entertainment currently limited, why not use this time to your brand’s advantage and turn the weather into a hook for your offers? 

Besides the hospitality industry, no sector has been perhaps worse hit than retail businesses, predominantly the high street. Savills Commercial Research reported that “In August retail footfall had recovered substantially in Europe but was still markedly lower than last year: around -25% in France, -30% in Germany and Italy and -40% in the UK, Spain and the Benelux.” With this in mind, many retailers are in desperate need of promotions to entice customers back into their stores. 

Promotion weather insurance is designed to stimulate sales for many types of retailers and manufacturers and can be particularly effective when set around public holidays, such as Christmas, or any notably commercialised events like ‘Black Friday’. 

By obtaining promotion weather insurance, businesses are able to offer their customers either a full or partial refund on items purchased during an agreed period, if a defined weather event (e.g. snow) occurs on a predetermined day. Whilst this may sound complex, once put into practice it is a surprisingly simple and effective method for driving sales:

Example: A jewellery store runs an in store and online sales promotion from 1st – 15th November and states that any customers who make a purchase during this sales period will be entitled to a full refund on their purchase if 5 inches of snow lands on a set day in November.

Outcome: 

1. Should it not snow on the set day, profits should increase from the period of the sales promotion from 1st – 15th November. 

2. Should it snow over 5 inches on the set day, your business will be covered against losses from the promotion and customers will reap the rewards of a refund, potentially resulting in their return custom to the jewellery store.

Therefore, not only are weather-based sales promotions easy to implement for businesses, they are advantageous in both instances, come rain or shine. 



Does this sound like a no-brainer?

With widespread confusion over restrictions, customer anxiety levels up, and, in many cases, disposable income down – retailers, both physical stores and online, will have no choice but to market their products even more so this year when it comes to sales promotions, and incentives to encourage shoppers to part with their cash. 

If you are interested in implementing a weather-based sales promotion to boost your in store or online sales this year, you can get a quote here or speak to a member of the team on +44 (0)20 7648 1282 to learn more about our cover.  

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