Certain shops were so busy yesterday that you would not think people were cutting back. The first one day sale for many years in Marks and Spencers caused massive queues.

But shoppers have got wise in the last few years, they know that the Sales will come and many peopl nowwait for them. For once the retail industry has been forced to follow, not lead ,and in these times the shopper has even more power.

They put on the Sales to drive people into their shops and buy. But Why do they need to do this? Well obviously because people are not buying.

But why are they not buying? Because they are waiting for the Sales!!!

In the last few years people have got used to the fact that shops now will have sales before Christmas and many people will wait for them so even if the shops don't want to they are, in a sense, forced to.

If you offer sales or discounts then make sure you track the usage of them, track the trends. This information can tell you how well it is driving sales, what works best, but as important are checking if these promotions are causing your customers to hold off buying until there is a Sales on.

So my question to you is does your Database application record all the sales and promotional information? Do you know what promotions and offers work and what don't?

And if not why not????

If you are in retail are you also tracking your competitors Offers? Because there might be a trend to when your sales go down and your competition has a sale