Episode 6: Spring Has Sprung and Your Winter Stock Hasn't Moved — Plus: How to Capture the Tax Refund Shopper Right Now

Hosted by Mia and Jade — BoutiquePulse

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Episode Summary

Spring is here, but if your winter racks are still packed, you're losing floor space and cash flow at the same time. This episode walks you through a 5-day plan to clear winter inventory fast while making your fresh spring arrivals the star of the show. You'll learn the 70/30 floor split strategy — giving 70% of your visual space to spring and 30% to strategic winter markdowns — plus a bundle offer you can test in Shopify this week. By the end, you'll know exactly how to move stale stock without training your customers to wait for sales.

Key Takeaways

  • Count every winter item still on your floor and in your stockroom by category (tops, bottoms, outerwear, accessories).
  • Identify the 20% of winter items that are most likely to sell — pieces that are still stylish, in popular sizes, or easy to style into spring outfits.
  • Walk your sales floor and physically mark which fixtures, walls, and tables will become your spring zone — aim for 70% of total floor space.
  • Move all remaining winter clearance pieces to one consolidated rack or table in a secondary area of your store — not near the entrance.
  • Set clear markdown tiers for your winter clearance — for example, 30% off for items over 60 days old, 50% off for items over 90 days old.
  • Choose three spring arrivals to feature as hero products and build one complete outfit display around each on your newly cleared spring floor.
  • Write one social media caption for each of your three spring hero outfits that also mentions your winter clearance event — post all three across five days.
  • Create a simple handwritten or printed sign for your clearance rack that tells customers exactly how long the sale lasts.
  • Brief every staff member on the 5-day plan so every team member can explain the clearance tiers and the spring arrivals without hesitation.
  • Check your sales numbers at the end of each of the five days and compare how many winter pieces sold versus the week before the plan started.
  • Log in to your Shopify admin and go to Products to identify which winter items you want to include in the bundle offer.
  • Go to Discounts in your Shopify admin and click the Create discount button.
  • Select 'Buy X Get Y' as your discount type and set the qualifying condition to 'purchase of any spring item at full price.'
  • Set the 'Get Y' reward to give customers 60% off any one winter item from your clearance collection.
  • Name the discount code something clear and easy to type, such as SPRINGWINTER60, and set the start and end dates to match your 5-day plan.
  • Go to Analytics in your Shopify admin and write down your current average order value — that is, the average dollar amount customers spend per order — before the bundle goes live.
  • Go to Online Store, then Themes, then Customize, and add a banner or announcement bar at the top of your homepage promoting the bundle offer.
  • Go to Online Store, then Navigation, and confirm that your 'Winter Clearance' and 'New Spring Arrivals' collections are both visible in your main menu.
  • Go to Discounts in Shopify after 24 hours and check how many times the bundle discount code has been used compared to your normal daily order count.
  • Go to Analytics, then Reports, then Sales by discount, and compare the average order value on bundle orders to the average order value on orders with no discount during the same period.

Frequently Asked Questions

What if my winter clearance items just aren't selling even at 50% off — do I keep discounting?

At some point, the cost of holding inventory — in floor space, mental bandwidth, and cash tied up — outweighs what you will recover from a deeper discount. If items are not moving at 50% off by day four of your plan, consider a 'Fill a Bag for $20' event, a donation to a local shelter for a tax write-off, or bundling them as a gift-with-purchase to move them without further margin loss. The goal is to free up space and cash, not to hold out for a perfect recovery.

How do I make sure the 'Buy One Spring, Get One Winter at 60% Off' bundle doesn't hurt my spring margins?

The key is that the spring item must be purchased at full price — the discount only applies to the winter piece, not both items. As long as your spring items hold their full price, you are effectively recovering partial value on a winter item that might otherwise sell for even less or not sell at all. Run the numbers on a few scenarios: even at 60% off a winter piece, you come out ahead compared to donating it or holding it until next year.

I only have two staff members — is a 5-day plan too ambitious?

Not at all. The floor reset and Shopify setup can be done in a single prep day, ideally before the store opens or on a day you are closed. Once the floor is set, the clearance rack is organized, and the Shopify discount is live, the plan mostly runs itself — your team's main job is to tell customers about the bundle and point them to the clearance zone. The daily tracking check takes 10 minutes at the end of each shift.

Should I email my customer list about the winter clearance bundle, or just use social media?

Email your list if you have one — existing customers who have already bought from you are far more likely to respond to a sale than someone who just discovered your Instagram. A short, plain-language email with the discount code and the sale end date sent on day one and a reminder on day four can significantly increase the total number of bundle orders. Social media is excellent for reaching new potential customers, but email is where your best buyers are.

What if I do not have a 'New Spring Arrivals' collection set up in Shopify yet?

Create one before setting up the bundle discount — it takes about 10 minutes in Shopify. Go to Products, then Collections, click Create collection, name it 'New Spring Arrivals,' and manually add your spring products. Without this collection, you will not be able to correctly set the qualifying condition in your Buy X Get Y discount, and the offer could apply to any purchase rather than requiring a spring item specifically.