Bridal buyer

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are prepared to haggle.

“Sadly not all retailers stick to that and I do

understand why, in a saturated marketplace and in

a month of poor sales it’s hard to hold your nerve

but short-term gain is long-term pain.If a bride

falls in love with a dress that is perhaps a Sassi

Holford or Suzanne Neville or Jenny Packham she

can travel to a number of places selling that dress – without

doubt, state-of-the-art websites will help her in her search.

However, she will ultimately make her place of purchase

based on other factors like the boutique standards, the

service offered and the reputation of the shop.

“The British high street is awash with shoppers asking for

discounts. There are dozens of websites set up to teach you

how to bargain. I stumbled across one addressing brides-to-

be and saying: ‘Go to the bridal shop you have found your

dress in, go for the last appointment on a Saturday, go on

the last Saturday of the month, offer 20 per cent less than

the ticket price claiming you simply don’t have the budget.’

This site claims that 60 per cent of the retailers approached

gave in to the offer.”

There are no postcode differentials in play, it seems,

brides across the UK are out there bargain hunting and, as

Rebecca Doyle says, often spending more on travel to get

that bargain than they are saving on the ticket price. Alison

Kirk Bridal in Perth, Scotland, tends to follow the designer’s

recommended prices and hope that other boutiques do

too, thus levelling the playing fi eld. Owners Lindsay and

Fiona say this discourages brides from starting price wars

between shops. But they do offer discounts at certain events

throughout the year - for example at designer weekends

• but try to avoid discounting otherwise. “From time to
  time we are asked for discounts or price matching and we
  are aware that our brides are shopping around. In these
  situations we still keep to our stance on the price of the
  dress but may offer an incentive in the form of discounted
  accessories or similar.”
  Alison Jayne who, with her brother Andrew, owns shops

in Swansea, Mumbles, Cardiff and Bristol

feels strongly that discounting is a short-

term fi x. “It ultimately has an extremely

damaging long-term consequence on the

profi tability of a business and produces

serious cash fl ow issues for those who

persist with it. Discounting damages the

retail trade as a whole, because if it is common practice then

brides will naturally assume that products are priced with

an allowance built in.

“Manufacturers are not initially affected as they receive

their wholesale price for that gown but, over time, there is a

knock-on effect. As many retailers exceed the credit terms

that they offer on a regular basis, this puts a strain on their

profi tability and cash fl ow. It is a vicious circle which, over a

length of time, could have a disastrous effect for the bridal

industry as a whole.”

“We certainly will not discount on the price of a gown,”

says Andrew. “We may offer a complementary accessory

or alteration package as an incentive to purchase. Whilst

perceived as high value by the bride it has a low cost base to

the retailer. I feel brides now consider it the norm to request

a discount, which has been fuelled by the questionable

exclusivity agreements by some of the big suppliers.

“A considerable amount of time is spent by a bride before

she steps inside a shop. She will trawl the net, make notes

and style numbers of manufacturers’ websites, then search

out the stockists who carry that collection. If the price in

shop one is the same as in shop seven, the decision of where

to purchase will be solely based on service provided, general

environment of the store, convenience and accessibility in

her travel radius.”

The last word, as always, come from Abi Neill of Abigail’s

Collection: “Our business strategy has (and always will be)

one that chases profi tability. We’re not a discounting shop

although we will always work to a bride’s budget whether

that’s £500 or £1,500 but, whatever the sale ultimately, we

strive for maximum margin and not minimum. We’d rather

sell less at the right price than shift units with no profi t

in there. This year, we deliberately dropped a number of in-

house loyalty discount offers such as ‘Groom Goes Free’; we

haven’t lost one single sale and as a result are set to enjoy

our healthiest and most profi table year yet!

“Businesses need to consider very carefully their in-store

discounting and pricing principles; regular discounting

and chasing ‘turnover’ for turnover’s sake is, I’m afraid, the

road to ruin.” BB

Are appointment fees the way forward? Do they discourage the

‘messers’? In the next issue of Bridal Buyer we talk to stores about

the pros and cons about charging for their time.

Isabella Grace

Ellie Sanderson

Abigail’s Collection

Top:Alison and Jess

Above: Laura Daly

Above: Alison Kirk Bridal

074-075.BB.163.Discount requests.indd 75 13/06/2014 15:24