The key to marketing sunglasses beyond store shelves is to target a particular audience and then find out what makes them tick. If you can find a message that hits the bull's-eye, so to speak, it's possible to move a lot of sunglasses very quickly. Below are just a few examples.
Sports Team Promotions
If you are a sports fan, you know that teams offer giveaway promotions to get people through the turnstiles. Just go to any Major League Baseball game if you are not familiar with the idea. Baseball teams give away everything from bobblehead toys to replica baseball caps.
Big-league teams are not likely to take you up on an offer for wholesale sunglasses unless you can deliver in volumes north of 10,000 or so. But if you have minor league teams in your local area, they would be a good target. Try approaching the team's marketing department with an offer to supply anywhere from a few hundred to a thousand pairs of sunglasses. You do not have to realize your normal 40% margin to make this work. When you're selling that many, a 10% margin is good enough.
Approach Local Employers
In every city and town across America, there are employers with workers who spend the majority of their time outdoors. Take the typical lawncare company with half a dozen laborers. The company already provides T-shirts, why not approach them with an offer to supply their staff with sunglasses. You could talk about using the sunglasses as an employee perk. You could pitch the idea of improving the professional image of the crew with matching T-shirts and aviators for all.
Summer Day Camps
The summer months are a time when youth day camps spring up all over the country. Unfortunately, such camps are notorious for having kids show up unprepared for being in the sun all day. Consider approaching a couple of day camp operators and offering cheap kids sunglasses for campers. If a camp can keep several dozen on hand, they will always have a pair available when one of the kids arrives without adequate eye protection.
As a bonus, the camp could let it be known in their marketing materials that they keep extra sunglasses on hand in case kids forget theirs. That would certainly score points with parents.
Talk to Car and Boat Dealers
Lastly, local car and boat dealers are always looking for inexpensive ways to get people into the showroom. You can pitch the idea of offering a free pair of sunglasses along with the purchase of a new or used car or boat. Pitch aviators to boat dealers and wayfarers to car dealers. Or offer a selection of various fashion frames they can mix and match according to their customer base.
There are plenty of ways to sell fashion sunglasses beyond just offering them on store shelves and racks. Your marketing potential is limited only by your imagination and creativity. Hopefully, the suggestions offered here have you thinking outside the box. In the meantime, Olympic Eyewear will be here with a full selection of bulk orders sunglasses at great prices that work well with your profit margin targets.
