p is also testing the sale of swimsuits door-to-door with Avon, on Rupert Murdochs Asian Star TV channel and inside Ballys Health Clubs.Retailing and AdvertisingIt is quite obvious that the swimwear industry is highly cyclical, especially for fashion swimwear. Uncontrollable forces, such as seasons and weather, prevent many retailers from fully committing themselves to swimwear. Future sales are forecast based on historical sales information, projection of trends from suppliers and the intuition of merchandisers. Retailers then place orders approximately 8 months before the season starts. Factors such as weather can have a large impact on swimwear sales. A particularly warm summer will increase sales significantly from the previous year, while a cool summer will negatively affect sales. As a result, retailers experience difficulty in predicting sales for the upcoming year. To further complicate the retailers situation, the swimwear-selling season is relatively short. Retailers introduce the newest styles in February, while complete exposure occurs in March and April. Sales tend to peak in May when swimwear is given the most floor space in order to maximize sales. While discounting used to begin in late June, retailers are now beginning to start discounting much earlier in the season, around late May. Due to the short selling season, retailers must work hard to achieve their sales goals in less than five months. This means that inaccurate sales projections may harm a devastating effect on overall sales performance. However, advertisers and retailers have found that sales do increase when advertising campaigns are implemented later in the year. Starting the advertising campaigns in February and early March instead of January has had a positive effect on sales as women see the suits at a time when they would actually wear them. Increasing promotional expenditures has been successful for retailers as they are more able to control d...
