By Kathleen Furore
School is back in session and many costume shop owners are capitalizing on the opportunity the 2024-2025 school calendar brings.
Bonnie Johnsen, co-owner of The Costumer in Schenectady, New York, says her store focuses on its clientele of 20+ local dance schools to drive business during the back-to-school time frame.
“We get a huge influx of customers looking for leotards, tights, shoes, dance bags and accessories starting at the beginning of September — and that flows over into October,” says Johnsen, who notes that The Costumer has created a dance boutique within the retail store that includes seats where young dancers can try to shoes (although pointe shoes aren’t part of the inventory because of the fitting challenges they present, she notes).
Reaching Out to Reach Customers
Marketing is key to The Costumer’s ultimate success with back-to-school sales.
Johnsen personally visits the closest dance schools to drop off coupons and say, “Hi, we’re still here!” Schools farther away receive the coupons by mail because The Costumers’ clientele “stretches far out in the capital region,” Johnsen explains.
To make sure her shop has the right inventory for dance school students, Johnsen and her team assemble binders for each school that detail exactly the apparel and accessories required for each class. That means students enrolled in any dance class at one of those schools know they’ll find what they need at The Costumer.
“If the family doesn’t know what they need for a pre-K class at Miss Ellen’s, for example, they can find that information in our Miss Ellen’s binder,” Johnsen explains. “We also offer a nice discount program for our dance families — 10 percent off every time they shop.”
Inventory Beyond Dancewear
While Johnsen’s strongest back-to-school marketing push revolves around dance, The Costumer does offer other items ideal for the back-to-school time frame.
“Things like Ben Nye makeup, sparkly bow ties and beads are great for pep rallies, so we keep a good stock of those,” says Johnsen, who notes that her shop does a lot of rentals and cleaning for mascot costumes, too.
The company’s website also touts the fact that the shop “is here to help with your child’s book report or school projects” with an array of costumes and accessories for historical figures. While those projects happen year-round, reminding parents your store carries those costumes and accessories as students head back to class will keep your business top-of-mind when project deadlines are approaching.
The 100th Day of School — something most school districts celebrate, especially at the elementary school level — is another opportunity to boost sales, Johnsen says, noting that both teachers and students buy things like old age kits (think wigs, beards, makeup, glasses, prop pipes, canes and the like) to celebrate the milestone.
The Purchase Order Plus
Having and promoting a wide range of school-focused items, of course, is key to a successful back-to-school selling season. Accepting purchase orders (the store even gives schools automatic open accounts) is another way Johnsen ensures The Costumer’s relationship with schools remains strong year-round.
“It’s super helpful that we accept them — they’re very popular,” she reports. “Amazon won’t accept them so more and more schools are doing business [with us] this way.” They work well, for example, with theatrical rentals. “Schools will work off of our costume plots, so everything is all priced out,” Johnsen explains. Another perk? “A PO also is a guarantee that you’ll be paid,” she adds.
Building a Back-to-School On-ramp
Waiting to promote your back-to-school offerings until kids and their teachers are about to head back to class isn’t the optimal approach to acing sales. Johnsen has tried different approaches to ramping up in the pre-back-to-school time frame.
Last year, for example, The Costumer hosted its own CostumerCon in mid-July to fill the summertime void shops often experience. The event, which featured three local cosplayers, face painting and an in-store scavenger hunt that gave participants the chance to see all of the shop’s merchandise, was quite a success.
“It did very well,” says Johnsen, noting that that kind of event can open customers’ eyes to all your store offers and in a best-case scenario, lead to repeat sales during back-to-school season and all year long, too.
For more great ideas, click here to read (or re-read!) Terry Sinopoli’s President’s Letter from the Summer issue of Costumer magazine.
Kathleen Furore is the editor of The Costumer.