OfficeMax Thinks Beyond The Circular By Posting Store Level Clearance Ads

So here is a really classic retailer problem.  Getting rid of clearance and closeout items as fast as possible at the highest possible margins (eg at the lowest level of discounting).

OfficeMax, like all other retailers, had this same issue.  OMX has all sorts of very limited quantity, end-of-lifecycle items that pile up on end caps and clearance tables in all of their stores.  To make matters worse, the only way shoppers would even know about these amazing deals is for them to come into an OfficeMax store.  So much for empowering shoppers to research online ahead of making a commitment to come into a store.  Also, the data complexity behind this problem was pretty tricky due to the fact that:

• The clearance item assortment is different at each store location
• The clearance item quantity is different at each store location
• The clearance item price & discount may be different at each store location

Through all of the hurdles, the OfficeMax team found a great solution that addressed each challenge laid out above.  They program is called “OfficeMax Storewide Clearance Events” and this limited time and quantity content is now exposed within their weekly store ads site (that ShopLocal hosts).

What OfficeMax decided to do was on a weekly basis is for each single store location, to auto-generate a single page PDF flyer that features 16 unique clearance items and the store specific price.  By taking this approach, OfficeMax was able to offer a limited view to its shoppers of some of the highest quantity clearance items online.  Which in turn, gives shoppers yet another great reason to go in store.

However the ability to on-board and integrate additional, non-circular is a global ShopLocal capability (so not limited to just OfficeMax).  The team here has experience loading many different types of store promotions. This content can come from PDFs like OfficeMax in this case (eg virtual pages or virtual promotions), or it can come from back end data feeds or web services.  Regardless of the source, it can easily be integrated in and around the existing circular content. So maybe we should stop calling our solution “SmartCircular” and start calling it “SmartDeal”

The OfficeMax Storewide Clearance Event solution is a great extension of a weekly ad site. It's goal is to help OfficeMax exit end of life cycle items as profitable and quickly as possible.