CASE STUDY
How to reverse the 40% January sales dip
February is the real start of the retail year.
While the calendar year begins in January, for retailers, the year really begins in February.
January is often defined by the "holiday hangover"— a period where store teams are focused on managing returns, processing gift card redemptions, and cleaning up after the peak season rush. Our data shows over the past three years, sales in January have been on average 40.61% lower than in December. It is a month where traffic slows down and consumer energy dips.
February marks the start of a major upward shift. It is the critical moment when the momentum for the next six months is decided.
Retail leaders use this month to move from a reactive state to a proactive strategy. This is when you can win a larger share of mind with your customers by reconnecting with them after the holiday noise has faded. By building the right outreach systems in February, you are not just chasing a single month of sales; you are setting the stage for consistent success for the entire year.
Why is February your most important growth lever?
Our research in the 2nd Annual Tulip Clienteling Benchmark Report shows that when your store teams communicate more often during this time, they directly influence customer behavior.
Specifically, proactive, human-led, 1:1 outreach leads to three results:
Customers make
↑more purchases on average
Customers
↓wait less between purchases
Customers spend
↑more money on every purchase
Retailers that see consistent month-over-month growth almost always show a spike in outreach during this specific window.
How does personalized outreach lead to higher influenced sales?
Our data shows that a 14% increase in proactive, human-led, 1:1 outreach leads to an exact 14% increase in sales influenced by store associates. You read that right: every 1% increase in outreach volume leads directly to a 1% increase in sales. Between 2023 and 2025, we saw this direct correlation as retailers moved from January into February.
The long-term impact is even more impressive: retailers who stay consistent with this strategy see their influenced sales grow by an average of 56% between January and June. The message is clear: the more your team engages in human, personalized outreach in February, the more your customers spend with you all spring and into the summer.
The message is clear
the more your team engages in human, personalized outreach in February, the more your customers spend with you all spring and into the summer.
What are the keys to an effective outreach strategy?
The secret to effective outreach is making sure every message feels like a helpful suggestion from a friend rather than a generic advertisement.
To achieve this, your store teams should follow three specific steps:
1
Make your outreach feel truly personal
Outreach feels personal when your teams have a complete view of the customer through 360-degree profiles. These profiles capture everything from product preferences and wish lists to a full history of what the customer has bought both online and in-store.
When an associate knows a customer’s style and interests, they can send a note about a new arrival that actually fits that person’s life. This turns a sales pitch into a valuable, personal service.
2
Timing matters for your conversion rates
Perfect timing ensures your message arrives with the right context, which can make your outreach convert 70% better than generic marketing blasts. A follow-up note after a purchase or a thoughtful birthday message is only effective if it reaches the customer at the right time.
By giving your store team the tools that provide timely reminders, you ensure they never miss an opportunity to connect when the customer is most likely to buy.
3
Know which channels your customers want to use
Your teams should whichever channels your customers prefer, including SMS, WhatsApp, or email. Meeting customers where they already spend their time allows for natural conversations.
Additionally, using platforms allows you to easily trace every sale back to specific conversations. This makes it simple to see which messages are driving revenue and which customer relationship are growing the fastest.
How do first-half habits define a winning retail year?
When you empower your teams to master human, 1:1 outreach in February, you are building a strategic muscle that compounds in value every month. This "February Pivot" is the moment you stop hoping for traffic and start creating it.
By leveraging Tulip’s industry-leading tools, the world’s most iconic brands transform these early habits into a permanent competitive advantage. Starting your outreach cycle in February does more than just fix a slow January—it creates a trajectory of unstoppable growth that carries you through the entire year.
Success in retail is not a seasonal accident; it is the result of high-impact habits built while the rest of the industry is still recovering.
About
Tulip is the world’s largest cloud-based retail customer engagement platform provider, with best-in-class Clienteling and POS capabilities that let retailers realize the full potential of omnichannel commerce. The world’s most iconic retailers like David Yurman, Versace, Jimmy Choo, Mulberry, Saks Fifth Avenue, Ferragamo, COACH, and Michael Kors use Tulip to modernize the shopping experience, creating personalized shopping journeys that increase sales and improve customer loyalty across channels. Tulip enables retailers to build deeply personal connections with customers, fulfill orders, closeout purchases, and maximize store associate productivity and performance.
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