Tip of the day. When retailers have excess merchandise at the end of a season, their first instinct is usally to discount it to clear shelf space for the new items coming in. Often these discounts can be quite steep. But before discounting your excess merchandise, try offering your salespeople bigger commissions on the items that must go. You would be surprised how effective your salespeople can be if you offer them a much larger commission than usual. Items you might have discounted at 50% might fly off the shelf if you offer your saleswoman a 20% commission. This is an easy way to boost employee morale (it was money you were going to give away to the customer; why not give some to your salespeople intead?) A word of caution: as with all commission schemes, you have to be careful you are not creating perverse incentives such that your salespeople are only showing customers the out of season merchandise to the point that your customers feel they are being pestered.