sale

sale S1 W1 / seɪl / 名词

1 [可数和不可数名词] when you sell something

sale of

The use and sale of marijuana remains illegal.

Harvey gets a $50 commission every time he makes a sale (= sells something as part of his job ) .

Car salesmen will often bring down the price rather than lose a sale (= fail to sell something ) .

arms sales to Iran

2 sales

a) [复数形式] the total number of products that are sold during a particular period of time :

Britain’s retail sales (= all the things sold to the public in shops ) jumped 3.2 percent in April.

sales of

Sales of automobiles are up this year.

We did not reach our summer sales targets .

The company no longer releases its sales figures (= how much money it makes or loses from sales ) .

in sales

We grossed more than $500,000 in sales last year.

b) [不可数名词] the part of a company that deals with selling products :

She found a job in sales.

a sales manager

a worldwide sales force of 1,100

3 for sale available to be bought :

Excuse me, are these for sale?

There was a ‘for sale’ sign in the yard.

Reluctantly, they put the family home up for sale (= made it available to be bought ) .

4 on sale

a) available to be bought in a shop :

A wide range of postcards and other souvenirs are on sale in the visitors’ centre.

Stephen King’s new novel will go on sale (= will begin to be sold ) next week.

b) especially American English available to be bought at a lower price than usual :

These gloves were on sale for only $9.

5 [可数名词] a period of time when shops sell their goods at lower prices than usual :

Marsdon’s department store is having a sale this week.

the sales British English (= when all the shops have a sale )

I picked up some real bargains in the January sales this year.

6 [可数名词] an event at which things are sold to the person who offers the highest price 同义词 auction :

a sale of 17th-century paintings

7 sales drive/campaign when a company makes a special effort to try to increase the amount of its products that it sells :

a new sales campaign

8 sales pitch/talk the things that someone says when they are trying to persuade you to buy something

9 (on) sale or return British English if a shop buys something on sale or return, it can return the goods that it is unable to sell

→ bill of sale , jumble sale , point of sale

COLLOCATIONS

动词

make a sale (= sell something as part of your job ) A salesman may communicate perfectly well with a customer but fail to make a sale.

lose a sale (= fail to sell something ) Harry lost the sale because he was not persistent enough.

形容词

a quick sale He wants a quick sale, so he might reduce the price.

COLLOCATIONS

ADJECTIVES/NOUN + sales

strong (= good ) The company has reported continuing strong sales.

disappointing Sales for the first three months of this year were disappointing.

record sales (= better than ever before ) The Ford Fiesta has achieved record sales in Italy.

car/ticket/book etc sales Car sales have fallen every month for the past two years.

annual sales The company has annual sales of over $300 million.

worldwide sales Worldwide sales of wine are increasing.

retail sales (= sales of things to the public in shops ) The volume of retail sales was 0.3 percent higher than in the previous quarter.

export sales (= sales of things to other countries ) Export sales rose for the sixth consecutive month.

high-street sales British English (= in shops in towns and cities ) Last month saw record high-street sales.

动词

sales increase/rise/grow/go up Sales rose by 9% last year.

sales fall/drop/go down (= become lower ) European sales have fallen by 12%.

sales improve Sales are expected to improve over the coming year.

sales soar (= increase quickly and by a large amount ) Computer sales soared as prices continued to come down.

sales slump (= decrease quickly and by a large amount ) Meat sales have slumped following the most recent health scare.

sales + NOUN

sales figures The company said its sales figures continued to show growth.

a sales target It achieved only 20% of its sales target.

the sales force (= the people who sell a company’s products ) The sales force had grown from 40 to 270.

sales performance (= how much a company sells ) There has been an encouraging improvement in sales performance.

the sales forecast (= how much a company expects to sell ) The sales forecast is for a 12% increase in sales over the current year.

短语

an increase/growth in sales The company is expecting a 20% increase in sales next year.

a fall/drop in sales Some jobs may be cut following a big drop in sales.

the volume of sales (= the amount of goods a company sells ) Because of its high volume of sales, the company can keep prices low.