There are a lot of ways your displays can be your silent salesperson. The trick is to make sure your displays include some of the basics which include:
1. Change your displays monthly
You’ve got to keep your customers guessing – a little, anyway. Every Continue reading 7 Ways To Transform Retail Store Displays Into Sales »
Information is power. Lew Platt, the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, once famously said: “If HP knew what HP knows, we would be three times as profitable!” Information is all around us but the trick is, what to do with it.
If you are planning a trip to Toy Fair, PMA, your local merchandise mart or other trade show I have some advice for you:
1) Prepare – know your numbers. Not your macro numbers like how we did for the month but the micro numbers. What are your top five categories in gross sales and if you can access it, in terms of profitability. Some businesses use lots of loss-leaders which may sell a lot but actually cost them money. That’s not what you want. Look at all of your categories and find your top five to seven. Then find your bottom five to ten.
2) Analyze. Many independent business owners are chronic over-buyers. It’s so much fun to go to New York or Chicago and buy things! But if you bring something new in, that means something has to go. You can’t just keep putting more merch in your store. If sales were down 5% last year then your inventory level should be down 5% as well.
3) Make a shopping list. Go to the show looking only to add to your most profitable, best-selling categories.
4) Be liberal. With your best categories, go ahead, try new things, unproven things, things you have a hunch on. The marketplace looks to you for such items because those categories are paying off for you. You’re safe because, you’re “fishing where the fish are” trying new bait. Even if gosh forbid you buy a stinker, you will be able to move it out quicker because there is more demand in the category. With me?
5) Be conservative. With your bottom categories, STOP. Don’t buy more because those categories aren’t contributing enough to your bottom line. I learned this in the coffee business. Everyone said, “tea is the next big thing, you need to expand your tea offerings.” We looked at tea sales which were less than 1%. Even if we doubled the menu, it still wouldn’t produce the jump needed to support more POP, product and training. Simply put, customers didn’t look to us for their tea needs. Instead we looked at the blended cold coffee drinks and tried various flavors because they represented 40% of sales – we were safe because people looked to us for those kinds of drinks and would be open to it. In your case, if you must replenish something, make sure it is a proven #1 best-seller or pass. Remember it was the pioneers who got the arrows; be a settler once an item has survived in the marketplace in your lower categories, then bring it in.
6) Use an open-to-buy. In its most basic form it means you can’t buy unless something else has sold. This helps keep you from overbuying for your store.
These are by no means all the tips to successful merchandise selection but they should help put money in your jeans, instead of in your vendors. That’s because merchandise is like milk; it goes bad quickly so you only want to carry what you need, not what you want.
I cover more on this in my new book.
(If you are attending a conference, visit http://www.retaildoc.com/attend-a-conference-article.html to read how to get the most from it.)
I was in a CVS at the border between Huntington Beach, CA and Costa Mesa early Sunday morning looking for foot powder. I’d been on my feet too much during this trip and figured Tinactin would do the job quickly.
I spotted the CVS with their automatic doors open wide at 8am with their stated hours being 10am-10pm. Were they really open? I walked in.
Now I have to tell you, retail clutter is so prevalent in most CVS stores and their ilk that I usually dislike the experience. From the moment I walked in, this one was different. I could move. There was space. Heck, they even displayed things well.
I moved back to the aisle cleverly signed “Foot” to find Tinactin locked up like it was an expensive digital camera with the words I hate in retail, “Please ask for assistance.” I went back to the counter where Jorge was, “Can you open the Tinactin display for me?” He pleasantly said, “I’ll be right there.”
Shortly we were back and he was unlocking it. I asked, “Do these have a way of disappearing?” He answered, “Yes sir, we stocked it one day and it was stripped in the same day. They took all the products out of their boxes and left the boxes.”
Wow! Looking through the store you could see pride of ownership, even in a high theft market. There was the furniture display that included a host of add-ons including traveling beach chairs, pads, towels and chips. 
There was the end cap for Bounty paper towels with cleaner, a bag for holding the cleaner and disinfectant spray.
Every aisle was well merchandised with plenty of space for the retail displays to make customers pause and consider the picture. Brilliant.
In the cosmetic aisle where you can hardly move in many convenience stores because they are so loaded with product, this store had a simple table with one manufacturer’s sun care products in different heights with coordinated gift bags. Very smart.
Consider the difference between this store in Huntington Beach, CA and the one in Hudson, NY for Lindt chocolates. On the left is the one in Huntington Beach which features cards, Korbel champagne and Lindt chocolate.
HB CVS
And this one on the right, same display unit in Hudson low on product with competitors cheaper products at the bottom and beef jerky taped to the side.
Hudson
Which one do you think sells more product? This is always the dilemma for manufacturers displays – you put this great unit out there but what does it end up looking like in the field? Not to worry in Huntington Beach CVS – these guys and gals should be promoted as great ambassadors for your brand.
The care employees take with you merchandise during a recession can really make a difference in your sales.
