Q & A
Increasing Floor Traffic Should Be Top Priority For All Retailers
Rob Elliott
At Spring Break Nationals this past march, the Mobile Electronics Retailers Association (MERA) hosted a retailer- attended roundtable and asked the audience what kept them awake at night. The unequivocal answer was floor traffic. Robert Elliott, executive director of In Car Experts (ICE), says his membership is seeing good results on traffic from key products — online and in the showroom.
ME: Please describe ICE — In Car Experts — for those who don’t know. Elliott: ICE is a group of more than 200 mobile electronics stores in 40-plus states that share similar mindsets and challenges. The group is supported by vendor partners who participate in order to illustrate and enhance their commitment to independent retail- ers. ICE is run by a full-time staff made up of industry veterans. By using economies of scale advantages, ICE is able to provide members with unique benefits. Cur- rently, those benefits are focused on members’ number one concern of increasing their floor traffic.
ME: You’re a former retailer. In your current position as executive director of ICE, what do you miss most about running a store? Elliott: My retail career had two halves. During the
first half my store ran me; however, the second half was much different. The hell and chaos that the first half brought forced me to apply structure and procedure to my business. From there it became a matter of con- stant fine tuning and capitalizing on opportunities. So, what do I miss most? I miss the early hands-on days of working with customers and their vehicles. Most other facets that I enjoyed, like helping to ensure small busi- ness success, I still experience daily at ICE, just on a much larger scale.
ME: The former Mobile Enhancement Retailers As- sociation was heavily criticized when the organization partnered with Brandsource to create the ME Source buying group. Did this failed endeavor make the forma- tion and operation of ICE any more difficult? Elliott: We really did not notice any impact from ME Source. I think this stems from ME Source not under- standing its target retailer. ME Source was formed
36 Mobile Electronics April | May 2011
around providing small retailers with discounts that are typically only available to larger retailers. I can tell you without a doubt that while these smaller retailers are happy to take the extra discounts, the discounts alone do very little to improve the overall health and future of the retailer.
ME: In your opinion, what was missing from the equation? Elliott: The program did nothing to help retailers increase business and floor traffic. A couple of extra dis- count points do not allot a retailer more time to focus on marketing and advertising. This is exactly why most vendor co-op funds have disappeared. How can a vendor afford to continuously give discounts to a retailer whose business is not growing? They cannot. This is what con- tributes to an overall unhealthy industry where products are sold based on being a “good deal” instead of being sold on the enjoyment they bring consumers.
ME: It’s been widely known that former members of ICE split to form another retail membership group, MESA. While both organizations are liberally called “buying groups” by the industry, you both promote that you are different. In terms of ICE, if not both organiza- tions, what’s the difference between your organization and a buying group? Elliott: First, I must say that I have great respect
for the founding members of MESA. They are not only some of the nicest guys I know, but are well known for being some of the shrewdest buyers in the industry. That being said, buying groups are typically made up of large retailers who get together with the lure of in- creased growth for a vendor. Once no more growth is possible, the vendor’s arm is then twisted for a better deal along with the threat of moving the group’s pur-
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