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RESPONSE
TO STORY VIA EMAIL
BEWARE SHOWROOMING ‘Showrooming’ is tipped to be added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2015 and it’s a word that should be of grave concern to all
High Street retailers. Showrooming is when somebody comes in your store, gets all the information from your carefully designed displays and a half-hour demo from you – and then goes and buys the product online. Yes, it makes my blood boil as well. These days the showroomers don’t bother to hide – they come in with a smartphone and stand there checking prices against A, B, C and D online. Even more infuriating is when showroomers buy online and then come to you for help (which they never expect to pay for) or ring up and ask for help because ‘KnowHow’ unfortunately didn’t ‘know how’. So, we are left to pick up the pieces of a large shed sale or an online sale and the customer cannot understand why we don’t want to do it for free. Nowadays the complaint I hear the most is that the High Street is just becoming banks, building societies and charity shops – and apparently we come in the latter. It’s a simple equation folks: if you want to keep your High
Street interesting, then simply visit it and spend money in it. Otherwise in a few years time you will all be sat at home staring at a screen, unable to speak to anyone and wondering where those ever so helpful people from the High Street disappeared to. I just got off the phone with a lady who needs help with her tablet. I asked if she purchased it from us – she said no, but added that she did once buy a cartridge from us in 1997 (or was it 2003?), and apparently this entitles her to free support with her tablet. I seem to remember offering free lifetime support with every cartridge we sold back in the day, and seemingly this covers everything from cartridges to tablets – and probably delivery drones if Amazon has its way. There used to be a very famous advert for Schweppes that
said:“Schhh… You know who”. I have a new slogan for a large retailer to tell its customers: “Shhh… You know who, doesn’t know how”. Editor’s note: It won’t have escaped your attention that this comment didn’t come from a retailer in the bicycle trade. Instead it was sent to one of our sister magazines in the PC
market. However, it was so alarmingly apt for cycle retailers we thought we’d share it here.
RESPONSE
TO STORY VIA FACEBOOK
DON’T CHUCK IN THE TOWEL [In response to ‘Retail Frontline’, BikeBiz December 2013]
I am sure lots of people who read your article will have identified with your present circumstances [competing with a local charity offering free bike repairs]. I hoped you might not mind a couple of suggestions you could either think about or throw in the bin as impractical. Were your shop, my shop, I would start by taking a look at
anywhere I was able to put just £1 on every price. Customers would not likely to notice it and immediately I have slightly increased net profit as there was no cost. The everyday items people come in to get won’t raise eyebrows and customers are not likely to check the price of a puncture repair kit. I would sit with staff and make some lists. The first puts the top 20 accessories down the left hand side and alongside each one, pick four related items you could offer a customer at the same time. Get everyone to remember that list and any customer who comes in, offer them the other options. It's not pushy, it has become part of our culture and it's a way of being really helpful – it sells more. The second list I would make is all the objections someone
can have to buying a bike. Then work on what is the best way to answer them and encourage your staff to learn them. Every customer who comes in with a repair, make sure you book a general service in your diary for them six months ahead (or whenever you expect to be slow in the shop). Two weeks before, ring them up and remind them they made the appointment and is Thursday still OK? You’ll do more business. Every repair that comes in, see if you can suggest three
accessories you could fit to the bike at the same time. You will not need to charge for labour if they have them fitted now – you will sell more accessories. One store in the Midlands increased turnover by £100,000 just on that one idea and put a special sales person on that task who worked with the mechanic. The charity cannot do that. If your mechanics are Cytech qualified, the certificates need to be in your window so people can see you get what you pay for. Yes, in your shop, you pay for repairs but you get a proper job. The charity does it for free and so can't be as qualified as you are. We don't want to close them down but we do need to compete, they are taking share from you.Take a look at the help page on my site:
colinrees7.wordpress.com. Colin Rees
Read the original piece at
tinyurl.com/Retailfrontline
“What I don’t understand is why no one at @ASA_UK picked up a copy of the Highway Code and then rejected the complaints.” Bike mechanic @SimeonD questions the Advertising Standards Authority ruling that cyclists ‘must ride in the gutter’.
“Madness: ad watchdog @ASA_UK has decided it’s now a cycle safety body. And a deeply ignorant one.” @peterwalker99 providing more scorn for the ASA, which later retracted its controversial ruling.
“If @Tesco is plugging into the electric bike market, will it offer free charging whilst shopping? @2_Wheeled_Wolf
““More #women now using #cycle to work, says @Halfords_uk” – Great stuff, hopefully it keeps rising!” @pleasecycle
“Cycle proof – ensures cyclists don’t use it. That’s what it means.”
@ExtAnimal on the news that the Lincoln bypass proposal to put PM’s ‘cycle proofing’ promise to the test. Read the story at
tinyurl.com/lincolnbypas
“Good article in @BikeBizOnline by @DanJones34 about bike standards, it’s such a headache!” @MattyClinton approves of the Chain Reaction column in January’s BikeBiz.
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