BOATING & GRADUATING
categories such as housewares were the first items that cus- tomers would see. Why? Customers were actively looking for “Bed” (bedding) items. These were in the back of the store cater-corner from the front door. Regardless of which direction the customer would proceed, bedding products were in the far- thest reaches, meaning that customers had to walk by other products — the “Beyond” products — first. The second question is, where do they “park” first and how
long do they park there? Parking refers to the places at which customers pause to take interest in the products displayed. The third question is, where do they park the longest? The lon- ger they park, the more interested they are. When you find one or two key items at which customers are most frequently parking, move those displays and now note if the customers seek those popular displays or if they now park — even briefly — at the new displays that took their place. If the customers still seek the popular displays, move those
Target Acquired:
5 Steps to Merchandising for Profitability Location is key when placing products in your store and to generate more sales. By Dave Ritter
M
erchandising is the component of marketing that is critical to the overall sales numbers we generate. Other business categories utilize merchandising to varying degree of
success, and some are even obsessive about it. One such company is Bed, Bath & Beyond. The B, B&B management team frequently instructed us to move products from one area within any given department to another. The purpose of moving products around was to place them in areas of the department that had predictable customer traffic flow patterns — areas where customers will stop and look with the highest likelihood of frequency. When the customers stopped and looked around, we had products placed close to the displayed products that we wanted to link to the highlighted products. This setup guided them to less traveled aisles of the store. I hate to say this folks, but merchandising is one area in which the independent shops get a failing grade. A vast
10 Mobile Electronics Survival Guide 2012
majority of shops that I have visited, consulted, or even worked at make several critical mistakes when setting up their stores. For the purpose of survival, let’s review some strategies for having your merchandise be the reinforcing entity to sales and your sales staff.
1
FIND OUT WHERE YOUR CUSTOMERS “PARK.” Before you make any changes to any merchandising strate- gies that you may or may not be using, take a
couple of weeks to observe and notate the traffic flow or your walk in customers. If you have a security camera and DVR set up in your store, fantastic! This will make your note taking that much easier. The first question is, which direction do our customers go when they walk into your store? In the case of Bed, Bath & Beyond, customers had an overwhelming propensity to walk in, proceed to their right and follow a zigzag pattern in a counterclockwise path around the store. The “Beyond”
displays closer to the back of the store while still keeping direct line of site of said displays in relation to your front door. Place the “unseen” product categories that you sell toward the front of the store, i.e., security and remote start systems, sound damping and deadening materials and sprays, power wire, fuse holders, wiring harnesses and/or any other category that you want to highlight.
2
DOING “THIS” DOES A FEW THINGS FOR YOUR STORE. First and foremost, it makes the upselling and cross-selling a far easier and more natural process. Secondly,
it 5 Bonus Merchandising Tips
◆ Use focused lighting to highlight products on which you want your customers to focus. Track lighting can work quite well to do this. People are attracted to light. Items on which lighting is focused has been shown to attract customers to those items. Track lighting is relatively inexpensive and easy to install, and it can make a world of difference in your store, especially in the evening hours.
◆ Group highlighted sales items with more desirable and profitable items of like categories. Tis strategy can be used in combination with the aforementioned spot lighting strategy. For example, let’s say that you have an entry level woofer on sale, and you have it literally spot lighted. Te products that you want to put next to the sale woofer are a couple of beefier, more stout, or more cosmetically attractive woofers of the same size. Te greater visual appeal and immediate proximity of the woofers that you truly want to sell will draw the customer to them after the spot lighted entry level woofer draws them to that display.
◆ Have your shop’s name prominently displayed in immediate proximity to each of your displays! You would be shocked to know just how many people forget where they are shopping! I hate to say it, but many of you have shops that look exactly alike in the eyes of your customers. Tey will need to see your shop name nine times before they understand where they are.
◆ Each member of your store staff should be wearing a shop polo shirt or t-shirt to lend further reminder of where your customer is shopping. Doing so also helps “merchandise” your staff.
◆ Dave’s rule of brand signage: Banners are for the install bay, not the show room! Framed posters of print and display ads are for the show room. Learn it. Know it. Live it.
helps you highlight product categories that, statistically speak- ing; your competitors don’t even display. Third, it shows the customer that you do more than install radios.
3 4
PLACE YOUR LOW-COST, HIGH-PROFIT MARGIN PRODUCTS NEAR OR BEHIND THE COUNTER AS YOUR IMPULSE ITEMS; SUCH AS INSTALLATION KITS, HARNESSES, ANTENNA ADAP-
TORS, IPOD CABLES ETC. “Notice what is at the register: impulse items such as candy, gum, etc.; they’re at the checkout coun- ter,” Circle K manager Stephen Grigsby said. “What’s behind the counter? Liquor and cigarettes.” You also want to keep a separate supply of impulse items in an easily accessible place for your installers; you don’t want to sell your last Toyota Camry harness to a DIY customer.
CREATE DISPLAYS THAT BETTER LINK RELATED PRODUCTS TO ONE ANOTHER IN THE EYES AND MINDS OF THE CUSTOMER. Here is a common method of merchandising that I have never liked: The big, fancy head unit display con- taining 20 plus head units in one small area. That may have been cool in the 1980’s, but today the fascination diminishes when customer confusion sets in. My display would be laid out in a more horizontal manner and feature a “good”, “better”, “best” for head units of a particular category, a matching good, better, and best choice of ampli- fiers, and similar offering of speakers. The head units would be at or slightly above shoulder level for a statistically average height male and the amplifiers at eye level. Why? One, people
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