PHIL POND THE END OF THE ROAD?


Phil Pond, Consumer Insights Manager, Scarlett Opus Ltd The end of the road?


As the market becomes increasingly consumer driven it’s more important than ever to offer an engaging and memorable shopping experience. Phil Pond, Consumer Insights Manager at Scarlett Opus Ltd, explains why it’s vital that retailers adapt or, like the giraffe, face the road to extinction.


In 2009 I wrote a feature in which I suggested things needed to change in the flooring industry. To explain my choice of title today, this is how my story began back then:


“According to science, the majestic giraffe has reached the end of its evolutionary road. All they have to look forward to now is a slow, hopefully enjoyable, journey toward natural extinction as Darwin’s theory dictates. The theory of evolution sees the strongest and most adaptive of a species survive their ever changing environment through natural selection. Does the carpet and flooring industry have some giraffe’s or maybe a few dinosaurs? You might think our ideas contentious but we only report the trends and maybe will cause a few to move through the evolutionary process of the carpet and flooring retailer.”


In the post I suggested that firstly, consumers would require a more experiential service; they now demand it. Secondly, consumers would spend more on each purchase buying goods that last longer; they now are. Thirdly, I suggested that consumers wanted choice, not confusion, guidance with freedom and straight-forward trading. And finally I predicted that retailers who created an inspirational and memorable buying experience would win. A few good examples of brands that have achieved this aim are Steamer Trading, Barker & Stonehouse, and West Elm.


You see, a lot is different in flooring retail in comparison to how it was in 2009, but not much has actually changed. That evolutionary journey is tediously slow and it’s impossible to see if the direction follows the giraffe’s journey, or goes the opposite way. This will only be evident to most when it becomes too late.


When shopping to make a beautiful home, we want to relax, enjoy it, get excited, be inspired, encouraged, given ideas, be supported and listened to. Does the ‘shopping experience’ you offer do this?


There are good examples of flooring retail but they’re still too few and far between. Flooring will not become the focal point of creating a beautiful home for ‘her’ (we’ve had that debate in the Autumn 2014 issue, it’s a fact and nothing to do with not being PC) until the shopping experience engages with her in an appropriate way.


18 | Spring 2015 Tomorrow’s Retail Floors


To really see an increase in sales then it’s imperative that you read and learn all you can on how best to help a customer make a purchase decision about flooring for their home. You’ll be pleased, or horrified, to learn this involves no selling, minimal information about product construction, no details on prices per square anything, and little about veneer thickness. However, it has lots to do with appearance, colour, pattern, room suitability and feel.


Maybe I’m wrong? But I can’t be because then Darwin would have to be wrong too and he’s already proved that change is the only viable option, hasn’t he?


My 2009 story ended this way too: “Retailers that do not de- clutter and create inspiring spaces and time for the consumer, as the consumer wants them, will, like the giraffe, reach the end of their evolutionary journey sooner than they might expect.”


How can retailers provide an engaging shopping experience?


• Reduce the number of product lines offered; it’s confusing and confusion kills sales.


• De-clutter and reduce the mass of POS equipment.


• You need far fewer suppliers, you’ll build stronger, better partnerships.


• Offer only a good, better, and best version of each product.


• Price the product in a way that non-flooring sector people can easily grasp.


• Get rid of sales desks, and use iPads, or similar, which will allow you to sit with customers comfortably.


• Merchandise windows creatively and try to connect the displays with fashion shops nearby.


• Display products in-store from a customers view point, considering their needs rather than the manufacturer’s wishes.


• Use room-sets so that the customer can easily envisage how products will look and feel in their own home.


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