Opinion
kbb Birmingham 2018 Show Special
How to… create an outstanding showroom
Tilestyle is one of the most successful tile and bathroom retailers in Ireland and much of its success is down to its award-winning showroom. Tilestyle’s bathroom sales manager, Tony Murphy, reveals all about its showroom strategy, the focus on the customer journey and how it turns browsers into buyers
W Exterior
Start outside, by looking at your signage and windows. Are they clean and welcoming? Is there anything you can do to enhance the exterior of the building? Simply adding some plants, and clearing litter every day, is a great and inexpensive start. Your entrance is a sort of decompression zone
illiam Morris probably described it best when he said: “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe
to be beautiful.” With this in mind, in retail we must be alive with creativity, developing cutting- edge design with new ideas. Bathroom retailing is all about inspiring customers and providing a creative canvas that allows customers to visualise the elements in their own homes. Your physical premises is your defining asset where customers encounter your brand. The showroom can deeply affect consumers, creating emotional responses that can influence their decisions on whether to buy from you or not.
So where should you begin in creating and developing this asset? For many retailers, making large-scale changes quickly isn’t always possible financially or physically. Once you understand the way customers navigate your showroom, create a design that will develop your brand.
where customers make the mental shift from the outside world to your showroom. Once they enter, they develop an opinion of your brand, and even make subconscious judgements about the prices they expect to find. You should ensure this area is open, inviting and free from large displays and messages. You want your customers to walk a defined path through your store – that will vary greatly depending on the size and layout of your showroom. This path should give them maximum exposure to your products. Examine what the customers will see and work on a customer storyboard that perfects this experience. Given the effort and expense involved in creating your displays, the last thing you want is for customers to hurry past them. Consider your choice of products on display both in terms of margin and volume ranking.
Speed bumps
Create the visual equivalent of speed bumps to slow down your visitors. They can be anything that provides a visual break, for example using signage or special offers etc. Consider digital marketing points throughout the store that can deliver additional messages to customers. Signage should be consistent throughout
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the store both in layout and location within displays. Share product design stories with your customers. Make sure your customers have adequate personal space when browsing your products, and ensure your showroom has comfortable seating, which will encourage them to spend more time there, and which can be used by companions who are not interested in making a purchase. If your showroom is visited by a lot of families, consider providing toys or activities to keep the children occupied.
Consider zoning products into blocks to help customers make decisions. This can help customers locate what they are looking for, while also exposing them to other products that enhance the ones they are buying. Think about product placement throughout the store to help promote such ‘perfect partners’ e.g. tanking kits beside showers, and light fittings next to extractor fans.
Make sure your customer service desks are big enough to be used as planning stations where plans and brochures can be laid out. Make sure you offer a tea, coffee and other drinks to customers who make appointments to discuss remodellings or other projects, so that they can relax and take their time. Think about all the touch-points that connect you with your customers, from the displays to the ‘virtual store’ 24/7 world of social media (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter etc). Remember that virtual marketing is a continuous process that must be part of the quarterly cycle of re-evaluating products in line with the ‘Ansoff matrix’ of cash cows and shooting-stars. From time to time, you will have products that don’t sell and you need to ruthlessly clear them out. Then, once you’ve got your showroom right, you only have to get your team right.
• Tony Murphy will be speaking at the kbbreview Retail & Design Conference, see pages 8-9 for the full programme
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