talking trade: giſt books
How to sell gift books in garden centres
Bob Harper of Watford-based Allsorted Books gives his advice on how garden centres can develop their giſt book approach
The intention for garden centres should not be to compete with the likes of Waterstones and WH Smith but rather to curate and edit a selection that best meets the impulse gift nature of the shopper’s consideration and purchasing intent. In other words, make it easy for shoppers to consider gift books, as just that, a gift for friends and family or indeed for personal use if required. Does your current supplier meet that need?
Interestingly, one of the fastest growing suppliers offering gift books and gift stationery to garden centres describes their approach to the category as, “We sell gifts that just happen to be books,” which sums up well the approach that should be taken to integrate your books range into your overall gifting offer. Location is important. Don’t segregate your
B
ooks have been a regular product category for many years now in garden centres of all shapes and sizes. Until recently, the majority of garden centres offered books as a year round
clearance/bargain product area. In fact, books were probably the only product area within garden centres that found itself on offer 52 weeks of the year!
Much of this positioning was due to the nasty ‘A’ word (Amazon), whereby ‘no book could ever be sold at full price again’ and following that logic was the bargain books offer then available from suppliers to the garden centre sector.
Happily, for both average transaction values and profit margins, plus shopper enjoyment, the more recent move away from a reliance on bargain books has delivered higher sales and increased profitability for those garden centres who have taken the decision to develop their offer to be more in line with today’s garden centre shoppers’ expectations.
Books, or rather gift books, which is a more accurate description of the shopper purchasing intent, are not the reason that shoppers visit garden centres; however when the range and location of the offer is right, then books can become an impulse gift product along with other impulse gift products offered in garden centres, such as fragrance, photo frames, plush toys, puzzles and games etc.
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books offer as a stand-alone department or book shop, as it will not easily be considered as an impulse gift. Gift books are an impulse purchase so are best sited within the Gifting area and often perform well next to greeting cards. Service from your supplier is important! Service is not only about how many times the salesperson/merchandiser visits your centre. The entire service offer should cover product, margin, availability, quality, relevance, sales information, development of the offer in your space, inventory levels, time saving for your team and the fixturing solution to make books look great and sell well.
Sales analysis is key to developing your gift books offer. Find a supplier who can do this for you to save you time and who can help to build your sales and profitability.
A trading package should be competitive. ‘Sale
or Return’ does not solve the problem of how to grow your sales. Be careful not to have excess stock on hand thinking that it’s fine because it’s SOR (recent research has shown some garden centres were carrying 20-30 weeks’ stock). You will have paid for it and will have overpaid if there is too much. Stock = future sales, so can your current stockholding be seen as future sales or a series of returns to the supplier?
Find a supplier you believe can develop the category, save you time, can range correctly for your shopper, but can also deal with any slow sellers appropriately.
Show care and attention. Make sure that daily housekeeping takes place. Unloved and uncared for displays of books look untidy and will cost you 20-25% in lost sales potential. It pays off for your business - 15 minutes should do it once or twice a day.
The gift books area should no longer be seen as the place to leave Dad or Granddad when the family is shopping in a garden centre! Parents, grandparents, in fact the whole family and friends are now engaged in the category within garden centres - providing that your offer and approach is right.
There are few products sold today that have as much lasting value or educational benefit as books so there’s likely to be a great opportunity to develop the offer further within your garden centre.
• Allsorted Books are based in Watford with a sales team covering the UK and Ireland. For more information, Bob Harper can be contacted on 07712 734089 or at
bob@allsorteduk.com
Book sales in garden centres: the key facts
• Average price paid for full price books is £7.25 – £7.50 • Average price paid for bargain books is £3.50 – £3.75 • Gardening books only account for 6-7% of total sales on average • Children’s books are 40-50% of total sales! Sticker and activity books challenge and develop young minds
• Nostalgia sells! • The Royal Family and Winston Churchill are great sellers! • Humour trends such as Ladybirds for Grown Ups and Enid Blyton’s Five series have been big business over the past 18 months
• Adult colouring was a big trend in 2015/16 and has now become part of the overall offer with more complex adult dot to dot books continuing to sell well
• Puzzle books and brain teaser titles work well and are important to older shoppers • Books are the second highest product purchase after confectionery at Christmas, so Q4 is vital to have the right space and selection available
GCU March 2018
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