Monday February 5 2018 THE NATIONAL MOTORCYCLE MUSEUM, BIRMINGHAM


comment GARY GORDON Joint Managing Director & Buying Director of Kitchen Kapers cookshop chain, headquartered in Surrey Bamboozled on a blini hunt


First impressions are everything, particularly in retail. Our columnist contemplates the conundrum of merchandising products for maximum effect


M


erchandising products properly is not an exact science - but it certainly is a form of science.


How you display and where you place your products, can either improve sales or totally wreck them.


I recently had a problem with a case of this


when endeavouring to source some blinis. We wanted them as the base for hors d’oeuvres to serve at a family gathering. Looking in the fancy bread and cake products sections of three of the main supermarket groups yielded nothing. In exasperation, I decided to extend my hunt


to a large out-of-town supermarket. I try to avoid them on principle, but needs must. Again, my search was fruitless. I then asked the manager of the in-store


bakery for assistance. She checked on her computer, and declared that not only did they sell blinis, but there were loads in stock. However, I spied none in the sections I had explored! At that point, a helpful fellow shopper


declared that she, too, had suffered the same problem. She ultimately found blinis in a chiller cabinet next to the smoked salmon. My visit to the same cabinet led to the


discovery of loads of packs! I got the impression that not many had been sold. Others, just like me, had obviously scoured the bread and cake products sections. Surely the logical solution would have been


to place them in both areas? Obviously this was the supermarket’s plan for ‘related selling’: sell the bread base at the same time as the salmon to go on the top. But all that was happening was that


consumers were being confused. Return visits to the other stores revealed this was the chosen location for their blinis too. Related selling gone mad! The same can happen in a cookshop


environment. A can opener or potato peeler from a co-ordinated utensils range creates the same dilemma. Do they stay with the utensil range, or go with the other can openers and peelers?


“Logical placement of


your product offering is so essential to success. If you confuse the


customer, they may give up on you. Then somebody


else will enjoy the sales that you should be achieving”


My answer is both. If you fail to leave them


with the utensils, potential buyers may feel the range lacks depth and could dismiss it from their choices. If you don’t display them with the other can openers and peelers, you are again failing, because you’re not offering buyers the full selection to hand. So the dilemma continues. I prefer the multiple option in displaying products. Logical placement of your product offering is


so essential to success. If you confuse the customer, they may give up on you. Then somebody else will enjoy the sales that you should be achieving. It’s also essential for manufacturers and suppliers to assist in this. Quality point-of-sale


items will always help the retailer in completing their sales. And with well explained key points about the product professionally placed on the point-of-sale, the material acts as a training tool as well. Sales teams often discover additional details


about the products that they were not aware of before, by receiving point of sale support to display with said products. We can never have enough. Frustratingly, all


too often, display stands and selling aids are far too large, and only suitable for much larger stores with lots of space. Both small and large display offerings are essential to cater for all kinds of store.


Ten Years Ago this month in Housewares Magazine….


• Housewares Magazine celebrated the launch of its digital partner www.HousewaresLive.net, which was (and still is) the only UK- based website dedicated to editorial coverage of the housewares industry – now updated every working day.


• Browns of Chester was the winner of our Mystery Shopper report of the north-west city, beating rivals Lakeland and Thomas William due to ‘very good service and a comprehensive range’.


• Four housewares products garnered gold trophies in the Industry Awards 2017, organised by Housewares Magazine and sister title DIY Week. The winners were: Horwood Stellar 3000 Induction Black cookware, Gaggia Baby Class Twin coffee machine, Taylor’s Eye Witness magnetic knife rack and Absolut Form PEJ Teardrop Collection of tablecloth weights. The event was compered by TV presenter Sian Williams with entertainment provided by comedian Rhod Gilbert.


• Department store group Selfridges was selected as a Global Honoree and won the Top Window award in the gia (Global Innovator Award) programme of the world’s best housewares retailers, organised by the International Housewares Association of the US.


• The Princess Royal paid a visit to the Portmeirion factory to mark the 35th anniversary of the Stoke pottery firm’s Botanic Garden design.


• Caroline Gordon, director of Surrey-based cookshop chain Kitchen Kapers, was named chairman of the Cookshop & Housewares Association (CHA), which is a specialist division of bira (British Independent Retailers Association).


Gluten-free blinis with smoked salmon PHOTO: realfood.tesco.com 2017


Source: Housewares Magazine May/June 2007


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