RANGE REVIEW: POS & MERCHANDISING
are missing a trick by failing to display enough “pick-up items at the tills,” adding: “Weedkiller – people are always going to pick up a bottle. Bird food is a fantastic seasonal product by the tills, as are pot plants in flower, but also special purchase items like gardening gloves. I know garden centres doing a massive trade in bin liners as a pick-up item at the till. It’s about stuff that you need.” Just 10 minutes of quick training for checkout staff on how to up-sell items by the tills and provide a better customer
experience
help to boost impulse buys further, Neville adds.
3 Direct footfall Understanding retail psychology isn’t just about tempting customers to splash out a few extra quid at the checkouts. Garden centre restaurants are deliberately placed at the back of
the store, or in a far corner,
to encourage footfall through key sales areas and drive sales of goods such as food, clothing and giftware. Consumers are less likely to make a purchase in crowded spaces, which create an uncomfortable, pressurised shopping environment.
will DIYWK-22FEB19-BHETA_Layout 1 07/03/2019 13:46 Page 1
That is why good retailers provide spacious aisles. It’s well known that shoppers instinctively look to the left when browsing an aisle, which is why many high-margin products are placed on the left-hand side of a walkway. But if that doesn’t suit the design of a store, how can managers get customers to veer to sales areas on the right? Neville has a solution: “If you want people to go to the right, because that’s how your layout works, make sure the aisle to the left is slightly narrower than the aisle to the right. People will move through the path of least resistance, so if the aisle to the right is slightly bigger and wider, customers will move that way.”
4 Use in-store theatre to sell While supermarkets draw customers with the tempting smell of baking, garden centres and home improvement retailers can use dynamic in-store displays to sell the dream of outdoor living by creating a bit of theatre - from a living wall, to a rainwater harvesting system or a veg plot crammed with bountiful produce. Selling ideas that inspire consumers to purchase the ‘ingredients’ to replicate at home can pay dividends, especially with use of bold colours and features. Neville explains: “A lot of people are using pyramid shapes now for merchandising. It’s a popular technique, as consumers’ eyes shop the entire display.”
5 Increase shop floor staff With pressure mounting to maintain or increase margins, Neville’s final tip is certain to cause controversy. He explains: “The second largest cost to a garden centre is staff wages. Everyone is focused on reducing that cost and fails to regard staff as an investment. My argument is to put more people on the ground. It will put wage costs up – but
managers need to understand what that investment can do to sales if staff are trained correctly.” Shoppers visiting a garden centre or DIY store often need to ask questions. Neville says: “The best way to sell is to get staff members to engage with customers. Put more people on the shop floor and train them in how to gain rapport with customers. Train them how to identify customers’ needs by using question techniques. Train them in the linear approach that a sales conversation should take. Train them to be good closers. Sales will rocket! “You can improve POS, stage
great displays and get layouts right but, if managers want to rocket their sales, put more sales staff face-to- face with customers and get them to engage.”
To see the latest and developments in retail merchandising, be sure to visit the Retail Lab at Glee, which takes place at Birmingham’s NEC from September 10-12.
www.diyweek.net
09 AUGUST 2019 DIY WEEK 23
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36
