Flourishing Retailers Tip

Through my travels and Pinterest scanning this past week, my eye has been drawn how retailers are using their vertical space. Chances are your walls are tall enough that customers can’t reach everything; making use of this extra space can have quite an impact on your store’s overall look and feel.

          Your Flourish Tip:

Use the vertical space to deliver a brand message, through graphics, props, or merchandise displays reflecting what can be found nearby.

Empty, unused space above your fixtures can give your retail space the unfortunate appearance of looking empty, low in stock, or simply unfinished.  Sadly, customers can’t reach this space or any merchandise stored within it, so what do we do?

Use graphics driving your brand or image – specifically lifestyle-oriented images showing customers how happy they will be while using the product.  Take a look the next time you’re shopping in a mall to see how corporate retailers have used their graphics.

 

The area above your fixtures can also be used for additional merchandise displays, such as bust forms dressed in garments found below or a vignette containing interesting combinations of merchandise stored nearby.

Probably one of the most interesting uses of the high-up space I’ve seen is to display props that relate to the merchandise: This way you have an interesting display but aren’t using sellable inventory.

What can you do to make your vertical space more interesting? (I would love to see your opinions or ideas in the comments section below.)

Want more?  Click here to sign up and have the convenience of receiving the tip in your inbox as well as even more to learn about each tip! 

Looking for more info, articles, and interaction? Follow us on facebook, twitter, and Pinterest, too!  Not enough?  Get in touch with Flourish today to ensure your store is the most engaging it can be.

Preparing for a Trade Show in Style on EMomNowTV Live

Instead of your usual old tip, I thought sharing this with you would be fun!  Last Tuesday, I spend an hour with the ladies of Entrepreneur Mom Now sharing and discussing how to prepare for a craft or trade show in style!

Here's the video:

Major takeaways?

• Have a goal in mind and share it with your team
• Four keys to trade show success:
• Draw attention
• Brand!
• Collect Information
• Act! (Follow up)
• The majority of people look 45 degrees to the right when entering, this is a good spot for a booth.
• The butt brush effect - keep aisles and space open, allowing people to move freely
• Invite people in and avoid blocking off your booth
• Create a clean and inviting booth, consider using props, and be sure it reflects you and your brand!

Want more?  Click here to sign up and have the convenience of receiving the tip in your inbox as well as even more to learn about each tip! 

Want a professional look for fall?  Get in touch with Flourish today: website, facebook, twitter, and Pinterest, too!

Flourishing Retailers Tip

Retail is the one business where change for the sake of change makes sense.  Change major displays up every four weeks wherever possible.

Where Faeries Live

Remember...  80% of your profits come from 20% of your customers and those customers visit more often than others.  By constantly rotating stock and changing up feature areas, you’re giving them something new to look at even when the merchandise isn’t necessarily all that new.

Consider scheduling changes, flips, and feature area displays on your calendar or with your team.  Explain to your team why you’re making these changes and what the purpose is.  If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the workload, consider hiring someone dedicated Visual Merchandising or bring on a freelancer or a professional.

Keep this in mind: frequent change will show you a difference in top line sales as well as profits!

Want more?  Click here to sign up and have the convenience of receiving the tip in your inbox as well as even more to learn about each tip! 

Want a professional look for fall?  Get in touch with Flourish today:website, facebook, twitter, and Pinterest, too!

Tip of the Week + Bonus

Visual merchandising isn't just about selling more.  It’s about inspiring the customer, giving them ideas, making them feel good, and making their lives easier.

Cloud Nine Pajamas

Proper visual merchandising really is done for the customer and with the customer in mind and that’s the only way it can be truly effective. 

We create displays in order to show customers a whole look, show them trends, and to give them a feeling around the merchandise.  We’re making their time shopping so much easier by pulling everything together for them, so be sure to layer the look right up to give them options and make sure the merchandise is nearby and easy to pick up.

We’re inspiring customers to make their home an oasis, wardrobe beautiful, and gifts incredible.  Placing ad-on items nearby helps them to round out their purchase and pull together the perfect package.

Keep the customer in mind when you’re merchandising your store.  Remember how you’re helping them every time you set up a new display and you will be successful.  After all, they’re why you’re doing what you’re doing, right?

Bonus Tip:

  

It’s time to start formulating a plan to execute your holiday visual merchandising!  Don’t forget to book your helpers to make sure they’ll all be there.

Tip of the Week and Another Bonus

It’s so important to have an exit strategy for your business so that when you retire or want to do other things, you have a plan.  Don’t just close it down or hire a manager, consider selling or adding a partner.

So many retailers open a business because they love what they do or sell, or love helping customers, but what do we do when it comes time to move on?

When beginning your business, it’s a good idea to put an exit strategy in place.  What would you like to do?  How would you like to go about it?  Many people sell off their merchandise and close their doors or hire a manager to run the business for them.  Both of plans have definite drawbacks, so why not consider alternatives?

You could sell your entire business to someone else or you could sell off a portion of your business to someone who is willing to be a partner and share in the duties and responsibilities.

Consider hiring a business broker to help you through the process.  While using a realtor or going through a private sale can be tempting, a business broker can help take you through every step of the process with experience and expertise. 

Not sure how to choose the right broker?  Ask for referrals and references from people you trust.  If you’re in the Edmonton area and looking for someone, ask me for a recommendation.

Happy selling!

Want more?  Click here to sign up and have the convenience of receiving the tip in your inbox as well as even more to learn about each tip!

Looking for more info, articles, and interaction? Follow us on facebook, twitter, and Pinterest, too!

Another bonus tip:  Sadly (for us Canadians, at least) the crisp, cool air of fall is approaching.  Be sure to make payments on orders and try to get fall stock to start rolling in for mid to late August.  People start getting excited for new product, so get it front and center in the store!  If you have leftover product from last year, you can get it out now.

Tip of the Week and another Bonus!

Calculate your average dollars per transaction by dividing sales by the number of transactions.  This gives you an idea of how much each customer is buying and creates easy to understand goals.

For example: If your sales are $1000 (for simplicity's sake) and you had 20 customers that day, you would divide $1000 by 20. That means that the value of your average transaction was $50.00.

You can calculate your average transaction on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annual basis! Its entirely up to you.

Want to know what to do with the information?

There are tons of things you can do! You can monitor your average transaction for things that seem to affect it or use it as a motivational selling tool! 

Having easily measurable targets to reach makes it easy to celebrate reaching your goals and breaking down those goals into small, manageable chunks makes for more celebration and more fun!

Happy selling!

Want more information on using your average transaction to your advantage? Click here to sign up and have the convenience of receiving the tip in your inbox as well as even more info on each tip!

Looking for more info, articles, and interaction? Follow us on facebook, twitter, and Pinterest, too!

Bonus Tip:

Whether in a display or in a store, customers need a focal point to look at first.

Tip of the Week + Bonus!

Track your sales by category and use the information to help you when merchandising and buying.  It’s very valuable information.

© Anatoliy Babiychuk | Dreamstime Stock Photos | Image Link

When re-merchandising your store or purchasing new stock, it's so important to make educated decisions rather than taking shots in the dark, making guesses, or buying based simply on things you like.  Being informed will help you make better business decisions and help to prevent the need to clear out aged or stagnant inventory.

Track your sales by category, either using your POS system or keeping written records (contact your POS service provider or technical support to find out how).  You could do this weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annually.  

When it comes to visual merchandising, you can use your category sales in interesting ways, too.  It can help you to allocate the proper space and placement to best sellers and help you to beef up displays and promote weak sellers.  Also, if you know there's an item or category that people are shopping for in particular or coming in for, you can place it in a key area towards the back of the store to get them walking through.  Hopefully they'll see a great item they wouldn't have otherwise thought of on their way there!

Bonus tip to make up for the technical problems we had last week...

Emergency preparedness is key.  It's important to have a plan for every type of emergency that could come your way.

Check out this Red Cross page for some great info.

Happy selling!

Want the convenience of receiving the tip, sent directly to your inbox along with even more info?  Click here to sign up!

Looking for more info, articles, and interaction? Follow us on facebook, twitter, and Pinterest, too!

Tip of the Week

Use visual merchandising to tell your customers a story.  This could be a story centered around lifestyle, colour, trend, or anything else you can imagine!

Spring table display at Elegant Expressions, by Flourish

Any display should give a customer a feeling or a sense, hopefully a good one! This is what telling them a story with merchandise is all about.

Are you having trouble getting started or do you need some inspiration? First, check your marketing calendar... how can you tie in your displays? Second, look for ideas online. In fact, feel free to visit our Pinterest page linked below! Most important of all, have fun with it and so will your customers.

Happy selling!

Want the convenience of receiving the tip, sent directly to your inbox along with even more info?  Click here to sign up!

Looking for more info, articles, and interaction? Follow us on facebook, twitter, and Pinterest, too!

Tip of the Week

Do you have inventory that is over a year old?  It could actually be costing you money. It does so by taking up space that profitable product could be using and by requiring regular movement.

A store's display full of aged inventory re-mixed and ready to sell! 

Sometimes, as a shop owner, it can be difficult to let go of merchandise because we know how much it has cost and how much work we have put into selling it already. Unfortunately, the time comes where that merchandise starts costing us money. The general rule of thumb is that merchandise shouldn't hang around your store for more than a year, so you need to consider clearing out aged inventory to make room for newer, more profitable items.

How is it costing us money? Aged inventory takes up space and ties up inventory dollars that could otherwise be spent on new, more profitable merchandise. It can also add clutter to the store or space, inhibiting sales of new product. Once you consider that, consider also how many times you've paid someone to move that product or moved it yourself. Not only is their time worth money, but so is yours! What could you have been doing to make the store money instead of moving aged merchandise?

Okay, that's great, but what are some solutions to this problem? Sign up to receive the tip of the week, sent directly to your inbox, and receive the answer plus a special bonus tip this week!  (You may have noticed that I got a little busy last week and was unable to keep up with my tips.)  All you have to do to sign up is click here!  Is that not working for you?  Send me an email and I'll add you manually.

Have you got questions for Melissa? Check us out on facebook, twitter, Pinterest, the flourish website, or send Melissa an email.

Tip of the Week

Plan your store window changes out on a calendar according to season, holidays, key marketing and promotions, and new shipments.  Be sure to include a change every four to six weeks.

Image: Free People Blog: Summer Store Displays!

Pre-planning all of your window changes allows you to keep an eye out for interesting prop ideas, fixtures, etc.  It gives you time to plan out exciting window displays that entice customers and ensures that you're not changing windows on the fly or in a panic.  That's no fun for anyone!

Have you got questions for Melissa? Check us out on facebook, twitter, Pinterest, the flourish website, or send Melissa an email.

Happy Selling!