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!

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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.

Fall Display Inspiration

Well, back to school is upon us...  Kids are grumbling, parents are happy, and everyone is looking for fresh fall merchandise and exciting fall displays! 

It's that time of year to evoke that crisp fall feeling with crunchy leaves and cozy knits in your store.  

If you haven't set your fall displays up yet and are looking for inspiration, here's some of mine.  Enjoy!

Fall by Flourish at Cloud Nine Pajamas

Fall decor balls at Elegant Expressions

Fall Dinnerware by Flourish at Elegant Expressions

Fall Dinnerware by Flourish at Elegant Expressions

Fall Dinnerware by Flourish at Elegant Expressions

Elegant Fall by Flourish for Elegant Expressions

Fall window by Flourish for mbellish

Mabon at Where Faeries Live

Mabon window decoration at Where Faeries Live

Mabon Mannequin at Where Faeries Live

Fall furniture and decor by Flourish

Fall furniture and decor by Flourish

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

Tip of the Week

Take the plastic off.  Customers really need to get their hands on a product in order to make their buying decision, so get at least one of each item out of its package and into their hands.

Elegant Expressions Table by Flourish

Engaging the customer’s senses is really important to making a sale, so appealing to sight and touch by allowing them to see the item up close and feel its texture will more often than not increase sales.

While many retailers prefer to keep items packaged in order to avoid damage, it can hinder sales.  Selling one item at a discount (which isn’t always necessary) is better than hanging on to product because it just won’t sell. 

The most important thing overall, is to remove barriers, physical or perceived, between the product and your customers.

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Happy Selling!

Tip of the Week

When communicating to your customers through signage, try to ensure that the wording is positive rather than negative.  Focus on the behaviour you want.

For example; instead of “Do not touch” you could have a sign that says “Please ask for assistance” or an even more fun “For your safety, we are happy to help you investigate this item further.”

Nobody likes being told what they can and can’t do and I can’t think of anyone that likes hearing the word NO.  So, you really should avoid using it with your customers. 

Happy selling!

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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!

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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!

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Bonus Tip:

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