At the Revitalize WA conference I sat in on a session by Scott Day with Urban Development Services, on Fifty Ideas for Retailers That Cost Less than $50. This is part two of the best of his tips. Go back and catch part one: Small Town Retail Ideas.
Floor Plans
 |
| Boehs Hardware in Helena, Oklahoma, has an open floor plan, baskets for shoppers, and great interior signs. |
Floor plans matter. You need to expose the customer to as much merchandise as possible in a clear and concise manner. The area just inside the door and around to the right are the superior selling areas. The back corners are non-performers.
One smart move: make your back wall a wall of WOW! Let it draw customers in. Where their eyes go, their feet will follow, Scott said. Clear the sight lines to hard-to-see sections.
Keep merchandise everywhere customers look. No matter which direction they look, let them see items for sale. For example, 4-way racks for clothing are great for keeping merchandise facing customers.
Keep your store looking full. Use striking display items to fill empty spaces. One cosmetics store used colorful printed shopping bags from their national brand to fill the top shelf area. It gave great graphic appeal, but cost very little. A hardware store bought empty paint cans (with labels) from their national brand to fill in a huge open wall area over their paint display. Paint sales actually went up, because customers perceived they had more in stock.
Get your personal junk out of the front room. And get business junk out of the front room. Use or even rent storage as needed.
Interior Signs
Hand made signs are OK for handmade merchandise only. Restaurants can use hand-made signs for daily fresh items, but not for staples or other items on sale. Even partially printed signs that allow the retailer to fill in details by hand are better than ones entirely written by hand.
Florescent signs and price stickers convey cheap. And putting too many bright-colored sales “burst” signs is not believable.
Interior Displays
 |
| A favorite interior display from my retail liquor store. |
Light merchandise with halogen spots for a more premium look. For a cheap look, use broad fluorescents.
All elements in the display should tell a complete story and create a sense of urgency.
Make Them Comfortable
Offer chairs and seating areas. You can go as far as making it into a hangout. One women’s clothing store put in a waiting area with drinks, recliners and great cable tv. Guys don’t seem to mind shopping there now.
Give shoppers baskets. Customers will tend to self-limit their purchases to what they can carry, rather than make trips to the counter.
Avoid deadly silence. It makes customers feel like they are intruding or being watched.
If you aren’t using a computerized Point of Sale (POS) system, make a simple binder and develop your own inventory worksheets. There is no need to close down to count items. You can keep a current count monthly by counting just 1/4 of each department each week.
You need good inventory control for two reasons, Scott said. You need to know your best selling and highest profit items. And you need to be able to diagnose the reasons for poor performers.
New to SmallBizSurvival.com? Take the Guided Tour. Like what you see? Get our updates.
- Stop using “3 legged stool” to describe any idea - June 24, 2019
- What are your challenges? Add your voice here - June 17, 2019
- How to publicize your biking trails before they’re finished - June 10, 2019
- How $5 and a bowl of soup can rebuild your community - June 3, 2019
- Getting people to mix at an event - May 27, 2019
- Crowdsourced ideas for coffee shops and other third places - May 20, 2019
- Post signs with your tourism hashtag where visitors will see them - May 13, 2019
- Book review: Celebrity CEO by Ramon Ray - May 6, 2019
- How to develop an entrepreneurial culture and more small businesses in your town - April 29, 2019
- Where’s your town’s future mural? - April 22, 2019
Great site , much neened advice for small business in Irwin PA 15642