Making It Easy To Buy From You
Making It Easy To Buy From You
There are some retail formats that are inherently simple and easy for customers to shop, such as well structured fast food or fashion stores. Then there are others that are usually hard and confusing. These are the formats that have one or several of the following attributes:
1. Lots of different kinds of products are on display. This can leave customers trying to find the right item lost and bewildered.
2. Product features and benefits are not obvious to an average consumer; specialised knowledge and information is needed to understand them. This can make customers feeling even more frustrated and helpless.
3. There are many product options for achieving the same end purpose, so telling these products apart is difficult. In this case, customers will adopt the price as the main differentiation point. This does not encourage sales of higher value and higher margin items.
Sounds familiar? This is why I have said that shopping in some stores is a hard job for customers. Hard things are to be avoided, so customers will go elsewhere to buy their product, to places that spent an effort to make it easier and more comfortable.
However, these challenges can be effectively addressed through retail design and branding. I am going to use two of our recent projects to outline special methods and techniques we used to make it easy and fun for customers to buy from these retailers.
Alfresco
Alfresco Emporium is a homeware and kitchenware business with multiple locations in Sydney. The challenges we faced recently in designing a new concept for their flagship store were:
. How to display many thousands of stock items of different sizes, shapes, colours and dimensions?
. With so much product, how to make it easier for customers to find things?
. To find ways of answering customers’ questions, ‘How will this work for me? and ‘How will this look in my home?’
. How to allow for regular dramatic changes in product range (especially, in homeware), without the expense of changing the fitout?
. How to sell more items for every purchase transaction?
. How to integrate in one strong concept two different components of the business – one being the destination (kitchenware – where there is ‘the need’), the other – mainly the impulse (homeware – where there is no ‘need’, so must create a ‘want’)?
CBD Cellars
CBD Cellars is an established wine retailer. Their business consists of two key areas: retail sales and corporate catering. With thousands of wines on display, some of the challenges we faced were similar to the Alfresco project above. In addition to these, there were some unique problems we had to resolve in creating a new concept for this client:
. How to effectively differentiate the client from the supermarkets who intend to ‘own’ this market?
. How to sell more higher value items when there is an extensive price variation for every product variety?
. How to display the product (bottles) that look almost identical, in an interesting and enticing way?
. What is a cost-effective way of presenting product information considering that it is changing all the time (new products are being introduced; old products are being dropped)?
Making it easier to buy
I hope you could see plenty of parallels between these challenges and the ones you may be facing. Below are some of the techniques we have used to address these issues. They apply equally well to any retail format, so there is a good chance they will work for you.
Customer access
To make it easier for customers to buy, we first of all needed to ensure that they will be able to get to the merchandise. Sounds obvious, but in about 80% of stores that I see this rule has been compromised by the desire of the operator to pile up as much stock as possible in a limited space.
Also, optimal sightlines have been designed throughout, for customers to see the entire store, and for the staff to see the customers.
Distinct departments
All products have been categorised and arranged in clearly visible and delineated departments or sections. The departments structure is flexible and can be changed when products are being introduced or discontinued, without the expense of a shopfit.
Impulse and destination selling areas
Optimal product positioning on the shop floor was also a very important consideration. Different areas were created for best sellers, impulse sales, complementary sales, feature/new products, destination product categories. Striking and tempting visual merchandising displays scattered throughout the shop encourage companion buying and help to create a ‘want’.
Interactive shopping experience
This is the best method for helping customers understand product features and benefits and to see how it will work for them. Customers who have been given easy to understand information are able to see how products can help them to resolve their problems or enhance their lives. Consequently, they are much more likely to buy other items you sell that serve similar purpose, as well as higher value items.
This is also a very good strategy to differentiate your business from the competition, such as supermarkets.
For the wine store, we have put a tasting/demonstration area in the middle of the store. We have added a fine wine room for wine connoisseurs, with tasting bar, lounge area, plasma screen, reference books – separate but visible from the retail floor. We have integrated LCD screens with the wine displays, in order to more effectively present the product information that is changing constantly.
The homeware store features a fully functional kitchen that is used for classes and cooking demonstrations (imagine the smell of a freshly baked cake when you enter the store on a Saturday morning). There is also a coffee bar with a range of coffee making machines, as well as a rustic country style conservatorium that houses flowers and country furniture.
Retail branding and signage
A unique branding programme was created that integrates and supports the interior design and makes it easier for customers to shop. Clear and distinct category signage is part of that programme and is particularly important when the products (bottles) have a similar appearance, as in the wine store.
In summary
Both projects described here have received highest industry accolades for their innovation since their opening last year. Alfresco has collected the Global Innovator ‘Best Overall Store’ and ‘Top Window’ international awards from Chicago, USA. CBD Cellars has been named the Metropolitan Store of the Year.
Making it easy for customers to buy from you can dramatically improve your business. If the methods I described here worked for two such diverse retail formats as homeware and wine, I am sure they can also be successfully used for your store.
Making It Easy To Buy From You - To learn more about this author, visit Yuri Bolotin's Website.
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Shopping in some stores is getting too hard!
There are some retail formats that are inherently simple and easy for customers to shop, such as well structured fast food or fashion stores. Then there are others that are usually hard and confusing. These are the formats that have one or several of the following attributes:
1. Lots of different kinds of products are on display. This can leave customers trying to find the right item lost and bewildered.
2. Product features and benefits are not obvious to an average consumer; specialised knowledge and information is needed to understand them. This can make customers feeling even more frustrated and helpless.
3. There are many product options for achieving the same end purpose, so telling these products apart is difficult. In this case, customers will adopt the price as the main differentiation point. This does not encourage sales of higher value and higher margin items.
Sounds familiar? This is why I have said that shopping in some stores is a hard job for customers. Hard things are to be avoided, so customers will go elsewhere to buy their product, to places that spent an effort to make it easier and more comfortable.
However, these challenges can be effectively addressed through retail design and branding. I am going to use two of our recent projects to outline special methods and techniques we used to make it easy and fun for customers to buy from these retailers.
Alfresco
Alfresco Emporium is a homeware and kitchenware business with multiple locations in Sydney. The challenges we faced recently in designing a new concept for their flagship store were:
. How to display many thousands of stock items of different sizes, shapes, colours and dimensions?
. With so much product, how to make it easier for customers to find things?
. To find ways of answering customers’ questions, ‘How will this work for me? and ‘How will this look in my home?’
. How to allow for regular dramatic changes in product range (especially, in homeware), without the expense of changing the fitout?
. How to sell more items for every purchase transaction?
. How to integrate in one strong concept two different components of the business – one being the destination (kitchenware – where there is ‘the need’), the other – mainly the impulse (homeware – where there is no ‘need’, so must create a ‘want’)?
CBD Cellars
CBD Cellars is an established wine retailer. Their business consists of two key areas: retail sales and corporate catering. With thousands of wines on display, some of the challenges we faced were similar to the Alfresco project above. In addition to these, there were some unique problems we had to resolve in creating a new concept for this client:
. How to effectively differentiate the client from the supermarkets who intend to ‘own’ this market?
. How to sell more higher value items when there is an extensive price variation for every product variety?
. How to display the product (bottles) that look almost identical, in an interesting and enticing way?
. What is a cost-effective way of presenting product information considering that it is changing all the time (new products are being introduced; old products are being dropped)?
Making it easier to buy
I hope you could see plenty of parallels between these challenges and the ones you may be facing. Below are some of the techniques we have used to address these issues. They apply equally well to any retail format, so there is a good chance they will work for you.
Customer access
To make it easier for customers to buy, we first of all needed to ensure that they will be able to get to the merchandise. Sounds obvious, but in about 80% of stores that I see this rule has been compromised by the desire of the operator to pile up as much stock as possible in a limited space.
Also, optimal sightlines have been designed throughout, for customers to see the entire store, and for the staff to see the customers.
Distinct departments
All products have been categorised and arranged in clearly visible and delineated departments or sections. The departments structure is flexible and can be changed when products are being introduced or discontinued, without the expense of a shopfit.
Impulse and destination selling areas
Optimal product positioning on the shop floor was also a very important consideration. Different areas were created for best sellers, impulse sales, complementary sales, feature/new products, destination product categories. Striking and tempting visual merchandising displays scattered throughout the shop encourage companion buying and help to create a ‘want’.
Interactive shopping experience
This is the best method for helping customers understand product features and benefits and to see how it will work for them. Customers who have been given easy to understand information are able to see how products can help them to resolve their problems or enhance their lives. Consequently, they are much more likely to buy other items you sell that serve similar purpose, as well as higher value items.
This is also a very good strategy to differentiate your business from the competition, such as supermarkets.
For the wine store, we have put a tasting/demonstration area in the middle of the store. We have added a fine wine room for wine connoisseurs, with tasting bar, lounge area, plasma screen, reference books – separate but visible from the retail floor. We have integrated LCD screens with the wine displays, in order to more effectively present the product information that is changing constantly.
The homeware store features a fully functional kitchen that is used for classes and cooking demonstrations (imagine the smell of a freshly baked cake when you enter the store on a Saturday morning). There is also a coffee bar with a range of coffee making machines, as well as a rustic country style conservatorium that houses flowers and country furniture.
Retail branding and signage
A unique branding programme was created that integrates and supports the interior design and makes it easier for customers to shop. Clear and distinct category signage is part of that programme and is particularly important when the products (bottles) have a similar appearance, as in the wine store.
In summary
Both projects described here have received highest industry accolades for their innovation since their opening last year. Alfresco has collected the Global Innovator ‘Best Overall Store’ and ‘Top Window’ international awards from Chicago, USA. CBD Cellars has been named the Metropolitan Store of the Year.
Making it easy for customers to buy from you can dramatically improve your business. If the methods I described here worked for two such diverse retail formats as homeware and wine, I am sure they can also be successfully used for your store.
Making It Easy To Buy From You - To learn more about this author, visit Yuri Bolotin's Website.
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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Cheryl MatthynssensCheryl is a life skills coach, licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor and a 20 year entrepreneur. Cheryl's dedication to achieving a life of balance led to her expanding her teaching from the simple managing of life's daily challenges to adding financial well being as well. A direct marketer with DrinkACT, she is gaining ground in the online community with her concepts of making sure business owners, entreprenuers and employees have well rounded life styles. She opened up a small affiliate site - The Balance Guide- to help others find resources for mental and emotional well being. Visit Cheryl's blog to see more of the diversity beyond business she has began offering online at www.thebalanceguide.blogspot.com - Visit Cheryl Matthynssens's Website |
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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