Innovative Merchandising and Product Presentation will help: • Improve productivity. While working on the elements of your business that customers see, hear, touch, smell or taste, we also consider the people that customers see and interact with, and all the ways that your business communicates with its customers. This comprehensive approach will help you improve both individual and store-level productivity as determined by standard retail measurements including sales per square foot, sales per hour, average transaction, items per transaction and customer satisfaction. • Increase the long-term productivity of both business and staff. This training is a combination of classroom “theory” and structured, hands-on “practice” work that is customized specifically to your store and your products. The customization ensures that the training time and dollars are not spent on “canned” quick fixes, but on effective, behaviour-changing learning that stays valuable to your business for years to come. • Support the introduction of new work processes. The “Customer Experience Walkthrough Checklist” that we train your employees to use will help you create and sustain a unique retail environment that adds value to the products you sell. This simple-sounding, but profoundly effective training will become a permanent tool in your productivity arsenal.
Present the Merchandise as If You Were Telling a Story Excerpt from Chapter 8 of Start and Run a Retail Business by James E. Dion and Ted Topping One way to get more customers into the store is to present the merchandise as if you were telling a story. And just like a good novel, you need a beginning, middle and end, in that order. The beginning of the novel is the store entrance. It sets up the story, creates expectations in the customer’s mind and makes promises that the balance of the shopping experience will need to meet. With the goal of making an appropriate first impression, the entrance should say something specific: we are cheap, cool, sophisticated or whatever the appropriate message is. Instead, many stores launch right into “This is what we have to sell.” The entrance should also entice, hint and tease so that customers want to see the wonderful things that await them inside. Display windows are especially useful because they can showcase an article, a season or a special offering – anything that explains the quality and value of the products you carry and the wonderful shopping experience that the store offers. The middle of the novel is the inside of the store. In most cases, it should start gently because most customers will need a few seconds to orient themselves after the entrance. A single, clear message – a “power display,” perhaps – will have a far better chance of connecting with customers than will a dozen racks or fixtures cluttering the way. Past this point, most stores should take the time to tell about their products, rather than just displaying their products. If a product contains a special component or ingredient, you should provide a sample or demonstration of it. Then explain why the component or ingredient is included in the product and, most important, what it does for the customer. This involves the customer and lets him or her share in the sense of discovery that once was the exclusive domain of the product’s manufacturer and the store’s buyer. The more customers understand that the manufacturer and the store have worked hard to offer a unique and special product, the more they will value that product. Providing information and first-hand experience is one of the best ways that a retailer can add value. In terms of product presentation, the best way is to lead your customers on a “journey” through the store. And since every good story contains small twists and surprises along the way, you should provide a “visual destination” at the end of every aisle. These special displays need to engage the viewer immediately, encouraging him or her to respond: “I just have to go over there to see what that is.” The end of the novel is the cash and wrap, the climactic finale of the story. This area provides an opportunity to convey subtle messages without any hard selling. As well as displaying any obvious “impulse items” that your store carries – think in terms of a grocery store checkout – you might want to install a television monitor somewhere above eye level to show manufacturer’s demonstrations, seasonal items or in-store specials. Customers whose minds are occupied by motion and graphics are less likely to become bored during the final step of the sale.
Start and Run a Retail Business is available at or through bookstores everywhere, or online through: Self-Counsel Press U.S.A. Amazon.com Barnes&Noble.com Self-Counsel Press Canada Amazon.ca Chapters.Indigo.ca Read/download excerpts from Start and Run a Retail Business in our Portfolio. | 
