HHIQ_3Q_17_Complete

MERCHANDISING
FLE
BRICKS-AND-MORTAR STORES
SHOULD RELY ON THEIR SOLID FOUNDATIONS
Competing with e-commerce doesn’t have to be as hard as you think. Bricks-and-mortar retailers just need to focus
on their strengths and the edge they have over the internet to continue to jockey for that all-important market share.
BY ROB WILBRINK
B
ricks-and-mortar retailers facing
the new realities of online selling
are looking for ways to defend
against eroding sales. Brand-name manufacturers
are also under threat as a new
breed of online competitors, often sourcing
from the same offshore factories, are
commoditizing their products.
One of the best ways both sides of the
industry are defending themselves is by
increased emphasis on display. A welldisplayed
product does several things. It
makes the customer aware of its availability
for purchase and makes it much easier to
evaluate whether that product meets their
needs for style, quality, colour, size, and
price point. This is much more difficult
to do online, which is one reason returns
average about 15 percent of sales for online
purchases—about two and a half times as
high as in-store purchases.
DISPLAYS ARE CRUCIAL
A well-organized display can lead the buyer
through a selling process that helps them
make the right selection. Viewing, touching,
and feeling the product is a much better
way to evaluate it than just seeing words and
pictures on a screen.
Proper displays absolutely reduce shrink
and write downs. Customers don’t like to
buy ripped boxes, yet feel compelled to tear
open products that aren’t on display to do
their evaluations and inspections. Without
displays, unsellable product multiplies,
wastes valuable shelf space, and fuels customer
frustration.
Having the product in the store in the first
place is a key part of driving sales for most
products. The box stores taught us this.
A high-volume building centre I was
responsible for in the late ’90s was looking
for space to add product lines. We
decided to test moving all of our mouldings
out of the store into the warehouse
to free up space. We convinced ourselves
that after 20 years the neighbourhood we
served was well aware we sold mouldings,
so we no longer needed to show them. Sales
instantly dropped 30 percent in this core
part of our business—despite huge signs
directing customers to our warehouse to
purchase mouldings. After six months, we
aborted the test and moved mouldings back
in to the store. Sales instantly returned to
normal levels.
SHOW ALL THE CHOICES
At BMF, a retailer client of ours had been
selling composite decking for several years
to customers who asked for it. It was mostly
special order, though the dealer stocked a
limited quantity of one colour in his warehouse.
We installed a simple but attractive
display of the product showing available
colours on one of his LBM end frames and
his category sales increased by 50 percent.
Viewing, touching, and feeling is a much
better way to evaluate a product than just
seeing words and pictures on a screen.
A common problem for building centres
is the preponderance of sample boards supplied
by vendors and pasted to the walls like
postage stamps. They come in all shapes
and sizes and are often out of date or obsolete.
Vendors change, disappear, or update
their product lines, but no one thinks to get
rid of the old displays.
But some retailers are fighting back creating
their own selection centres to help consumers
wade through available options and
adopting a uniform format that they control
and ask vendors to follow. This organizes the
category for the customer. It provides the
information needed to make a decision,
shows the available choices (often a wide
range), and allows the customer to touch and
feel—something the internet can’t do.
Rob Wilbrink is the president and CEO
of Burlington Merchandising and Fixtures
(BMF). BMF provides a full range of services
for independent dealers, including category
strategy development, store layout and design,
assortment planning, project management,
design, supply, and installation of store fixturing
and signage, carpentry, and merchandising.
40 THIRD QUARTER / 2017
Hardlines Home Improvement Quarterly
www.hardlines.ca