Originally posted at Specialty Store Services
Gadget that makes life simpler!
Pros: Sturdy
Best Uses: Large Stores, Display, Retail Stores, Small Stores
Describe Yourself: Value Oriented, Quality Oriented
Primary use of this product: Business
Reviewer Comments: This is one of those gadges that can make life so much easier with much less clutter. Very sturdy and well worth the money.
One of the articles I wrote has been picked up and published by another website. The site is www.salesopedia.com, “The World of Sales from A to Z”. Click here to see my article. The title of the article is “Leveraging Employees to Increase Retail Store Sales”. This article is about how the retail store owner can increase the productivity of their employees by using simple techniques that increase and improve their comfort, reliability and time management skills.
How do you get customers to come back to your store? That is a question that even the big retailers and even Specialty Store Services encounters all the time. Is it service? Is it the price of the product? Is it the product line itself? You can get the customers into you store with a sale but eventually the sale ends right? We have been kicking the idea around here these last couple of days and trying to figure it all out. But in the end we have not come up with any answers. Anyone have any ideas?
Editorial Comments: This is the transcript of an online video we produced this last week. We will be producing more over the next couple of months and hope to make it a regular feature on our website. Click here for a link to the video.
Welcome to “Retailers’ Roundtable.” I am your host Eric and this is Q and we’ll be your guides though the exciting, but often daunting experience of running your own store or business.
In this issue of “Retailers’ Roundtable” we will focus on the challenges of opening up a new store.Over the last couple of weeks we have received e-mailed questions from some of our customers.
First question is from Jim K. from Winter Park, Fl.Jim asks, “I have always wanted to open up my own store.Last week I passed by a vacant building that I think would be the perfect spot.What advice would you give me before I take the plunge?
Next question is from Denise B. from Hillside, MI.Denise asks: “What can I do to make my store look nice and make people want to shop there?
The next question is from Charles from Tulsa, OK.“After I finally open my store how should I advertise?Especially since I will be low on cash.”
The next question is from Carlos from Atlanta, GA.Carlos asks, “Around here shoplifting and theft is a problem.What can I do to help defend myself against it?”
That concludes this edition of “Retailers’ Roundtable”.Remember Specialty Store Services for all your retail store supply and display items.We have been partnering with business owners just like you for the last 20 years to help them grow their buinesses.Specialty Store Services, Service is in our Name.
Editorial Comments: Stew Gershbaum is one of Specialty Store Services outside sales reps. In this entry he is discussing Point of Purchase, also known as P.O.P displays.
Our background in POP displays goes back many years when one of the founders of our company (Mal Finke) was a pioneer in retailing with one of the first big-box style discount chains in the midwest. The innovative merchandising style he created in the late 50s in these stores were a real trend setter.
We have a wide variety of merchandising systems or P.O.P displays that are truly beneficial to our clients as very often they can be created from in-stock components. The custom portion of the display really comes from the artwork! Large colorful dome signage, vertical signs, informative shelf talkers are all what drives the consumer to the merchandise. And that is what the STAR of the fixture is.
I think sometime people get caught up in over-designing a fixture and overwhelming the product. When you analyze the product lines and merchandising, I’ll think you’ll agree an awful lot of time and money is spent on incredible packaging.
Effective graphics and signage will draw the consumer to the fixture but the packaging is the clincher. Our modular wire displays can be outfitted with a tremendous assortment of retail store shelving and/or peg hooks to merchandise any products our clients wish to showcase. Most can be outfitted with h/d locking casters so the fixture location can change periodically in the store. I believe stores need to change fixture locations often to keep the consumer interested.
Getting back to POP Displays. We recently rolled out a new exciting process that allows us to PRINT full color graphics on 4′ X 8′ slat wall, Masonite. plywood,etc. This is actually a printing process not a label that sticks. It creates the most vibrant colors imaginable.
We’re currently working with two major suppliers in the adult industry to create an 8′ X 8′ area in stores using this process on slat wall to display their products. If you’d like to see a sample of this process I can send you some. Our Perf-fect perforated metal display system lends itself to exciting high-tech POP displays. Decor panels, 8 varieties of shelves, etc in a heavy duty modular platform that allows us to use magnetic base shelf talkers and signage is beginning to take off in the adult industry.
To summarize I feel that fixtures don’t have to be elaborate. The fixture should be simple and basic. The excitement comes from the signage and graphics and of course the product. The consumer will be drawn to the display. Its our job to be sure he has easy access to the merchandise in a clean and safe environment.
One of the local giants in the video retail business in the Chicago area, John Sarantakis, President of People’s Choice Video Express, has written a great article in the Video Business Magazine. It is about how video retailers can stay competitive in today’s market. Click here for the link.
In the article he refers to the IDEA Chicago which is a local chapter of the iDEA Group:
“The iDEA vision is to place independent retailers in control of our own destiny. The iDEA is going to empower the independent sector of our industry to grow our businesses through networking, communication, education, and business tools.”
Click here for link for that trade group’s website and where you can find out more information on their nationwide and local events..
A few weeks ago there had been an iDEA event at People’s Choice Video Express where more than 80 independent video store retailers, including Specialty Store Services came to swap success stories and talk to vendors and suppliers. The above picture is our outside sales staff from left to right: Q, Stew, Hope and Lee.
We have a new showroom here at Specialty Stores. The other day I went in to it and took a look around. There is gleaming bamboo floors, a wall color that was pleasing to the eye and a series of suspended black grid panels that hang above the showroom floor and give the space a modern appearance. We have some displays out on the floor and shelving on the walls. The problem is there is nothing displayed on them. There was even a female mannequin hiding naked behind a slatwall display.
The room had very little in terms of styling: it was empty, a blank slate. I could imagine a new store owner in the same situation: what do you do to make your product look nice and attractive to the customer? I imagined myself as a customer coming in though the front door of the showroom, was I impressed? To be honest I was not. The sales floor was crowded, there was nothing that attracted my eye(except the naked mannequin) and on top of it all there was no product on the displays or shelves as I had said before. So to start I rearranged the what was on display, clearing path so that the first thing the customer sees when the enter the showroom is our great looking maple showcase display. I raided the photo studio for clothes to hang on the clothing racks and I put a dress on the mannequin and moved it to where it could be seen by customers. And do you know what happened? The mannequin sold two days later and customer asked what was different in the showroom. And this is just the start and I will keep you updated on my progress.
As retailers you have to be always conscious of what your customer sees when they enter your business: what kind of impression do you want to make? What is the “item” you want to promote and sell? The top retailers spend thousands of dollars on designers to make their stores work and by that I mean sell. As an independent business owners we do not have the money to hire fancy designers, but as long as we keep our attention on the customer experience, we can be just as successful. A store is not just a random conglomeration of merchandise; a store is a sensual experience and by that I mean pleasing to the senses. Use color, such as retail signage, to attract the eye, use risers to create interesting displays, and most important keep your business clean and neat.
Specialty Store Services has thousands of items to help you make your stores work for you. Our phone reps can suggest new merchandising ideas for you new or existing project.
Every 4 seconds some kind of theft occurs. Theft is a problem that directly affects the retail storeowners’ bottom line and sense of security. Imagine in the time it takes to write this sentence, 3 thefts have occurred in the United States. That is why it is more important than ever that business owners protect themselves and their property with safe, non-lethal protection.
When a storeowner is thinking about securing their place of business they have to be aware of the different types of danger facing them. They face threats from the inside: from employee theft of merchandise and stolen cash from the register. They face threats from the outside: break-ins, robberies, shoplifting. Each one of these threats requires a different kind of protection.
Imagine a storeowner or manager, alone, busy at work in the back room counting stock and a person enters though the front door. It could be just a customer, but it could also be someone with bad intentions. A simple and inexpensive way not to be caught off guard is to install wireless door entry alert. There are a variety of models; a magnetic, passive infrared, light sensing, motion activated, but they all to the same thing: they let you know when someone enters your store or business with an adjustable chime tone. Door chime alerts are also great for letting you know when a customer enters your store or business so you or your employees can be ready to assist them.
Having excess, unsecured currency in the cash register in your place of business is a recipe for disaster. That is why a cash drop box is a necessity for anyone dealing with any amount of money on a day-to-day basis. It is not just a hold ups that are a danger, but large amounts of unsecured cash is a temptation to any clerk or stock person. The best solution for both these situations it to get the excess monies under lock and key and away from temptation and view. Cash drop boxes come in a variety of sizes and can be bolted to floors or counters.
Imagine a storeowner is robbed, but there are no witnesses or imagine thousands of dollars in merchandise suddenly “disappears” what are they going to do? It they had a DVR based video security system they would have proof of the crime to take all the way to the courthouse. Digital video recorders are now eclipsing VHS tapes as the optimum way to record thousands of hours of activity. The best thing about DVRs is that there are no VHS tapes to worry about. Storeowners should install a multi-camera system all around their stores: at the cash register, front and back door, and wherever they need to watch what is going on. Instead of tapes the DVR records directly to a hard drive which can be swapped out and stored for future viewing.
Store security is more important than ever, that is why storeowners need to take steps to secure their places of business and their hard earned profits. Solutions range from inexpensive door chime alerts to high-end multi-camera DVR based video security systems. No matter what the threat, either from employee theft or robbery, a store owners best strategy is having a great defense by using door chime alerts, cash drop boxes, and DVR-based video surveillance systems.
