Ian's Bits & Bobs: The Blog

HerbswithFish

Inspiring Summer Customers Without A Word Being Said

 

As temperatures climb and that manic spring customer flow slows to a trickle some days, it’s always tempting to take a deep breath, look at sales YTD compared with last year and relax… ”it’s over”. There used to be a day when that was somewhat true, retail garden companies (and many of their suppliers) could put a “Gone Fishing” sign on the door and literally, go fishing.

Of course that’s still the case if you are living entirely on seasonal pop-ups – good for you, tell me how you make it work!

But for the thousands of owners, managers and team-members who have been in overdrive for the past 12-16 weeks, the reality is that you can’t afford to take your foot off the pedal. The costs of being in business don’t take a summer break.

Now that the consumer has found, bought and planted what they need (hopefully), we have to sell them what they might like. And given the summer temperatures and competing activities, we have to make the shopping experience as enjoyable and successful as possible.

Traditionally that has meant a customer finding an employee who, by a series of questions and answers, narrows down what they think best suits the customer’s situation.  This assumption is now seriously challenged by such developments as on-line research before customers leave home (over 60% for L&G shopping) and You-Tube videos on their tablets as they walk the aisle.  Let’s not forget the other reality – the cost and availability of knowledgeable labor. 

Hand-Holding May Not Be “Full-Service” Anymore

The full-service Local Garden Center channel is still far too dependent on knowledgeable employees. Even if you can find and hire them to hand-hold every customer, shoppers today are used to (and sometimes more comfortable with) “discovery” on their own. With on-line research increasingly common there is a lot less need to start every conversation from scratch. Customers just want to know if they are interpreting things correctly for their own situation. The retail center becomes a validation center.

Customers who have spent time researching their project, product, size, brand or budget, need much less “discovery” conversation with employees. What they need is guidance, validation, assurance and confidence-building.  Merchandising can do much of that too. Garden shopping is changing from an assisted treasure hunt to a focused project. The mantra might be “Research on-line, validate in store.”

Silent Selling Can Be Compelling

So, if you are able to take some time off and tour some of your peers or your competition, see what you can find in the way of exciting, persuasive merchandising or “Silent Selling” with a compelling value-proposition. Take lots of pictures (if allowed of course) and build a training session around them because exciting, persuasive value propositions are still hard to find. But that’s what shoppers want right now. A simple clear vision of the end result, the products, the how-to “recipe” and the price of the project (or the cost of not doing it!).

Despite all the “merchandising training” and the digital media now available it’s hard to find merchandising that inspires summer spending in this way – without a word being said. 

See what you find out there and let us know in the comments section below. Happy value-propositioning!

Photo by Ian in an English Garden Center 2008

 

FamilyTree_HelperSigns

Helping Customers Succeed – The First Time

I know most people are up to their neck in spring and don’t have time to read my ramblings, let alone hold meetings to implement new ideas. But I wanted to record what I am seeing out there just in case some readers were able to use it to help their customers succeed – the first time. The industry is changing because the customer is changing, as my analysis of this year’s National Garden Survey data shows.

Walk any type of garden store (I’ve seen 12 in the last few days) and watch shoppers, especially the younger novices. You can see confusion bordering on panic on some customers’ faces as they read every bottle or plant label, asking each other “what’s the difference between these two?” They have bought into the concept of outdoor fun with the kids or healthy home-grown food but matching the dream with reality is another matter.  “Fear of failure” is the main drawback to increased garden spending at times like this.

So, keeping it brief for Mother’s Day weekend, here are some questions/queries to use for your training or critiques in the next few days:

  • Do displays/signs assure first-timers (e.g., ‘Easiest succulent we carry!’)
  • Is wording simple and encouraging, or botanical and fear-inducing?
  • Are there simple bundles such as “Perennial Success Kit” or “Fresh Potatoes Without Digging”?
  • Are the top 15-20 selling plants accompanied by their essential tie-in products and how-to info?
  • Are guarantee signs positive and pro-customer, or defensive and pro-company?
  • Is there an information desk? Is it always staffed by happy, competent people?
  • Are customer success stories and reviews shared online or on site?
  • Are online how-to videos promoted at the point of purchase for customers to access as they shop?
  • Is there help line/website reference or at home consultancy available for after purchase questions?

How much money from the customer’s “Fear of Failure” is being left on your table for another year?

Let us all know how this questionnaire played out!

Photo by Ian, taken at Family Tree (KS)

May 5, 2016 5 Comments
Spring2016_v2

Simplicity – A Twelve Point Test

 

In most of the USA and Europe, garden retail makes money for three months, breaks even for three and loses it for six! So it’s understandable that retailers want to expose their customers to as many products as possible. They even have a phrase for it; “Peak the Peaks!”

Add to that pressure, the constant supply of new or re-packaged products (don’t even get me started on the yearly deluge of new plant varieties) and the businesses are bursting at the seams. Aisles become narrow canyons deterring shoppers while inventory obscures signs meant to help. Everything is so jammed in, nothing stands out.

Time Crunched

Now see it like today’s customer. There are now fewer hobbyists who love discovery shopping and more time-crunched project shoppers. You can see them every spring, like deer in the headlights with 25 minutes (“tops”) to get what they need and get out of there. Faced with shelves of similar packets or benches of seemingly identical plants they are forced to read labels or bags (then go on-line to see if it’s true!) Sure they could wait for an equally stressed employee, who already has five others hovering around her and hasn’t had a break for 5 hours…

Customers don’t know what they don’t know so de-mystifying 5,000 to 20,000+ SKUs in 25 minutes is not the fun experience they expected. Choice can kill impulse and current garden retailing is SKU-ing customers to death (or at least into under-spending!)

The retailer must become the first “filter” of what shoppers need to complete their project. That is the real goal of a retail buyer; providing the sales team with a range of products already narrowed down for quick, easy-to-follow sales or merchandising. Are your buyers focused on that?

I know it is too late to thin out the shelves or cancel orders for this spring (maybe that’s a summer project before the 2017 buying season!) but use these questions to walk around each department. Consider your inventory through the eyes of today’s intrigued but hesitant consumer:

1.       Is pricing readily understood by all (or do customers have to ask someone)?

2.       Are customers led from impulse to wow to inspiration (or do they just wander around)?

3.       Is layout conducive to grab-and-go shopping?

4.       Are signs simple, fresh and understandable? (“4 in perennials” anyone…?)

5.       Is there a “Fun ideas for a weekend project” area to give ideas?

6.       Does the POP simplify shopping by narrowing down the choice to a few solutions?

7.       Is sales language simple and confident reflecting expertise and local knowledge?

8.       Do displays attract, inform and inspire in just a few seconds?

9.       Does merchandising say “look no further, this is what you need”?

10.   Are projects, such as planting an herb garden, sold as a one-stop kit of plants and hard goods?

11.   Is there a full-size mannequin, mature display bed or photo-banner to show the project’s end result?

12.   Overall, do the products and displays simplify customers’ options or just create more questions?

 

Let me know how it goes and stay tuned for next week’s blog post on making the emotional connection.

Photo credit: taken by Ian, showing the brilliant idea by the team at Weston Nurseries, MA

Apr 19, 2016 14 Comments
SpringTrio_1

Three Steps To Help Customers Spend

 

Another spring arrives with national brand TV ads reminding America to get out in the garden, but also brings thousands of new items on the shelf or bench. We are not making it easier for customers to spend!

Consumers are eager yet hesitant to start gardening. Excited to feel the sun, share little discoveries with their loved ones and drool over their first homegrown tomato. But hesitant about the shopping process and memories of last year’s failure to launch.

Many customers this month may not have been garden shopping since last Memorial Day! Meanwhile, they’ve found even more ways to use their “spare” time. Gardening is now up against binge-watching the latest Netflix release. Shoppers are faced with “ConSKUsion,” more products to consider in less time. The world has changed since 2006: has the retail journey in your store (or on your website)?

So as 85 million households invade garden retail stores and/or websites, put yourself in their muckboots and walk through their expectations in your store.

They may be looking for a few “destination” items (tomatoes or weed killer) but are prepared to buy a lot more (and stay longer) if the experience is fun, easy and time-effective. In the next 10 weeks your customers want:

1.       Simplicity when they shop

2.       Emotional Value as they buy

3.       Success when they use it at home

How simple is it to find those destination items and understand all the verbiage? “Fear of Failure” is constantly cited as a reason for low spending, even in high-earning households.

How much emotional value is there in the sales message? Does the team or the merchandising connect the dots during the shopping process? If customers imagine their dog on a safe, weed-free lawn or the “cool” comments they’d get about their succulent planter, they are much more likely to justify the value and make the purchase.

What are the chances of success with the product – be honest!? People in the industry tend to forget how hard it can be to keep living things alive (I hear the same disbelief from a “techy” when I have a problem with my smartphone….)  But failure this year means even less spent next year by those customers.

So, use these three basic concepts: simplicity, value and success to critique your store this spring and tell me how you scored.

Tune back in for the next subject coming up in the spring blog series: “Simplicity is the Word.”

Happy spring!

Photo Credit:  Ian Baldwin, taken at a should-not-be-named retailer

Apr 8, 2016 10 Comments
HotandDry

Displays are People Too!

This year I have already worked with or looked at over 20 Local Garden Centers (LGCs) helping teams get ready for what promises to be (weather permitting) a very strong year as the economy slowly picks up.

All garden retail channels will be trying to tempt, engage, inspire and sell to the public within the next few weeks. We have all heard of the new demographics emerging in the Do it Yourself gardening business: younger customers are tempted but terrified, intrigued but intimidated.

Merchandising has a new role!

The fear of failure is high and not easily overcome, despite strong interest in the end result (like a stylish planter of succulents or luscious home-grown tomatoes.) The traditional response from LGCs is to say that they have lots of knowledgeable staff anxious to help the newbies succeed. In fact LGCs argue that this is their unique, distinguishing competitive feature compared to the bigger and usually cheaper big-box retailers whose model is essentially one of self-service.

But in the crazy spring season, everywhere is self-service … or at least self-start. No retailer has enough staff to hand-hold every customer, even if that was what the consumer wanted. Increasingly it is actually not what a lot of customers want, at least until they pluck up enough confidence to engage in a conversation with the “experts” who work there.

This is where merchandising – better called “Silent Selling” – comes in. As consumers change from hobbyist to project shopper, Merchandising’s role becomes one of a salesperson: displays can and should validate needs, show options, recommend solutions and close the sale!

In fact a perfect display can attract, hold attention, inform, inspire, answer fears and doubts, suggest/show end-result and make the sale in a few seconds and eight square feet!  As a very minimum, displays must give a customer a feeling of relevance while boosting their confidence.

Reflecting the changing customer

Of course for 40 years, most garden retailers were selling to consumers who knew what to buy (or at least were willing to learn by trial and error.) More and more consumers today don’t know what they don’t know, as you can see from the “deer in the headlights” look when they enter your store or greenhouse. To those people a stunning display of perfect plants will make them feel even less confident.

Silent Selling can sell the project, not just the product

Merchandising has a new role to sell the complete project without a word being said, but from what I have seen in the last few weeks, we have a long way to go. In fact, the current fixation with building inch-perfect “photo-shoot” displays contradicts that new role. Everywhere I go I see products being used to decorate end-caps, around fountains, in front of doors, around table legs – decoration everywhere — but displays helping customer relate and buy, nowhere! These decorative displays are often very attractive but do not offer solutions or suggest projects making them hard to relate to the typical home space. They also shout “don’t even think about touching me!”

The overwhelming majority of merchandising in LGCs today makes customers look around with that inevitable question, “Excuse me, do you work here?” Displays should boost productivity by, if nothing else, engaging shoppers with an idea that helps focus their questions until a staff member is finally able to get to them.

Displays should answer questions (not create unnecessary questions) 

Let’s see the suggested products bundled together in volume, easily shoppable displays with themes such as “Hide the neighbors for under $200”, “Plants for busy people”, “Feed your lawn for 3 cents per square foot per week”,  “Home Grown Tomatoes made easy”, “Grow your own Pesto” or “Save the Monarchs”.

So, let’s give this challenge to retail teams this year as they design, build, stock and work on sharing their knowledge and helping customers to buy:

1.       Is this display meant to simulate the end result? If so (and if you don’t want the impact to be lost as people shop it), where do shoppers find the product/kit/bundle to do the job?

2.       Is this meant to be a grab-and-go display that sells itself and consequently does it say, “Shop me, ruin me, that’s OK”?

3.       Does this display answer questions and build customers’ confidence until we can get to them?

Now it’s time to put those displays to work: Happy Silent Selling!

Feb 27, 2015 15 Comments