Most of our customers are retail, business to consumer organizations such as Marinas and Boatyards. While they may generate leads and traffic from their website and online presence, the final sale happens at their brick and mortar establishment, face to face.  The way a store looks is important to the consumer.  The cleanliness, organization and layout can induce feelings of trust and professionalism or mistrust and skepticism.

Is your store designed and organized to help your customer through the buying process efficiently?  Take a tour through your store as if you are a customer.  What do you notice?  Below are a few ideas and areas to check in your business.

Arrange your products to guide the consumer through their purchase
Does the layout of your inventory look overwhelming or unorganized?  Would a customer need to dig to find what they are looking for?  Products and supporting product information should be laid out in a way that matches a shoppers needs.  If there are several different brands or versions of a product, display them in a way that would make sense to a customer.  Some businesses go with the “good, better, best” approach or by organizing products by price levels.  When there is no sales person explaining why a customer should choose a certain product on the shelf, your display should guide them through a decision.  If the customer can not make a decision based on the information and display you give them, they are likely to not purchase anything and leave.

Put some of your parts and accessories on display being used.  While customers are browsing your store let them see some of the products opened and in use.  Integrate them into your major unit inventory to boost aftermarket product sales.  Big box retailers often have a display item that is ready for use or assembled as a representation of the product.  The item on display is what gets your attention, not the box on the shelf.

Highlight what you want to sell
Use your prime real estate for the products that you really want to sell.  Whether those are the products that have the highest gross profit or a new brand you are trying to promote, display those items front and center at your point of sale display, your front door or in the front of your showroom.  If something is buried in a back corner or on a shelf with other products just like them, they are likely to be missed by a customer.

Often, RV or Marine dealerships’ parts and accessories departments were set up by the parts vendor once upon a time, and that is still the layout they have today. In other words they haven’t been optimized to sell products.  Involve your parts vendor regularly to review your sales and purchase history.  Have them help you move and rearrange the inventory in a way that promotes sales.

The milk and eggs strategy
Supermarkets have studied retail strategies at length and arrange their stores to get the customer to spend the most amount of money while they are there.  They use tactics such as always placing the high volume sale items (such as milk and eggs) in the back of the store,  knowing customers will fill their baskets with other items on their way to grab the one thing they came to the store for.

Do you have any proven retail display strategies? Leave your comments here: