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Are You Mixing Up Your Merchandise??
Slow Retail Sales May Call For Mixing Up Merchandise
I’ve talked with a lot of entrepreneurial retailers of late who all find themselves with lackluster sales. And although the year started off well, it’s been downward ever since with sales mostly not beating prior year’s sales. What’s an entrepreneurial retailer to do?
My first blog post ever for Real World Retailing was entitled, “It’s the Merchandise Stupid” for a reason. Nothing is more important to a retailer than its merchandise mix. With the right mix you’ll almost always find success, no matter how or where you’re selling it.
With many retailers, it’s simply a matter of their merchandise mix not keeping pace with changing fads and trends. And that’s deadly place to be. You have to keep up to remain relevant in a world where H&M is knocking out fashion from runway to retail in four weeks time. So how do you stay current?
Study It – Keep your eye on what’s hot and what’s trending. I told a men’s retailer who wanted to mix up his merchandise and make it more relevant to pick up a copy of the latest Details magazine which featured every category of business for a men’s store was featured, from apparel to watches, jewelry to hats to music to belts. Not only did it give him an overview of additional categories of business he could and should be in, it told him which trends, brands and products that were hot. All he had to do was make some phone calls and place some orders.
Edit It – Think you need all 25 skus from a line to make a statement? Think again. The 80/20 rule applies in retail and that means that oftentimes you’ll get 80% of your revenue from just 20% of the skus you carry. Don’t be afraid to say no to a vendor. You don’t have to buy the entire line anymore. The world just doesn’t work that way. And vendors that require you do to so shouldn’t be given a second look.
Test It – A great buyer will constantly be trying new things. New lines and new categories are two ways to test. You can increase your average transaction easily by creating a one-stop shop – that is, why send your customers elsewhere to pick up an accessory when you could just as easily sell it to them. Not only are you providing a convenience, you’re also becoming their go-to place for a unique assortment of merchandise they can’t get anywhere else. But test also means you’re constantly rotating merchandise. That line of belts that you tested aren’t selling? Then mark them down and move them out. It’s important to continually move the merchandise through your store versus hanging onto it and trying to get full retail price if it isn’t selling. Inventory is inventory, and the more you sit on it, the less working capital you’ll have to bring in new lines to test.
Market it – All the newness and testing of new lines and new categories doesn’t mean anything if no one knows about it. You have to market the fact that you’re carrying such goods. From email campaigns and social media, to your windows and in-store displays, it’s important to show, and tell your customers about it. If you don’t, chances are you’re just wasting your working capital. If a new line is brought in and no one knows about it, do you maximize sales? Of course not.
Get out there and stir the pot – mix up your merchandise mix. More than likely, you’ll find that customers are craving something new from you and bringing in newness is exactly the thing that’ll bring your customers back in.
How are you mixing up your merchandise?
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One Response to “Are You Mixing Up Your Merchandise??”
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Posted on: Thursday, August 26th, 2010 at 6:17 pm
Posted in: Best Practices for Business, Motorcycles & Scooters
Tags: Merchandising Tips, Sales tips
Great article. As a small on line Canadian retailer your comments make good business pratices.
Thanks for the info.
Howie