Retail Partnerships with Wholesalers

Store owners depend on creating successful partnerships with wholesalers to have a profitable business. To find the best wholesalers and products to work with, you have to start with a little research.

Make a list of products that you would like to sell and possible brands that you are interested in. Research your competitors for brand and product ideas. See which products they have featured and which ones seem to be ignored. This will give you a little insight as to which products are doing best for them. Go ahead and jot down prices for the items that peak your interest the most.

Do some customer review research and also search for online companies that sell your products retail. You can get the best quality reviews from customers. They’re not the ones trying to sell you anything. Here you can find out if high end brands are actually selling shotty merchandise that is likely to get returned to you. See if there is an abundance of wholesalers selling the exact items to the public at wholesale prices on auction sites or on their person wholesale sites. Customers are very savvy these days and will check online for cheaper prices before they buy a lot of items. This research will help you offer products that customers are happy with at the price that is fair and profitable for you.

To find a wholesaler, it might be a good idea to go to some trade shows, retailer conventions or promotional events. These shows are only open to business owners. You can meet a lot of wholesalers, gather information, and check out merchandise. There are also online groups of business owners that share information about their experiences with wholesalers. You can get a lot of advice from people that have already been through what you are tackling, especially if the other owners are not in direct competition with you.

When you find a quality wholesale supplier that you like, ask questions about their personal efforts. Do they sell wholesale to the public or only to businesses? This could be the single most important question that you ask, especially if the wholesaler is doing business in your area. If they do sell in your area to the public, they can easily undercut your prices and drive your sales into the ground. The most reputable wholesalers gain the trust of their clients by only selling to retail businesses, or by not selling below their suggested retail value.

When you have your quality merchandise that can be sold at the price that you need to profit, you can confidently showcase it to the public. Your mannequins, store displays and display cases will be stocked with merchandise that is easily moved and not often returned or put on clearance.

About the Author: Ron Maier is the Vice President of S & L Store Fixtures, a leading online resource for retail display cases including mannequins, mannequin forms, gridwall and slatwall store fixtures. For more information, please visit http://www.slstoredisplays.com.

Should I Hire a Retail Designer?

Whether you are remodeling or opening a retail store, you may want to hire a retail designer. A retail designer may also work with an architect to make sure that your merchandising plan fits with your space in the most profitable way. A retail designer may also go by the title interior designer, visual marketing specialist or merchandising designer. Companies that offer these services or that employee the professionals will often have a team of specialists work on a design that works best for you.

When you work with a retail design team, they should always keep your profits in mind. They will not give you an extravagant design that is not very user friendly. They should consider your space, your products, your inventory, your budget and your customers. Retail designers can often come up with innovative designs that you haven’t thought of yet. It can help you to take a fresh approach to merchandising that result in profits.

Retail and visual merchandisers are specialists in determining your clients’ needs. They anticipate what your clients will want and design the store around them. They will also want to catch the consumer’s eye and create new wants and desires along the way. All of this can be done by someone with a keen eye who does a lot of research.

Visual merchandisers will create the lure to get customers in your store. This often starts with the window displays. Mannequins and lighting designs can help to draw in customers. Once inside, the products need to be arranged in a logical fashion so that customers can easily feel their way around the store. Your showcases should be strategically placed to guide customers deeper and deeper into the store. Impulse buy displays should finish out the design. They are generally located in areas where customers will be passing once they’ve decided to leave the store. Near the register and near the door are good places to make that last ditch effort in selling a few more items.

If you have a small space, a retail design team my suggest using the walls to maximize your display area. Gridwall and slatwall are great for managing a large amount of merchandise in a small area. You can constantly update your displays. Spread them out for a more spacious feel, or arrange them close together to advertise just how much merchandise you have to offer. Gridwall and slatwall displays allow you to face your merchandise outward where it can be more easily seen, even from outside your store.

Hiring a retail design team will help you to purposely and diligently place each type of merchandise where it will be most profitable. You can get advice on what type of retail displays, like gridwall or slatwall, will work best for you. Professional opinions on merchandising are generally more profitable than guessing what is best for your type of store, so the investment could really pay off.

About the Author: Ron Maier is the Vice President of S & L Store Fixtures, a leading online resource for retail display cases including mannequins, mannequin forms, gridwall and slatwall store fixtures. For more information, please visit http://www.slstoredisplays.com.

Retail Slatwall Questions

How much weight can my slatwall hold?

It is best to check with the manufacturer before you hang heavy objects. Ask about the internal bond strength. The internal bond generally ranges from 50 pounds to 150 pounds per square inch. The higher the internal bond, the more weight your slatwall can hold. In general, ligt slatwall can hold around twenty pounds for things hung close to the wall (within 6”). High pressure slatwall can hold around one hundred pounds. The further away you hang things from the wall, the less weight your slatwall can handle. High pressure laminates are the strongest, melamine and paint grade hold less weight.

Can I increase the weight that my slatwall can handle?

Yes, you can increase your slatwall weight capacity by installing inserts in the slots. Again, check with your manufacturer because most have to insert them during production, and they cannot be added later. Plastic or acrylic inserts increase the weight capacity by only a little, but metal inserts increase it by a lot. MDF slatwall with no insert can hold between 15 and 40 pounds per bracket, while a metal insert increases the load capacity to a range of about 40 pounds to 120 pounds.

Can slatwall be attached directly to studs?

Yes. Slatwall can be installed directly on studs or through drywall. Check with building codes before you install, because some walls are required to have drywall between the studs and the slatwall.

How do I know how much slatwall to order?

Talk to a representative of the company that you are ordering from. Be aware of their standard panel sizes and whether or not you are accommodating vertical or horizontally measured panels. Also, consider whether you want slatwall from floor to ceiling or just at a certain level.

Does slatwall require professional installation?

Not necessarily, but professional installation is recommended. Some insurance companies, especially ones insuring retail stores, require that a professional licensed contractor install the slatwall. There are building codes and fire codes to consider. Plus, you need to be sure that the slatwall is properly installed so that it will hold the weight that you plan to put on it without posing a liability or injury hazard.

How versatile is slatwall?

Slatwall is one of the most versatile products on the retail display market. There are so many accessories, that you will never run out of ideas on how to present your merchandise. You can use hanging bars, hooks, shelves and special accessory displays to keep things fresh and changing in your store. You can attractively display impulse items next to other, more standard items. You can easily and quickly switch from summer to winter merchandise, adjust the amount of inventory in the store, and set up promotional displays without changing the look and feel of the store. Buying slatwall for your store could be one of the best investments that you make.

About the Author: Ron Maier is the Vice President of S & L Store Fixtures, a leading online resource for retail display cases including mannequins, mannequin forms, gridwall and slatwall store fixtures. For more information, please visit http://www.slstoredisplays.com.

How to Increase Retail Sales

The economy is in a slump and retail businesses are the first to suffer. People are afraid to spend their money. But, they will need to buy school clothes and work clothes, so use these tips to ensure that you snag some of these precious sales dollars.

Customer service is your number one concern. If someone has a bad experience in your store, the news will spread. Train your sales team on how to provide good customer service. They should avoid commonly overused phrases and start to see them as sales or branding opportunities. Additionally, negative phrases should have a positive spin. For example, instead of saying, “Hold on for a minute while I look for that” a prepared customer service person would say, “We do keep that in stock, I will be right back with it for you.” There is only a slight difference in what was said, but think about the customer’s impression. In the first statement, the customer is asked to “wait” while the employee “looks”. If it were me, I would think that it could take forever and I would probably leave once the sales person was out of sight.

Merchandise your store in a way that will lure in the right customers. You don’t necessarily want everyone and their dog to come inside. You mainly want the people that may actually spend money to enter. Arrange your displays to target the demographic that you want to enter. If you want higher paying customers, don’t put fluorescent lights and giant sale signs at the door. If you want to clear out old merchandise for cheap, bring your garment racks out onto the sidewalk. People will respond to the mood that you set.

Reduce theft to protect your investment. Lighting, mirrors, strategically placed sales representatives and theft deterrent signs can be very inexpensive and save you loads of money due to losses. Loss prevention should become even more of a priority when the economy is down and people are more willing to take a risk shoplifting.

You may have heard that when sales are down you should be spending more on advertising. This is true, but how much and in what area should it be being spent? If you only have a small advertising budget, you might use it to get information about your competition. Doing some research yourself or paying for a competitive analysis can help you to define your edge and publicize it. You may be able to identify a target market that has gone untapped, problems with your competitions customer service or holes in what the competition offers and what their customers are looking for.

Finally, realize that you can use what you’ve got without spending a dime. If there aren’t many customers in the store, use that time to train employees on high level customer service. Rearrange your store displays and work on new and exciting merchandising. Your store can rotate new inventory towards the front of the store every day if necessary until you figure out what is drawing customers in. Utilize mannequins in your front window to keep the scene changing. Not only will you spark interest, but you will help customers see what all you have to offer.

About the Author: Ron Maier is the Vice President of S & L Store Fixtures, a leading online resource for retail display cases including mannequins, mannequin forms, gridwall and slatwall store fixtures. For more information, please visit http://www.slstoredisplays.com.

Benefits of Retail Gridwall and Slatwall

Slatwall and gridwall are very versatile display options for retail stores. They allow you to change up your displays quickly and easily, without spending a lot of money. Replacement costs are just about nothing if you get a decent quality gridwall or slatwall. They look great and maintain their quality and appearance very well.

You can maximize your use of these store displays by utilizing slatwall or gridwall accessories. Just about any product you need to display has an accessory designed to showcase it. Shelves, bars, hooks and more are easily moved around to make the most of your space.

Slatwall and gridwall are especially popular in smaller retail stores where space is limited. You can utilize the vertical space that you have available and free up some room on the floor. Your merchandise can be displayed facing out or hung on mannequin forms to really showcase the items that you’re trying to sell. Displaying clothing in this way has a lot of benefits that you may have not even considered.

Customers can see your clothes and what they look like on, even if they are not in your store. Having merchandise up high draws the eye into your store. Customers can see many articles at once and quickly determine if they would like to shop in your store.

Another benefit to having things up high and having the sales floor more spaciously arranged is reduced shoplifting. Garment racks that are crowded with clothing not only keep customers from seeing everything that you sell, but also give shoplifters a lot of cover to do their business. One of the most common ways that a shoplifter steals is to reach between clothing on a clothing rack and drop articles into their bag, purse or stroller, completely hidden from sight. Additionally, if customers have to interact with sales associates to get their sizes down from the wall, then they are less likely to think that they can get away with stealing it.

Slatwall and gridwall help you to come up with interesting displays, but they also help you to camouflage certain things from customers. Let’s say that you are discontinuing an item. Well, we all know that it is a big no-no to display a less than full rack, or customers will not buy. Being able to cleverly rearrange hooks, shelves and racks will help you to move a once full bar on to and inconspicuous shelf.

Using slatwall and gridwall for merchandising can help you to increase your sales, reduce loss, and keep your store looking top notch. It is durable, inexpensive and a great addition to any retail store.

About the Author: Ron Maier is the Vice President of S & L Store Fixtures, a leading online resource for retail display cases including mannequins, mannequin forms, gridwall and slatwall store fixtures. For more information, please visit http://www.slstoredisplays.com.

Reading Customer Body Language

Knowing what motivates your customers to buy can give you a real edge in your business. Figuring it out just takes a little time. You will need to pay attention to your customer’s body language to determine what they like or don’t like and why. To do this, you will need to know a few key things about nonverbal cues. Once you get it down, you can adjust your promotions, display strategies and even your level of customer service to match your customer’s moods and expectations.

Remember that the customer is influenced by your body language as well. You can correct movements and stances that you may not even be fully conscious of, but that are pushing clients away. For example, touching your hair while talking to a customer makes them think that you are bored. Be careful of the signals that you are sending and you can send the ones that make customers trust you.

You can’t influence someone’s free will or force them to spend money that they don’t have, but you can make them comfortable enough to want to make you happy. You can use persuasive gestures and tones that make customers more receptive to what you are saying. The first impression is most important. Have you ever heard someone say, “I don’t know why, but I just don’t like him.” Most likely, the person saying this got a bad first impression by subconsciously picking up on negative non-verbal cues.

Here are movements that you should avoid in business:

Letting your eyes wander while the customer is talking.
Fake smiles that involve only the mouth muscles.
Putting your hands on your hips.
Interlacing your fingers while trying to look interested.
Quick movements or excessive movements.
Audible exhales.
Crossing your arms.
Placing items between you, like a stack of clothes, a drink or even a counter.

These are some gestures that convey confidence and sincerity to your customers:

Make eye contact for at least a few seconds.
Leave open space between you. Come out from behind the counter to greet and help.
Make slightly exaggerated facial expressions to show interest.
Keep a calm, easy smile on your face until you have something to really smile about.
Use your individuality, but tone it down so that the customer can shine.

Remember that your attitude will show. Be positive, confident and interested. If you see that the customer has a unique bracelet you are actually interested in it, go ahead and compliment the customer. It is okay to ask how old their children are, tell them that you like their purse, general small talk is a good idea. But, avoid asking things that the customer might consider personal, like, “Who does your hair?”

Things other than your body movements will affect the customer’s mood and desire to buy. Your surroundings are also important. Make sure that your store is not in disarray. Displays should be kept nice and neat. The uniformity of hanging and folded clothes should be broken up with mannequin displays and hanging form displays. This will help to relax the customer and make them more open to your suggestions.

About the Author: Ron Maier is the Vice President of S & L Store Fixtures, a leading online resource for retail display cases including mannequins, mannequin forms, gridwall and slatwall store fixtures. For more information, please visit http://www.slstoredisplays.com.