Retail column

Merchandise your way to success

With many years of brick-and-mortar retailing under her belt, Michele Trzuskowski knows a thing or two about merchandising. She shares her top tips…

About T is for Table

T is for Table is a luxury independent boutique, with a focus on tabletop, in West Palm Beach, Florida. Open more than 20 years, it offers an experiential and inspirational space dedicated to helping customers tell stories, create traditions and celebrate life. The boutique offers everything from fine pottery, china, glass, serveware and table accessories, to home décor, jewellery and body products, and delivers a custom service with its custom engraving, home visits and gift registries. www.tisfortable.com

Irecently read that online retail purchases in 2019 finally surpassed brick-and-mortar sales for the first time in history. Obviously, since the pandemic hit, e-commerce has gobbled up even more sales. But one advantage we have on the brick-and-mortar side is our merchandising techniques, and we must play up every opportunity we get when that customer walks in the store.

For me, retail is a three-legged stool, with each leg being critical to laying the foundation for your business and its success. The three legs equate to people, product, and presentation. You can have great people, and choose the right product, but if you don’t present it advantageously in the store, your customer can’t find it, and won’t purchase it.

Branding and first impressions Your front windows are the first impression customers have of your they see those categories displayed prominently in the window. I would confuse them by putting a jewelry display there since that doesn’t represent the whole, just a small piece of my gift business.

Once that consumer does come into the store, studies show that as people transition from the outside to the inside, they make that adjustment in the first 15 feet. Many retailers leave that space unobstructed and begin their first fixture at the 15-foot mark. The next time you’re in a shopping mall you’ll notice national chains conforming to this unwritten rule. But that also means, the first fixture better pack a “WOW” factor since it is what the customer will focus on.

Visual merchandising That brings us to visual merchandising which is arranging products in a way that makes them appealing to customers. It not just about creating a

For me, retail is a three-legged stool, with each leg being critical to laying the foundation for your business and its success

store. They are key to creating an invitation into your business and brand.

As a tabletop store, even though we carry items such as jewelry and apparel, I wouldn’t merchandise them in the front window because it doesn’t re-enforce our brand. As a 90 per cent tabletop store, it’s critical that if a customer is walking or driving by, dazzling display, because if it doesn’t convert those items into a sale, it’s a moot point.

When I approach visual merchandising, I look at several factors: ■ Time of year – what holidays or seasons might I be focusing on and what products do I have to support that.

■ What products are new and how do I want to introduce them to my customer? ■ What products do I want to move before having to take any markdowns? Once that’s determined I start my displays by grouping together product. I can group by category, price, use, or even colour. With dinnerware for example, I could group by vendor, colour, price, or by product. Once I determine how or what group I want to focus on, I start to build a display around that theme. I always try to cross merchandise at the same time. And if I am trying to upsell a category I will display by price with a good, better, or best scenario. In our store we have actual display tables set up and themed as if the customer were going to sit down and eat dinner. This is where we cross merchandise with many categories, linens included.

Then along the walls of the store are individual displays, usually by vendor, and by category.

Create an ambiance While visual merchandising is critical to driving sales, the ambiance you create around the merchandising is just as important. Every customer that walks into your store engages it with their senses. ■ Sight – lighting, colour and visual cues all direct a customer to specific displays or traffic flow. ■ Sound – music enhances a shopping experience especially when it is targeted to your customer. At our store we cater to an older clientele so we’re not about to play heavy metal. ■ Touch – it’s important to allow your customers to engage with the product by touching and feeling. ■ Smell – the sense of smell connects shoppers on an emotional level. Again, studies show that scent has the strongest impact when it comes to boosting consumer behavior.

Some companies even engineer scents to put customers in the right frame of mind.

Track your results and keep it fresh You should always try to evaluate how your merchandise efforts are tracking. Identify SKUs you have in a display and see if they are trending up. If sales aren’t improving, you may want to tweak your display for better results.

This should also be looked at if initially sales spiked, but now, they’ve levelled off – that’s telling you it may be time for a new display. Promotions and holidays have short shelf life, you always want to change displays at least once a month and depending on the kind of store you have maybe more.

After the last couple of Covid years, it’s critical as retailers that we take every opportunity to drive sales. Make sure your three-legged stool of people, product, and presentation is strong and sturdy.