Shop-in-Shop Booklet - LIFE Outdoor Living

INTRODUCTION

Luxury, elegance and comfort. These are words that come to mind when thinking of LIFE Outdoor Living, a brand that provides reliable and high quality outdoor furniture designed in the Netherlands.

It is our mission to extend indoor comfort to outdoor spaces. With over 25 years of experience, we offer an extensive range of outdoor furniture in multiple colours, materials and collections, allowing the customer to personalize any garden or terrace.

Through this guide, we will introduce our internationally proven successful Shopin-Shop concept. Continue reading and discover the many possibilities to start your own Shop-in-Shop with LIFE Outdoor Living.

Next to our regular options to become a LIFE dealer, there is an option to participate in our Shop-in-Shop formula.

In the last few years this formula has proven to be an international success with shops all over Europe. The formula is based on our own experience with our retail chain of over 30+ stores in the Netherlands and Belgium.

It is a comprehensive concept that simplifies selling our beautiful outdoor furniture range. A few of the benefits of starting a Shop-in-Shop, is that LIFE provides everything you need, so that you only need to focus on selling the furniture.

Unlimited stock

As a starter: There is no need to maintain your own stock. We can deliver all furniture you have sold from our central warehouse in the Netherlands. You simply enter your sales directly in our system and they can be delivered within two weeks.

This means you do not have any risk of unsold stock and you do not have your finances stuck in your stock. The only investment you need to make is the furniture to display in your showroom.

Assortment: Mix & Match

Our range and stock for Shop-in-Shop is built on the mix and match principle.

You can create the perfect set conform your customers’ needs by simply selecting the frame, which is available in multiple colours, choosing the cushion of your liking from our wide range of cushions and finish it with one of the table top options. Basically, you can supply the set to your customers wishes.

All elements can be ordered separately. This means you can sell a single element, a small corner set or upgrade it with extensions, inbetweens, side tables, chaises, lounges and so on. The sky is the limit. Do you want to add a dining set, umbrella or tête-à-tête? No problem, it is available in the same colour combinations as well!

Marketing & shop decorations

We take care of the marketing materials, decorations for the showroom and all extra information you may need. We even provide you with a social media package to ensure you have a constant flow of social media posts.

Margin

We are a retail chain as well, so we know the importance of making a living and getting people inspired to sell the furniture. LIFE’s opinion: If it is good for you, then it is good for us. The margins you can, and will make, are better than good. The margins you make with our Shop-in-Shop formula are on the same level as the margins you make when you do all the work and take all the risks mentioned above yourselves.

What more?

Due to our experience gathered in the last two decades with our own shops and the local market, we have some good intel regarding the investments, revenues, costs, locations, salesforce and the accompanying sales figures. Naturally, we can share this information to get you up to speed in no time.

“We are not just your supplier, we are your partner”

Our 30.000m2 warehouse and head office is located in Roosendaal, the Netherlands. Just between the ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp. This location gives us the flexibility to receive and ship containers through both ports. The inbound containers with new stock from our production units arrive throughout the entire year. Being never out of stock is highly important to us, as our shops are open 12 months a year. We don’t sell other assortments like seasonal decorations, outdoor furniture is our sole business.

This formula makes us different compared to the competition, who stock fixed sets in one or a limited number of colour option. We stock seperate elements, each frame, each cushion and each table top is a different item. By being our Shop-in-Shop partner you can enjoy almost unlimited flexibility to create the perfect set.

To keep it simple, we design the furniture to fit our standard cushion sizes (Medium, Large and XXL) to keep stock manageable.

We are glad to tell you all about the assortment and stock during a tour through our head office, warehouse and one of our showrooms.

COLLECTION

The LIFE collection is designed by our Dutch Concept & Design team, with the recognizable LIFE signature, strong and luxurious designs and materials which are widely accepted and internationally loved. Every year we launch new sets, ranges and additions to existing ranges.

We don’t change too much per season, so you can expect around 20-25% of the assortment to change. It goes without saying we will inform you as our partner in an early stage about the upgrades and changes.

“Strong and luxurious designs”

To provide the best customer experience, the floorplan will contain several themes based on colour matches, in which the furniture shows its best features. Floorplans and preferences will always be adapted to the local preferences, so there is no need to worry about that. We would like to show you around in one of our stores or at one of the Shop-inShop partners since this is always hard to only explain on paper.

Your floorplan will be the complete package: including the flooring, signing, picture walls, artificial plants (when needed), cushion displays and the Mix & Match wall. Our Shop-interior designers know what they are doing: create an atmosphere where the customer feels at ease and only thinks “This is what I want at home!”.

Our experience has shown that the minimum dedicated Shop-in-Shop size to ensure successful sales is 300m2. However, we have the best experience with larger showrooms, between 700 and 1000m2. The larger the Shop-inShop, the better the products and the LIFE brand will stand out and you can position yourself as THE SPECIALIST in your area. We are capable to create Shop-in-Shops up to 2000m2 with our collection. If you want to open a new store, we can advise which size fits you best. When you want to add the LIFE Shop-in-Shop to your existing shop, we can also make estimations on costs and profit.

MARKETING

All marketing materials we use in our local market are available to you, translated into English.

This includes:

• All printed matters

Brochures, magazines, flyers and information magazines like the Materials and Maintenance booklet.

• All signing in the shop

Banners, photo frames, information signs on the furniture, price cards, sales books, LIFE branded premiums, accessories, displays and we can even help out with billboards and signing on delivery vans.

• The complete social media package. Social media posts and campaigns, acces to our complete photo database, all information to fill the website.

THE ORDERING PROCESS

Connect the provided QR-code scanner to your computer or tablet and access our web-based ordering system.

Simply scan the required elements in the sales book. Our stock position will be shown directly. Enter your reference information and confirm the date you would like the order to be send out or collected at our warehouse. Send the order through and your order is directly allocated in our stock. The system is so easy that we can explain it within 5 minutes and everybody fully understands.

On the spot you can inform the customer when you are going to deliver the garden furniture at their place.

To keep the freight costs as low as possible, as these can be a significant percentage of the total purchase value, we will agree on fixed delivery days. To enable you to collect or receive full truckloads of furniture, these days will be discussed with you at the beginning of the season. For your information; most Shop-in-Shop partners opt for one shipment every 1 or 2 weeks.

LIFE SUPPORT & SERVICE

By becoming a LIFE Shop-inShop partner you will have access to your dedicated Shopin-Shop account manager. They will guide and advise you and will be the person to reach out for when you got a question or remark. They will double check your orders personally to ensure your customer will be a 100% satisfied.

Besides the great products, the perfectly tuned showroom, POS materials and personal account manager. We will support you with our own service department.

We understand the importance of aftersales care. We’re not looking for the easiest solution, but for the best one. Therefore, we make sure to help the customer in the best way possible.

We have an extensive range of spare parts, cushion covers and other solutions to help with service requests.

When a customer comes back to you for a service request and you cannot resolve the issue yourself, you can send the request to us. We will then provide you with the best solution there is.

As it is in LIFE’s DNA to be accessible and strive for a close relation you will also have a dedicated contact person within the service team. The service team can also help you out with all questions you might have on maintenance and protection.

Our service department is at your disposal, making sure that the customer can have faith in you as a dealer, and us as a brand.

In our local market we maintain a simple but effective price strategy: our pricing is fixed and for customers there is no need to bargain, as they are rewarded with a 10% discount when they buy a complete set. When they buy the items separately there is no discount. This way we can offer every customer the best price as we do not have to add a percentage to the prices to cover for the discount.

We suggest to copy this strategy for your business and add 10% to the Dutch / Belgian retail prices to cover the transportation costs.

If you follow this price strategy and grant the customers 10% discount when buying a full set, your margin will be at the same high level as when you keep your own stock at your own risk. Imagine a turnover of €1.500 to €2.500 per square meter (depending on e.g. location and size) and you can do the math.

Contact us if you want to know the exact margin percentage.

• Commitment, focus and enthusiasm. We, at LIFE Outdoor Living, are 100% committed and only go for the best. Ofcourse, we ask the same from you and your team.

• The LIFE collection is part of your permanent assortment and sold all year round.

• You are a specialist in outdoor furniture, well known in the region and/or willing to become one.

• The minimum floorspace available is 300m2.

• Floorplan with the suggested assortment as prepared by LIFE Outdoor Living is respected.

“Discover a world of possibilities and opportunities when you become one of our resellers. At LIFE Outdoor Living, we strive to enhance your success.’’

CONTACT

We hope we have got your attention with this brief introduction of our Shop-in-Shop formula and presume raised a number of questions which we are happy to answer.

If you got the space available and the enthusiasm to explore the possibilities please contact us at:

Tel: +31 165 526 760

E-mail: info@lifeoutdoorliving.com

Web: www.lifeoutdoorliving.com

Looking forward to welcome you as a LIFE partner!

The LIFE Team

View our collection at www.lifeoutdoorliving.com or check our catalogue