3 minute read
$$ HIDDEN PROFIT CENTERS How Cleaning Products Can Be a Hidden Profit Center
Today’s retail market is challenging. Layers of government regulations, competition from other brick and mortar stores, huge DIY retailers, giant online sellers, and a lack of customer loyalty, all contribute to this. As small business owners, we must find unique solutions to keep our businesses afloat and, in the end, have a little leftover for ourselves.
Here are two traditional ways to get customers walking through our doors
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Sale pricing — putting items on sale is a time-tested way to get a customer’s attention. However today most everything is “on-sale” price rollbacks, BOGO, EDLP, or whatever fancy phrase you want to use, just doesn’t have the same effect as the old “blue light special” did. I remember people would run to see what the blue light special was back in the day. However, reducing your price on an item can also reduce margins, and today with tight margins on everything you must be careful about just how sale pricing works.
Advertising — advertising is still an effective way to attract customers. With so many options it is tough to know the best way to attract your customer: TV, radio, print, mail, email, social media, Google, etc. Do your homework and learn the most effective way to attract your customer.
Items like these cleaning products by StainX can all be private labeled.
Cleaning products — a hidden profit center
YES — cleaning products can be a profitable way to get customers into your store regularly. After all, how often does a customer purchase new flooring or a new vacuum? The life cycle on these items could be 10 or more years. So, what can you do to keep customers coming back? Carry cleaning products.
They come in multiple categories — retail brands (Tide®, Dawn®, Pine-Sol®, Swiffer®, etc.), industrial (janitorial) and specialty, green or eco-cleaners. Retail branded cleaners are found everywhere, pricing is cutthroat and, in the end, offers small margins if you can even compete. Industrial (janitorial) — this can be a solid category, but the customer base is limited and mostly these types of products are not considered safe for home use or the sizes are just too large for the average consumer. Specialty, green or eco-cleaners
Color Tile.
These offer you an opportunity to offer better product performance, sized for home use, and generally safer to use. Smaller specialty brands are not found in the big box stores, too much competition from the large retail brands. And the larger retailers do not offer any variety — everyone sells the same products.
Specialty brands offer you an opportunity to sell high-quality products at realistic margins that keep customers walking through your doors. Do your research on these brands as many new brands appear and disappear very quickly. In today’s highly regulated environment many do not have correct labeling to cover the many different state requirements and therefore are forced to go out of business.
Here are some great established specialty brands in the marketplace that offer the opportunity to stock a wide variety of cleaning products: Stain-X (www.stain-x. com), NEU Homecare (www.neu-homecare.com ) and TECH (www.techcleaners. com). They offer a wide variety of consumer-friendly products that will keep customers coming back.
If you do your homework, find brands that fit your customers — your business can thrive in these tough times and before long ,these small $10–$20 sales for cleaners can result in another flooring job. Treating your customers right keeps them coming
STAIN-X can private label their products for your store, provide gift packages, POP displays, etc. For example, this customer appreciation gift package of specialized cleaning pooducts produced for Carpets Plus/ to your store. ❚
Adaven Marketing Inc. | 608-268-2090 | Fax: 608-274-3839 | www.stain-x.com | www.neu-homecare.com
