Street theater, fun lead to increased sales

By By: Laurie Cicotello

When it comes to small retailers increasing the amount of sales every month, there are two very important considerations that need to be kept in mind.

The first consideration is keeping enough merchandise in the store, according to Scott Day of Urban Development Services in San Antonio, Texas.

The second is making a store not only look attractive by using street theater techniques, having fun and changing the customer's walking pattern through a store.

The Nebraska LIED Main Street Program, along with Lexington and Gothenburg Main Street Programs, invited Day to speak to a group of Dawson County retailers Monday night at the Gothenburg Public Library.

Day's program, "Merchandising for Main Street Retailers: A Visual Merchandising Seminar," looked at the image of a store from advertising efforts and store appearance to floor plans, fixture layout and better utilization of inventory control.

"One of the hardest things to learn is not what you want to sell, but what customers want to buy," Day told the retailers.

Retailers need to understand their target market and demographics, he said.

Day explained the concept of "Open to Buy," and said that retailers need to track sales, new inventory purchases, mark-downs and transfers in order to find what sold well at full price and what items had to be marked down. By tracking these items, Day said, retailers could avoid the misfortune of buying the same non-selling products annually.

Day said the goals of inventory management are to minimize markdowns on products, have as high of a turn ratio on goods as possible, and maintain a constant flow of new goods through the store.

He cautioned retailers against being too quick to mark down merchandise. Day told the group that sometimes a product was in the wrong location for customers to find it or that an item might work better along with other merchandise to create add-on sales.

If an item has to be marked down, Day suggests taking a smaller markdown sooner instead of waiting until later and dropping the price significantly.

By marking items down sooner, though, retailers face a challenge of keeping a store looking full until new products arrive. This can be accomplished through a little creativity on the part of the retailer, Day said.

The idea of street theater takes retailers past merely dressing a store front.

For retailers, it means having fun with window displays and trying out new ideas to attract business.

In addition, Day suggests that retailers look at the placement of items within a store. By organizing stock into easy to understand rows and columns, the customer has an easier time finding things to buy.

In addition, retailers should use no more than 20 percent negative space to create the appearance of a fully stocked store. Day even suggested moving items when a pegboard display ran low until a shipment arrived. He suggested keeping things off of the floor and to put empty boxes in the back storeroom until later.

Day described an Asian store he helped to revamp in Texas. The store was struggling following the events of Sept. 11, due in part to a change in traffic patterns in the area.

After pulling old and damaged product from the shelves, the remaining products were consolidated and rearranged to utilize 80 percent of the available space. In the rear of the store, Day discovered sets of furniture.

He had the retailer move the furniture close to the windows and decorated them. The shift allowed shoppers to see more of the store from the street. After a few months of increased business, a buyer contacted the retailer and asked to purchase the business.

Day also suggested pulling the customer's eye to the rear of the store by placing something that catches the person's eye there.

One card store created a bold display using the front part of a Cadillac jutting out of the rear wall in order to pull customers to the rear.

Day said one Hispanic store he helped sold lots of boots, but was having a difficult time selling much else. The retailer had created a beautiful display of boots, Day said, but the boots were along the right wall inside of the door of the business.

When customers would come in, they would see the display, buy the boots and never head to the rear of the store. Day suggested relocating the boot display to the rear wall of the store.

The retailer later told Day that his profits immediately went up because people were buying other things they walked past in the store.

'Sixty to seventy percent of sales happen on impulse," Days said. "Retailers need to expose customers to as much merchandise as possible."

Other cosmetic ideas that increased sales include closely monitoring lighting to best display items.

In addition, lighting could be used outside of the store as a form of after hours advertising and to deter any bad activities in an area by leaving lights on until at least midnight.

Day also emphasized using clear windows on a storefront and washing them every day.

Another cosmetic change Day suggested is to build the height of the store from a lower point in the front to a higher point in the back, allowing customers to scan the store as they walk in.

The final idea Day emphasized was to never, ever use handmade signs, unless an item was a one-of-a-kind handmade item.

At the very least, Day encouraged retailers to use a sign-making software on their computer and use plastic standup "cookbook sleeves" from office supply stores.

"Focus your attention and the feet will follow," Day said. "This is about romancing the product."