PHOTOGRAPH BY MCGOO84
03 / RETAIL
SO, WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT, AND LEARN FROM, ALL THESE RETAILERS?
“Use mark-downs effectively, as they do. If stock is sitting on your floor and you’ve tried everything else, then sell it off cheaply. Better still, plan for that mark-down and build it into your margin”
WELL LOADS REALLY… ● Visiting discount stores would be
a big help, if you don’t know your perceived competitors then you are at an immediate disadvantage. ● Get to know what they do and when they do it by checking out their websites and storing up those nice weekly offer flyers. ● Plan your season and promotions as well as or better than they do, and promote what’s coming next week in your store. ● Market these promotions effectively and most importantly, professionally. ● Use merchandising and theatrics to entertain and entice your customers - supermarkets and discounters can’t do this. ● Use keen pricing on key items to draw customers into your store, that’s 80% of the battle at least. Use tricks like showing the consumer what they are saving. ● Signage, especially at point-of-sale, is one of the key incentives to purchase. Make sure you are telling the consumer what they need to know. ● Use mark-downs effectively, as they do. If stock is sitting on your floor and you’ve tried everything else, then
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sell it off cheaply. Better still, plan for that mark-down and build it into your margin. ● Upsell - if they have a small size plant
or package of fertiliser then you should advertise a bigger and better value one. ● Exploit and promote your garden centre as a knowledge bank, a friendly environment where customers can access one to one advice. ● Build bigger bonds within your local community emphasising your localness, and target plants and
product to suit local climates and conditions. These supermarket and discounters are all run by sharp cookies, or many sharp cookies in reality. They are not going to go away so garden centres will have to learn to deal with them and take it from them. So ignore them at your peril. Ironically, the first garden centre I ever worked in is now the site of a nice German supermarket. I shop there regularly. I don’t buy my plants there though! ✽
LIAM KELLY is one of Ireland’s leading retail consultants. Having originally managed one of the country’s biggest garden centres, he established his own consultancy business Retail Services & Solutions in 2007. Since then he has provided invaluable support and guidance at every level of garden retail and counts some of Ireland’s most respected retailers as clients. Liam can be contacted at Retail Services & Solutions, 118 Dolmen Gardens, Pollerton, Carlow. 086 822 1494 or 059 913 0176, lksolutions@eircom.net www.lksolutions.blogspot.com
HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticulture.ie / April 2014
