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Photo Credit Viktoriia Novokhatska
The shop that
‘sells’ nothing Is the showroom model the future of toy shop retail? John Ryan considers how not actually stocking the goods you want to sell could attract a new kind of customer
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toys in just the same manner as you might look at something hops have things in them and people go to buy them in on a web page. Storage space is (much) cheaper when it’s exchange for money. That, at its most elemental, is what away from a high street. most people would be inclined to think of when they And in offers of this kind, where the shopping journey consider a physical store. And yes, we also know that the same comes to an end beyond the premises, what you have created, (more or less) applies to an online store, except that the bricks-andin effect, is a physical web page. A lot of store, as it were, is mortar part of the equation is singularly absent. set by ‘phygital’ (cringe). Current wisdom has it that if you can But what would happen if a real-world ‘shop’ happened to be a create a bricks-and-clicks store, then the world will beat a path place in which nothing was ‘physically’ sold? Again, gentle reader, to your door. Well that may possibly be the case, but what you’re smart enough to know that what is being referred to here is does seem likely is that if you can pull off something of this generally known as a ‘showroom’. There are many examples of this kind then you’ll access segments of the population who might kind of thing, ranging from the bed and sofa retailer Loaf to a host not otherwise give you the time of day. of fashion shops in the US. It also means that your toy shop really is a toy shop. This To date, however, there are (as far as your correspondent is is a place in which people come to play with aware) no toy shops in which goods fail to change the stock. Yes, they will want to buy something, hands in situ. Yet consider the advantages What is everything in a showroom is a bit of a one-off, just important is that eventually. But in the first place they are just crossing the threshold in search of novelty. If this there to be scrutinised, test-driven or played with. your store, is the case, then you will be ahead of your rivals There may be the occasional breakage, but you whatever the and if, at the end of their visit, they head towards don’t have to worry too much because, if you’ve done you clutching a credit card and a request, then your homework, the display models will be there gratis, terminology used to describe you’ve done the right thing. courtesy of the supplier who will see your shops as All of which also begs the question, asked by a means to an end. The other point of note is that it, is both a many FDs at the moment: where and when does as long as the supplier in question has stock, you’re place that a sale actually take place, if no goods actually unlikely to miss the sale and it seems probable that shoppers want change hands when a ‘purchase’ is made in a there will be more items in a warehouse than there are to visit and a shop? In truth, it doesn’t really matter. What shelves to accommodate inventory in your store. location in is important is that your store, whatever the There is, of course, the matter of the ‘best seller’ terminology used to describe it, is both a place and here the supplier is as likely to be stripped bare as which an that shoppers will want to visit and a location in you are. But not everything flies out of the door, and if experience is which an experience is offered. it’s possible to carry just one or two display models in offered So is this the future and is it a way of your shop, then this will certainly be to the good. combating the threat of online retailers? Stores, we are told, At this point, the canny retailer and the savvy supplier will be are still set to remain, it’s just that their number will diminish wondering whether this isn’t just a matter of shifting the point and what remains will be generally better than what was in of supply and the moment at which the deal is done from the place before. The toy shop showroom will certainly have a shop to the warehouse. There is also the small issue that point of difference in the short term and, given how relatively suppliers do need liquidity in just the same manner as slow physical retail has proved at adapting to the brave new you, the retailer, does. world, that advantage will be in place for some time to come. So think about an alternative. Imagine being able to And if you were to give the showroom route a go, by halve or quarter your monthly rent. You’d still need the time others catch up, you would have both knowledge somewhere to hold your stock, but it doesn’t have to and trading history on your side. If nothing else, this line of be in the shop. Instead, you might occupy a portion thinking really does merit some careful consideration. The of a secure warehouse or organise storage under your worst that can happen is that you decide not to do anything… own steam. This would mean that the only requirement for the moment, at least. of your non-selling store would be to house a range of
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John Ryan is Stores Editor of business magazine Retail Week. He has worked for the title for more than a decade covering store design, visual merchandising and what makes things sell instore. In a previous life, he was a buyer.
