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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

Shops have things in them and people go to buy them in exchange for money. That, at its most elemental, is what most people would be inclined to think of when they toys in just the same manner as you might look at something on a web page. Storage space is (much) cheaper when it’s away from a high street. consider a physical store. And yes, we also know that the same And in offers of this kind, where the shopping journey (more or less) applies to an online store, except that the bricks-and- comes to an end beyond the premises, what you have created, mortar part of the equation is singularly absent. in effect, is a physical web page. A lot of store, as it were, is

But what would happen if a real-world ‘shop’ happened to be a set by ‘phygital’ (cringe). Current wisdom has it that if you can place in which nothing was ‘physically’ sold? Again, gentle reader, create a bricks-and-clicks store, then the world will beat a path you’re smart enough to know that what is being referred to here is to your door. Well that may possibly be the case, but what generally known as a ‘showroom’. There are many examples of this does seem likely is that if you can pull off something of this kind of thing, ranging from the bed and sofa retailer Loaf to a host kind then you’ll access segments of the population who might of fashion shops in the US. not otherwise give you the time of day.

To date, however, there are (as far as your correspondent is It also means that your toy shop really is a toy shop. This aware) no toy shops in which goods fail to change hands in situ. Yet consider the advantages - everything in a showroom is a bit of a one-off, just “ What is important is that is a place in which people come to play with the stock. Yes, they will want to buy something, eventually. But in the first place they are just there to be scrutinised, test-driven or played with. your store, crossing the threshold in search of novelty. If this There may be the occasional breakage, but you don’t have to worry too much because, if you’ve done your homework, the display models will be there gratis, whatever the terminology is the case, then you will be ahead of your rivals and if, at the end of their visit, they head towards you clutching a credit card and a request, then courtesy of the supplier who will see your shops as used to describe you’ve done the right thing. a means to an end. The other point of note is that it, is both a All of which also begs the question, asked by as long as the supplier in question has stock, you’re place that many FDs at the moment: where and when does unlikely to miss the sale and it seems probable that there will be more items in a warehouse than there are shelves to accommodate inventory in your store. shoppers want to visit and a a sale actually take place, if no goods actually change hands when a ‘purchase’ is made in a shop? In truth, it doesn’t really matter. What

There is, of course, the matter of the ‘best seller’ - location in is important is that your store, whatever the and here the supplier is as likely to be stripped bare as which an terminology used to describe it, is both a place ” that shoppers will want to visit and a location in which an experience is offered. So is this the future and is it a way of combating the threat of online retailers? Stores, we are told, you are. But not everything flies out of the door, and if it’s possible to carry just one or two display models in your shop, then this will certainly be to the good. At this point, the canny retailer and the savvy supplier will be experience is offered wondering whether this isn’t just a matter of shifting the point are still set to remain, it’s just that their number will diminish of supply and the moment at which the deal is done from the and what remains will be generally better than what was in shop to the warehouse. There is also the small issue that place before. The toy shop showroom will certainly have a suppliers do need liquidity in just the same manner as point of difference in the short term and, given how relatively you, the retailer, does. slow physical retail has proved at adapting to the brave new So think about an alternative. Imagine being able to world, that advantage will be in place for some time to come. halve or quarter your monthly rent. You’d still need And if you were to give the showroom route a go, by somewhere to hold your stock, but it doesn’t have to the time others catch up, you would have both knowledge be in the shop. Instead, you might occupy a portion and trading history on your side. If nothing else, this line of of a secure warehouse or organise storage under your thinking really does merit some careful consideration. The own steam. This would mean that the only requirement worst that can happen is that you decide not to do anything… of your non-selling store would be to house a range of for the moment, at least.

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.