Women Who Run This Business
One More Thing ...
Five Merchandising Tips for Selling to Female Runners / By Holly Wiese, 3 Dots Design
1. PROPS All people are more visual than we realize, but women tend to be the most visually oriented. Don’t be afraid to pull in some unexpected props or plants to warm up your display and help catch the attention of women passing by. These items don’t have to necessarily be running related either … get creative by looking around the garage or your home for vases, sculptures or other unexpected things. 2. CLEAN AND ORGANIZED Remove the clutter! This means that any old signs, mismatched hangers, outdated race info or any other unnecessary clutter has to go. It is a turn off and we spend all day organizing our office, our desk or our house so when we go shopping we want it done for us. Keep things well dusted, vacuumed and organized. 3. SIMPLE AND FAST You may have noticed that women never stop moving these days … especially in the world of COVID. So if we’re taking the time to go shopping, trust me — it’s something we’ve worked hard to fit into our schedule. Don’t make us work once we’re in your store. Keep mannequins and displays very well curated with the hottest new product you’ve got and have the size runs of these pieces right next to the display. If women have to look for the styles that are on the mannequin, you’re going to lose the sale. It’s that simple. Keep it easy. Keep it fast. 4. BEAUTIFUL AND INSPIRING Women appreciate beautiful things. So go ahead an inspire us. Take the extra time to make the women’s area in your store look beautiful enough to draw us over there. Maybe you’ve got room for some special seating in a cool spot or a chandelier that adds a soft touch to this area. Some
unique piece of furniture may warm things up — or perhaps it’s some inspiring imagery that women can relate to. We can all use some extra inspiration these days and finding it unexpectedly feels good and makes us remember that special surprise. 5. ACCESSORIZE Don’t ever assume that a woman is afraid to accessorize. When you dress a mannequin, don’t forget the socks, the shoes, the hand-held, the waist bottle holder, the hat, the gloves and anything else you can possibly fit on her. Department stores have been silently upselling us like this for years and there’s no reason it can’t work just as well in your store. Often these types of displays open our eyes to helpful accessories we were unaware of. Don’t miss this opportunity for grabbing our attention with unexpected add-ons. About Holly Wiese Holly Wiese has more than 25 years of experience in the field of visual merchandising and retail design, including in the specialty running sector. She is a frequent speaker at The Running Event and has been a keynote speaker at a number of sportswear industry and merchandising events. In her spare time, Holly can be found riding her bike across the country, trail running around her Boulder, CO, home or preparing for the World Guacamole Championships that she has hosted for over 13 years. She can be reached at: holly@3dotsdesign.
To wrap up this issue, Running Insight asked Holly Wiese for her five words that describe her 2020:
1. UNKNOWN 2. ZOOM 3. HOMEBOUND 4. ISOLATING 5. RESOURCEFUL
58
runninginsight.com
© 2021 Diversified Communications