By Bill Brett - Retail Gardening Success
Brett & Associates – Retail Garden Consultants & Trainers and Mentors, have studied and perfected merchandising of plants to maximise sales at the lowest cost.
Merchandising - which includes layout, product location, display fixtures, POS signage, plus a number of implementation techniques, is undoubtedly the most important factor to maximise sales.
Brett & Associates are pleased to have been associated with Woodham Manufacturing in producing the design of plant display stands proven in practice.
However – the most significant factor restricting sales even when good fixtures are used is that the fixtures are not deployed or merchandised in the manner necessary.
Merchandising Plants
% of sales from each method of customer decision making
- Planned purchase 10 - 20%
- Personal selling 5 - 15%
- Merchandising 75 - 90%
The variation depends on the size, location, and type of garden centre, but in all cases merchandising produces more sales than other methods. Therefore, if we enhance merchandising to the maximum we will increase sales by a higher percentage than any other method.
Visibility - In most garden centres 90% of customers see less than 50% of product.
If customers don’t see the product they are not likely to buy it. We must make more product more visible. Appeal - Having seen the product it must appeal to customers. They must want to buy it. We must make product more appealing.
Good Merchandising aims to ensure that:
- Products sought by most customers are more visible
- Popular items
- Seasonal Products
- Advertised Products
- Preferred Brands
- Products which are attractive are visible
- Strategic products which project your image & market position or unique point of difference are visible.
- Less commonly purchased demand products can be less visible
In addition good merchandising ensures plants are:
Appealing & Inspire Customers To Buy
Customers ease of accessing the product is an important part of merchandising. However it is less important than maximising visibility and appeal. Because, if the customer hasn’t seen the product, and therefore can’t judge its appeal, it doesn’t really matter how easy it is to access. Product should be made as easy as possible to access provided visibility and appeal are not compromised, It is more important to ensure low ticket items are more easily accessible than high ticket items, as customers will usually ask for help for high ticket items.
Techniques to maximise visibility
- Layout location of each product group
- Fixtures – design & deployment – good fixtures can double sales and reduce labour
- End use categories – more user friendly for customers
- Signage – case studies show good signage can double sales
- Colour or texture blocking – greatly increases visibility and appeal
- Sample plants – greatly increases visibility and appeal
- Add pots, ornaments, props – increases visibility and appeal
- Facing up plants & labels – increases visibility and appeal
- Inspirational concepts – important for today’s customer who wants the look without the work
Good Plant Display fixtures are one of the key factors of good merchandising.
Well designed and constructed fixtures provide the following benefits, Maximise the visibility and appeal, The fixture provides the perfect display base so that any staff member can merchandise to a high standard with minimum training
Merchandising is fast and labour saving, Bottom up watering where possible reduces time spent watering, Good fixtures well merchandised provide great ambience, Good fixtures well merchandised and signed can increase sales many fold (as shown by case studies)
Brett & Associates are pleased to have been associated with Woodham Manufacturing in the design of plant display stands
Good Plant Display fixtures are one of the key factors of good merchandising.
Each plant group / type requires a different fixture to maximise sales. Brett & Associates exhaustive in store research over 10 years has perfected the best fixture design for each product type.
Brett & Associates are pleased to have been associated with Woodham Manufacturing in producing the design of plant display stands proven in practice.
However – the most significant factor restricting sales even when good fixtures are used is that the fixtures are not deployed or merchandised in the manner necessary.
Vertical promotion displays provide greater visibility and appeal. Therefore for appropriate plants, fixtures should be vertical or provide a vertical element. However they must – not have shelves overlapping or above plants as this reduces visibility, reduces light for plant wellbeing, and unless waterproof lower plants get damaged from water and soil from above.
Even where they are not overlapping, the riser (step height between shelves), must be such that when fully merchandised, only plants are visible. Being able to see pots or a gap of waste space between shelves detracts from visibility and appeal.
Vertical block displays of one plant has high impact and maximises visibility and appeal. Suitable for volume seasonal sellers and promotions. Best vertical promotion fixture – The Woodham Carousel
This design fixture has proven to sell more plants faster, than any other fixture. Most suitable for 1 – 2 litre pots of upright flowering plants.
Round displays provide greater visibility and appeal, are easier to shop, customer friendly and have a soft curved garden effect. The vertical element for rounds is created by clustering together, 4 or 5 rounds, each one at a different height.
Round display fixtures sell best when there is only one product of one colour per round. The best size for rounds is 1.2m diameter, deployed in clusters of 4 or 5 at heights of 250mm, 400mm, 550mm and 700mm. (1 at 700mm, 2 at 550mm, 2 at 400mm and 1 at 250mm)
Rounds are excellent for impulse colour plants, volume seasonal sellers, and promotions for most plants from 1 litre to 3 litre pots. Placing plants on the ground around the base of the rounds is beneficial as it hides the legs and under bench area as well as providing an additional level of plants, increasing visibility. This has been proven to increase sales. Best round fixture – Woodham rounds woodham rounds with bottom up watering for best results
Woodham Round Fixtures for Impulse buying and promotion.
Tiered Pack Bedding fixtures are best for merchandising in flower pack bedding. When colour blocked vertically the visibility and appeal is stunning. Trials showed a four fold increase in sales from these fixtures.
Best fixture – Woodham TDU (Tiered Display Unit)
Woodham plant Trolley is:
- Very customer friendly – easy to use
- On any surface
- Multi stack in trolley bay
- Pack bedding top tray
- Brake for sloping sites
Layout & Design
- Best Fixtures for each product group & how to use them
- Merchandising implementation techniques
- Point of Sale Signs that work
- Merchandising Training – practical hands on
- Merchandising Manuals – for all garden retail product groups
Contact
Bill Brett
Ph 64 (03) 5284602
bill@gardenretailsuccess.co.nz
John Russell
Ph 64 (09) 4768127
john@gardenretailsuccess.co.nz
