Retail Ideas workshops provide valuable tips
Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, March 27, 2005
Springfield, Va. — Here's a small sample of the tips and insights offered at Reed Business Information's first Retail Ideas workshops:
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Good title: City Furniture's Keith Koenig said the retailer's drivers and delivery assistants are called "service technicians," not drivers. He has long held that you should "give everybody a title their mother-in-law would like."
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Service plan: Koenig also urged retailers to boost margins by offering three-year and five-year in-house service programs that go beyond a one-year manufacturer warranty. The cost to the consumer is based on a percentage of the sale, and under City's program, if the consumer ends up not using the service, they get the full cost back in the form of a City gift certificate — an incentive to buy something else.
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Packaging revolt: Retail Ideas Director Loreen Epp suggested retailers should unite to protest chronic poor packaging by manufacturers. When retailers complain about the problem and the resulting damage, she said, they usually get a "you're the only one" response from the offending suppliers.
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Buy low, sell high. It sounds obvious, but Profit Planning Group's Al Bates suggested that when retailers negotiate a price break, they too often cut their retail price instead of taking the opportunity to nudge up gross margins. His example of how dramatically this can improve the bottom line was eye opening for many attendees, who also said they feel constant pressure from their salespeople to negotiate on price with customers — another poor practice, according to Bates.
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Get online, but carefully. Even if a retailer isn't ready to sell over the Internet, it can brand itself online effectively, said Furniture.com's Carl Prindle. He said minimum steps include allowing in-store customers to see their orders online, keeping the marketing department involved in the company's Web efforts to make Web sites consistent with the store's brand message, and showing at least three quarters of a store's selection online with quality images.
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Delivery at a price. Patrick Cory of Cory Home Delivery Service told retailers they should sell their delivery service, not offer it for free. He equated the latter practice to the $2 DVD bargain bin at a Best Buy store; you get what you pay for — in that Best Buy case, lousy movies — or at least that's the perception. "When you provide a premium service, you shouldn't be afraid to charge for it," he said.
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Retail Ideas workshops provide valuable tips
Mar 31, 2005
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