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July 1994 |
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| Efficient Use of Space Cited for Retail Success |
| Interview by: Sandy Stambaugh Cannon, Editor-in-Chief |
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| Stephen J. Alexander |
THE EFFICIENT use of in-store retail sales space can increase both unit and dollar volume performance per square foot by more than 50 percent.
Stephen J. Alexander, president of Automotive In-Store Marketing (AIM), Sanibel Island, FL, feels that the same efficient in-store marketing can reduce the space needed to display product by up to 80 percent.
AIM is an in-store marketing company dedicated to the automotive aftermarket.
"The store is the one place where customers, product, and cash all come together: it's where 100 percent of the cash changes hands," Alexander tells Aftermarket Business. "That's why in-store marketing is so crucial to retail success."
According to Alexander, a customer should know the answers to the questions: "What's here?" and "Where is it?" within a fraction of a second after he/she walks into the store.
"Merchandising strategy includes not only what you sell and where it's located, but also how the products' features and benefits are made clear to customers," says Alexander.
He uses a proprietary space management and merchandising system called CUBICā to plan merchandise placement in automotive retail parts stores. CUBICā measures both space and financial (profit per cubic foot) performance in cubes rather than the conventional squares used by other planogramming and space planning systems. CUBICā was first developed by Barry Waldman, an associate of Alexander. Waldman and Alexander are now working to expand the system's features.
Store design also plays an important role. That involves developing the store's in-store merchandising and marketing positioning statement. Special consideration must be given to the logo and graphics, interior, and exterior signage, consumer communications, product locations, adjacency merchandising and in-store merchandising programs.
According to Alexander, the ideal result is a store with a specific personality, which has "eyes that talk to a customer."
Planning is only the first step. The retailer must then execute those plans: produce and install the physical components, and implement the marketing and selling programs.
AIM recently developed a new look for a larger footprint Chief Auto Parts store in West Los Angeles. The store was rebuilt after the 1992 riots destroyed the former location across the street. Another AIM project is a new "retail-friendly look" for Big A stores.
Stephen J. Alexander is an aftermarket consultant, speaker and monthly columnist for Aftermarket Business Magazine. To learn more about other in-store merchandising and marketing issues, contact Stephen Alexander, Automotive In-Store Marketing at 239-395-9203 or e-mail him at salexander@autoinstore.com.
COPYRIGHT NOTICE:"Reprinted with permission from Aftermarket Business, July, 1994. Copyright by Advanstar Communications, Inc. Advanstar Communications, Inc. retains all rights to this material." To subscribe to Aftermarket Business, call 1-218-723-9477 or email fulfill@superfill.com.
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