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| Stephen J. Alexander |
THIS ARTICLE IS THE FIRST in a series about in-store marketing and merchandising. When the series is complete, Aftermarket Business’ readers—whether retailers, jobbers or manufacturers—will have a complete in-store primer.
Automotive in-store marketing and merchandising is all about money changing hands.
The automotive parts retail store is the last and final place where spending decisions are made; where products, consumers and money converge; where 100 percent of the cash changes hands.
To be the best marketer and merchandiser in your market, you must be an apt juggler — throwing and catching design, graphics, merchandising, maintenance, market research, installation, training and financing into your business operations mix and using these elements to your best advantage.
Why should you juggle these elements?
The answers to that question are:
- You can make positive impact on your sales volume AND your profits.
- You can position your store or stores very strongly.
- You can change your store operations for the better.
- Your customers will know of everything you have that they can buy.
- You can improve your bottom line, recover your investment and strengthen your prospects for long-term success in this fiercely competitive business.
Now that I have your attention, let me define in-store merchandising and marketing. It is the art and science of creating a knowledge-based, actionable solution leading to a profitable environment, based on understanding the realities of how shopping is done.
Pretty high-faluting, eh? Only in sound. In-store merchandising and marketing is complex, but composed of many simple factors.
Contrary to popular opinion, all parts stores are NOT the same. A well-merchandised store shows its stuff to its best advantage, makes shopping painless for its customers and provides them with opportunities for add-on and impulse purchases.
Show your store’s friendly face
Let’s get simpler. The winner in this battle for customers and return trip customers is the auto parts seller who has the friendliest store — made up of friendly people who greet and help customers.
Listening is a marvelous art! One set of eyes and ears is an instrument.
A whole group of them is an orchestra just waiting to be heard. That orchestra is the people who work in the store; folks who see and hear first-hand what your “audience,” your customers, do and say while shopping in the store. They are the listening posts.
Talk to your in-store sales staff every day. Ask them what they observe about your customers. Your sales staff will know you care about them and the customers.
Look for changes in shopping patterns, attitudes and opinions. But, that’s not enough. You must also actively participate in this customer observation and communication process.
Your ability to rapidly respond will make the difference between everything from lost sales to correcting the causes of unhappy customers.
Research affirms that customers are absolutely responsive to your positive attention to their concerns.
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So friendly that people can find what they want in logical places and discover unexpected treasures that they can use after they buy them.
A friendly store, just like a friendly person, has “eyes.” It tells its story to the people who walk its aisles, check out its departments and make purchases. It’s easy to shop in. Overall, it is predictable to the returning customers.
Chances are good that a return customer will find something new with each visit — just like people returning to a good website will find something new, of interest or of use, or of all of the above.
Besides the on-site retailer and jobber sellers, manufacturers are becoming more and more involved with in-store marketing. As our automotive parts industry begins to come to serious terms with the fact that stores must be a selling platform, manufacturers are realizing the importance of thinking beyond the product to the category, beyond the category to the department, beyond the department to the entire store. That store, which provides to the manufacturers’ customers, has value to the manufacturer.
Consumers have better, as well as more, choices today. In-store merchandising and marketing, if well executed, present better, more extensive choices to satisfy customers. Does “satisfied customers,” describe the people who flock to your store?
Stephen J. Alexander, president of Automotive In-Store Marketing, is a member of Aftermarket Business’ Retail Advisory Board. To reach him at his Sanibel Island, Florida headquarters, call 239-395-9203, or e-mail, salexander@autoinstore.com.
COPYRIGHT NOTICE:"Reprinted with permission from Aftermarket Business, May, 1998, page 14. 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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