Reasons Why a Buyer Says “Yes” to One Product Over Another

When you’re trying to get your products on chain store shelves, one of the most important things to keep in mind is that buyers are looking to fulfill customer demand.  Customer demand drives sales.  Giving shoppers what they want is what buyers are in the business of doing.

Market demand is one of the key drivers behind the “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” your products are going to get from buyers, so being aware of what their customers want is your first indication of how well your pitch is going to go.  It will also tell you what the shape and tone of your pitch should be.

Reasons why a buyer says “yes” to one product over another are primarily based on market forces.  But here are some specific clues to help you get where you want to go.

Is this product going to make money?

As stated above, customer demand drives sales.  Your buyer is going to look at your product and determine its sales potential.  You’re going to convince the buyer (hopefully) that your product will sell like crazy and fatten the bottom line.

Buyers aren’t capricious.  They are studied professionals who are keenly aware of what’s going on in the market.  They know their customers.  They know their chain’s sales figures and all the markers connected to those figures.

When they encounter something new, they’re going to have a sense about how well it’s going to do at their outlet because they’re in the business of knowing what’s going to sell and what isn’t.  They’re pros.  That’s your context and your challenge.

The next big thing.

Buyers are continually on the look out for the “next big thing”.  They want to take advantage of product trends, because if they don’t, the share of the market their chain might otherwise have commanded is gone.

Just like that.

So, approaching buyers with the attitude that your product is indeed innovative, fresh and desirable from a consumer standpoint is a key part of your pitch.  If you’re trying to get to “yes”, convincing the buyer that your product is an opportunity they shouldn’t pass up is your way in the door.

Ready to rock.

Going into a buyer meeting with the raw product isn’t going to work.  Buyers want to see that your product is ready to put on the shelves.  Your packaging game should be good to go, right down to the bar code.  Anything that’s going to slow down the product’s entry to the chain’s shelves is going to be a roadblock to the “yes” you’re hoping to hear.  So, get your packaging, pricing and shipping ducks in a row and impress upon the buyer that you’re ready to deliver today.

The reasons why a buyer says “yes” to one product over another are numerous.  Some reasons are even personal.  A bad day?  Could be!

But this post covers the fundamental reasons buyers choose some products over others.

Clip Strip Corp. is a leader in premium display supports.  Contact us.

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Disruptive Retail Trends to Watch In 2018

The world changes and to stay at the top of our games, we all need to change with it.  Inflexibility is what leads some to be left behind, wondering what happened.

One of the best things you can do for your retail business (and one of the least demanding) is to be open to the change that’s happening all around and which is going to impact your business sooner or later, whether you want to acknowledge it or not.

At Clip Strip Corp. we submit that awareness is better than being in the dark, so we’d like to share these disruptive retail trends to watch in 2018, in the interest of giving retailers a heads up on the future.

Forewarned is fore armed.

The on-demand economy.

The mobile economy is an on-demand economy and this is the single most important thing you need to know, moving into 2018.

Consumers want immediate gratification and mobile portals allow it.  The seduction of the immediate provision of services and goods (Uber and eBay, just for starters) is obvious and it’s a growing sector, attracting huge response from consumers.

How huge?  How about more than 22 million consumers and almost $58 billion in spending?  That’s how huge.

Experience is everything.

In tandem with the on-demand economy is the experience economy.  This directly impacts the way brick-and-mortar retailers do business.  Customers, when they venture out of their homes, desire a unique experience that rewards their efforts.

As a retailer, your job is to offer your shoppers service which goes beyond the traditional.  Sited in your sales floor staff, the experience of personalized shopping which recognizes customers as valued guests in your outlet is key.

The union of two worlds.

Your store is in the brick-and-mortar world, but that doesn’t mean technology can’t be part of it.  In fact, bringing technology onto your sales floor signals customers that you’re answering a need.  You’re acknowledging the current environment and the demands of shoppers, while doing so.

In-store technology is an opportunity for you to create a union of the two worlds in retail currently colliding – online and real-world retail.  That’s what online retail giant, Amazon has been up to and it’s working.

Get mobile.

Being mobile-friendly is no longer an option – it’s an imperative.  As a retailer, you need to ensure that your online presence fosters relationships with this enormous market of potential and existing customers.

That means ensuring that the digital customer journey is a smooth one.  Catering to mobile customers means configuring your online presence to their needs.  More and more consumers are connecting via mobile and there is no choice for retailers but to respond with enhanced access.

These disruptive retail trends to watch in 2018 are where we believe retailers can find the way forward.  Acknowledging them and being proactive about anticipating their impact is how you can strengthen your market position by keeping your customers happy.

Clip Strip Corp. is a leader in premium retail POP display supports.  Contact us to find out more.

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The Dollar Daze: Catering to Value Shoppers

These days, the phrase “value shoppers” describes a large market looking for ways to cut corners to make the monthly budget.  Dollar store retailers are always seeking strategies to meet their market’s demands for value, while retaining the best possible margins.

National brands, combined with novelties and items which might otherwise be less accessible, are the stock in trade of the dollar giants.  Consumers at these outlets are looking to stretch their dollars and for a location in which they can apply their buying power, especially when it comes to food.

They don’t care if what you’re offering is the latest craze, organic, or exotic.  They want value and that’s about all.

Necessity more than novelty.

A key motivator of dollar chain store shoppers is the availability of necessities for a much more reasonable price than what’s offered at the grocery store.  At a grocery store, shoppers will find a wider variety of any given product on offer.  They will not, however, find the everyday value they do at the dollar chain.

Dollar chains strive to provide their customers (many of whom are living on fixed incomes, with very small grocery budgets) to the best range of food products they can because they know they’re filling a need.  Instead of offering a vast array of breakfast cereals, for example, they’ll offer one or two in value-sized packaging.

This explains the trend in dollar stores toward expanded food aisles.  Buying in large quantities, dollar chains can maintain steady inventories to meet the demands of the value shopper and to continuously provide what they’re coming in for.

A growing channel.

The dollar store is the fastest growing retail channel in the market.  Every year, their rates of growth have increased.  They now command more robust growth than conventional grocery stores by an average 2.5%.

What’s more, dollar store growth is projected to reach an annual rate of over 6.5% by the year 2020.  What this is telling us is that reduced consumer buying power is propelling a trend toward value which shows no signs of slowing down.

The traditional retailer’s challenge.

What all this means is that traditional grocery retailers are compelled to respond.  Diversifying inventory to meet the needs of shoppers with low and fixed incomes is a priority, if they’re going to compete with the growing, adapting dollar store giants.

Increasingly, these outlets are adding coolers and “market” sections featuring perishable and frozen items.  Dollar outlets are being re-visioned as primary sources of groceries, instead of supplemental ones that fill the affordability gap.

Traditional grocery retailers, currently, are focusing on consumer demand for products which offer enhanced health benefits – fresh, organic and local are the watchwords of grocery chains now.  On the dollar side, customers are seeking value that gets dinner on the table for as little money as possible.

To reach this market, traditional grocery outlets will need to adapt by offering similar affordability for shoppers with limited buying power.

Clip Strip Corp. is the leader in retail POP display supports.  Contact us.

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3 Retail Management Tips From Michael Kors Closing Stores

Last month, the Michael Kors fashion brand announced it would be closing 15% of its retail outlets.  Following a huge surge in consumer demand driven by the designer’s presence on the Project Runway television franchise, expansion of the brand was aggressive, followed by a demand through that drove the decision to close 125 outlets over the coming 2 years.

Releasing an IPO in 2011, following the success of his entry to the retail market in 2004, Kors followed with an aggressive expansion that featured 800 outlets of the chain, cross-country.  Based on a trend toward luxury handbags, the brand would soon see the trend collapse and, as a result, mounted an effort to move stock which had rapidly become excessive in the market.

This post offers 3 retail management tips from Michael Kors closing stores.

From scarcity to glut.

The Michael Kors brand took advantage of a spike in consumer interest, riding a wave that had an inevitable “best before” date.  It’s anyone’s guess, when gauging consumer tendencies, when supply will outpace demand, especially in terms of a mega-hot market driven by media celebrity.

But conservatism and a steady hand are always in order, in terms of inventory on hand.  This was not the case at Kors.  Market optimism drove the brand to over-extend, resulting in the need to offer luxury goods (associated with scarcity) at a tremendous discount.  Suddenly, Kors was affordable, a reality which undermined the brand message.

The lesson is to be aware of changes in demand and about what your consumers are buying.  Watching trends for downturns is a key ingredient in maintaining only the stock you know you can sell at a profit.

Here today, gone tomorrow.

One day, it’s a bubble-hemmed dress.  The next, it’s a Michael Kors handbag.  Trends come and go.  What flew off the shelves yesterday may gather dust, today.

Watching the market and what competitors are doing (and selling) is key to understanding when the time has come to abandon the trend ship.  Consumers are notoriously fickle and trends can dissipate quickly.  A cautionary note is that Michael Kors’ discounted items, once they were no longer mega-hot, were suddenly ubiquitous.

At one point, his formerly “must have” items were seen to be occupying fully ¼ of the sales floor at retailer Bloomingdale’s designer discount outlets.  That’s not the look MK was going for.

Experience. Experience. Experience.

Location. Location. Location.  This was once the mantra of retailers.  Today, it’s consumer experience.  A huge part of the consumer’s in-store experience resides in your sales floor staff.  The quality of your people is what moves your product in a physical retail set up.

Finding staff who understand the importance of face-to-face interactions in the consumer journey is key to maintaining retail health today.  It’s the “X” factor that differentiates brick-and-mortar retail from the online challenge.  Your people are the movers and shakers of your brand, offering unique, personalized consumer interactions that move product.

Clip Strip Corp. is the leader in retail POP display supports.  Contact us.

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How to Get Retail Shoppers to Make Unexpected Purchases In Your Store

Most of us believe that retailers are in the business of giving people what they want.  While that’s true to a degree, retail outlets also offer something altogether more lyrical – desire.

Desire is that special place just beyond need or want.  People will always purchase what they need, but when the mood strikes them, their desires take flight and they buy things to fulfill those desires.  The trick is in anticipating consumer desire in a way that compels unexpected purchases.

How to get shoppers to make unexpected purchases in your store is where retailers need to go – beyond what’s needed or even wanted.  In this post, we’re going to review some smarts ways to address shopper desire over need.

The delight factor.

Shoppers come in three distinct varieties.  The first is the efficient shopper.  They want to get in there and get out with what they came for as quickly as possible.  This shopper is on a mission.  The second type may be somewhat focused, but isn’t entirely opposed to an unplanned purchase.  The third type (and the shopper you’re most interested in) actively seeks the delight factor in the consumer journey.

It’s this third variety of shopper who’s looking to be delighted when out in the commercial world.  They want to be surprised by new purchasing opportunities which speak to their desires.  They want to be delighted by encounters with products they can’t go home without.

Beyond the mundane.

Daily reality is mundane and so the retail experience has, until recently, played to that.  People increasingly want their consumer experiences to offer something beyond the every day.  How to get shoppers to make unexpected purchases in your store entails going on a mission to transcend the mundane.

Thinking outside the retail box is a matter of breaking with old strategies.  Placing all the women’s dresses together in one place grouped by size may make sense, but does that transcend the mundane?

Hardly!

Go ahead.  Break the mold.  Group items whimsically, creating opportunities for consumers to see that dress with those shoes, or that jacket.  The dress purchase may well become a footwear/jacket purchase.

Tweak your displays is a savvy way to encourage consumers to make unexpected purchases.  Draw attention to items you want your customers to know about by assembling creative displays which speak to their desires.  The sky’s the limit when you let your imagination meet your customers where they stand.

Make it fun.

Your customers enjoy a whole new level of experience with demonstrations, workshops on to use products (cameras, phones, computers), or impromptu fashion shows.  Hold a pop-up fashion show with your sales floor staff as the models, surprising customers with an interactive experience and a new way of seeing what’s in store.

Offer something memorable.  This introduces the crucial element of delight which drives unexpected purchases.

Clip Strip Corp. is the POP display leader, offering retailers like you premium POP supports that help you up the delight factor.  Contact us to discover high quality POP display products.

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How Your Merchandising Can Influence Customer Sales

If you’re a brick-and-mortar retailer and you’re paying attention to what’s going on out there, you’re probably thinking the end is near.

But nothing could be further from the truth.

Just because online outlets have entered the market with incredible success and just because shoppers like the convenience of shopping in their PJs, doesn’t mean your doors are about to close.

You may be one of the retailers who believes that cutting back on merchandising is the solution to staying afloat.

If so, you’re wrong.

The truth is that merchandising is part of what sets your real-world store apart.  It’s where the rubber meets the road, in terms of driving sales by influencing the customer.

Let’s examine how your merchandising can influence customers sales and keep your balance sheet in the black.

Forging emotional connections.

While it’s certainly true that consumers are turning to online shopping more often these days, it’s not true that they’ve stopped shopping in brick-and-mortar outlets.  But what differentiates the two experiences?

One of the key differences is the emotional connection.  That can’t be had online.  The merchandise can’t be experienced in the same way in an online outlet as it can in your store.

When shoppers come in your front door, they need to sense, immediately, that they’re in an outlet that does things a little differently.  The most effective way to achieve that is by forging emotional connections between them and your products via merchandising.

Focal points.

Employing visual merchandising effectively means you need to focus in the way you want your customers to focus.  That means creating displays which visually limit available options and create product focal points.

Displays should be limited to several key pieces, but also employ a strong color scheme.  A unifying color helps customers see the product more clearly and thus, connect with it.

What’s your message?

Before creating your displays, ask yourself what your message is to your shoppers.  Is it back-to-school backpacks, or is it women’s fashion and spring flowers?

To understand the message customers are hoping to receive in-store, talk to them.  Ask them at the till.  Find out why they were attracted to whatever it is they’re purchasing.  Now, use your displays to tell a story that other customers will find as compelling as the customers you just spoke to.

Your story board.

Depending on the message you’re sending, the items in your display (while limited), should relate to one another, telling a clear story.  For back to school back packs, a blackboard may feature.  You can use it for further messaging, possibly hanging a back pack from it.  Other display items might be notebooks and pens.  Props may include an apple for the teacher.

Whatever your display’s message is, that message is forwarded by the story board you’ve created, in which you’ve built relationships between items, all geared toward influencing purchasing decisions.

Clip Strip Corp. is a leader in in-store POP display supports.  We take merchandising to another level with premium POP products that help you influence customer sales.  Contact us.

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source http://clipstrip.com/pop-fuel/merchandising-influence-customer-sales/

Reasons Supplier Diversity Is Awesome

As a retailer, you no doubt cleave to anchor suppliers you’re loyal to.  That’s great.  You need that kind of stability to continue offering your loyal customers what they come in to buy.

But there’s a downside to continually calling on the same handful of suppliers and that downside is stagnancy.  It’s also predictability.  Too much of the same thing can get boring, even if it’s there because consumers want it.

But what if you could switch things up by adding other suppliers to the mix?  Following are some key reasons supplier diversity is awesome.

Shaking it up.

The consumer universe is largely driven by demand, but one of those demands is for choice. There is a dizzying array of every product you can think of out there, but many products compete based on the same markers for success.  For example – If Product A is successful, surely a re-jigged version will be equally or even more successful, right?  But there’s only so many Product A knock offs the market will bear.

Turning to smaller, niche suppliers has the effect of offering authenticity (a trademark of craft brands).  Smaller suppliers, working from leaner frameworks, are more likely to offer a genuinely original spin on a time-honored brand’s product that’s fresh.

Access to the exotic.

Another benefit of supplier diversity is access to the exotic.  Many suppliers today stake their claim in previously untraveled territory.  Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, for example, offered consumers ice cream that went beyond the average, veering into the exotic and seldom seen.

The exotic offers consumers a trip abroad for the price of the product, or perhaps a new way of doing something – like cleaning.  The rise of “pet friendly” non-toxic brands, rooted in contemporary consumer demand for environmentally friendly products is one example.  This is real choice and an opportunity for shoppers to assert their commitment to living more earth-friendly lives.

Keeping your customers engaged.

Another one of the key reasons supplier diversity is awesome is that it tells your shoppers that you care about keeping them engaged.  Coming in to your outlet and discovering something they not only hadn’t seen there before, but which also isn’t widely available, is a winning strategy to keep them interested.

You answer demand indirectly, because what shoppers want now is freshness and access on the sales floor.  They want to be confronted by new flavors, scents and methods of doing what they do every day.  Supplier diversity is one way of bringing them what they’re interested in seeing (even if they might not have known they wanted to).

Ultimately, supplier diversity keeps your inventory contemporary.  It signals your customers that you’re aware of changes in the marketplace and that you’re plugged into sources that bring them something new.

Clip Strip Corp. brings retailers like you the very best in retail POP display supports.  We’re on the leading edge of in-store merchandising, so you can stay on the leading edge of your market.  Contact us to discover a world of innovative POP supports for your store.

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Tips on How to Win Your Next Chain Store Buyer Meeting

You know your product is the “next big thing”.  You can feel it your bones.  But before you take the big boxes by storm, you need to survive the buyer meetings.

As you obsess about meeting with buyers, your palms sweat.  You dread the idea of the shark tank and all the sharks in it, all too ready to say “no”.

But guess what?  You can get through it.  With a little forethought and careful planning, you’re going to feel as ready as you’ve ever felt for anything.  Following are some tips on how to win your next chain store buyer meeting, get your product in the door and make it a household name that flies off the shelves.

Vendor portals.

All the large chains have them and you need to explore them because, at vendor portals, you’ll find out exactly what buyers are looking for.

Conduct a search for the chain you’re going to be meeting with, adding the word “vendor”.  You’ll find a whole new perspective on your potential partner.  The information that you’ll have access to through vendor portals will demonstrate to buyers that you’re serious about working with the chain.  Let them know you mean business by combing through the portal.

On-the-ground research.

One of the most important preparation tools at your disposal is a simple one – go to the nearest outlet and look around.  Take notes.  Buyers are going to ask you when your last visit to their brick-and-mortar was and what you thought.

Be sure to look at the outlet from the perspective of your “next big thing” product.  Ask yourself how your product is filling a niche in the store’s offerings and why it’s going to answer consumer need.  You’ll sound like a serious, diligent partner if you’re ready and able to provide fresh perspective that the buyer’s interested in hearing.

What’s in it for them?

The only reason any chain is going to be interested in what you’re selling is that it’s going to make them money.  That means you need to go into your buyer meeting prepared to make a fiscal case for your product in the context of the outlet you’re pitching.

Even if your product isn’t on anyone’s shelves yet, you’ll have fresh insight after a visit to the chain’s outlet.  You’ll know exactly where your product fits into the buyer’s scheme of things.  On reflection, giving a chain the first crack at it offers numerous opportunities.

You’re giving buyers something new and fresh.  It’s not offered anywhere else and that’s an attractive proposition, with the right pitch from you.  If you’re already selling, be ready with a one-pager on how well your product is doing elsewhere.  What’s in it for them is that your product is going to bring in money by being attractive to the chain’s customers.

These tips on how to win your next chain store buyer meeting get a professional boost with display supports from Clip Strip Corp.  Contact us to find out more.

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