Sales made easy

Leading retail consultant Liam Kelly details how you can increase sales by incorporating seasonality into your plant merchandising with the help of the 5 Es

The art of merchandising – and make no mistake, it is an art – has changed dramatically in the last couple of decades, and this is especially true for the plant sector. There was a time when plants were not so much merchandised, as grouped by category and arranged in neat A-to-Z rows. This was probably a throwback to the days when wholesale nurseries and growers arranged their plants, and as some of these growers evolved into retailers they kept the same display format.

The plant buying public were a different breed back then too, savvier on a plant’s needs and requirements and more aware of the cycle of seasonality; of planting, growing and harvesting – or blooming. There was less of a need by the seller to educate and inform, and certainly not much requirement to inspire. In short, there was less need – or at least less perceived need – for many merchandising techniques within many plant retailing businesses.

But in the nineties and noughties garden centres started to change and embrace general retailing procedures as a requirement to drive their businesses to the next level, and one of the key areas by which they achieved this was by better merchandising. Gone were the concrete corrals for holding plants, to be replaced by soft-focused wooden display benches, tiered tables and proper Pos signage. Plants were now up near eye-level with new snazzy labels developed by clever nurserymen and their marketing people. Coloured pots and multi-buys became de rigueur and still are today.

Sadly that’s where some plant retailers stopped. they failed to see or take the next step needed in order to sell even more plants, (not to mention the myriad of add-on lines that should be associated with said sales, which are an important factor in driving the average spend upward by another few percents). They failed to think for the customer.

The seasonality of the gardening sector in our climate is both a blessing and a curse. How simple it would be to sell geraniums, petunias and other summer colour all year round and never have to worry about change, cold weather or torrential rain. However, we would be missing out on the very thing that makes gardening interesting and unique, the constant need for the seasons to cycle through rebirth, colour and warmth, through dormancy and even decay before starting again. Surely that makes life in general and merchandising in our particular case more interesting and challenging?

Because of the knowledge requirement of this cycle, retailers need to think for, plan for, create for and inspire their customers while at the same time educating the newer generation, many of whom no longer know when daffodils flower let alone when to plant them. We are all guilty of making assumptions, and this is especially true of plant retailers. they assume that their customers know more than they actually do. More worryingly, there is an assumption that basic knowledge such as the aforementioned seasonality of the gardening world is a known concept and doesn’t need explaining in any way. And we know what they say about assumption.

It’s not all about knowledge of course, but seasonality and effective merchandising can work well together to retrain the customer in combination with the following five Es. If you can generate excitement and enthusiasm for the season to come while at the same time educating and entertaining the customer by engaging them in your display, then you should achieve better plant sales at the same time as driving the sales of the general garden product sector.

LET’S LOOK AT THESE IN A LITTLE MORE DETAIL…

HOW DO WE EXCITE THE CUSTOMER?

Words such as ‘new’, ‘unique’ or ‘exclusive’ when used in point-of-sale signage help to convey this message. Of course, the plants need to be actually new – or new to you – in order for this to work. This is rarely an issue these days as nurseries are constantly launching new varieties. For example, the coming season will have a number of new hydrangeas, lavender or perennial varieties launched, which could be earmarked for an early summer promotion to highlight the long hot summer to come.

HOW DO WE GENERATE ENTHUSIASM?

This is a very emotive sentiment so the words used in your signage should convey how passionate you are about a plant or theme. do you love tomatoes? Or maybe you fancy chilli peppers? Why not tell your customers this and the reason why you do. Use hearts and appropriate colours – red in this case – to get the message across that this is the time for sowing these seeds if they too fancy these plants. Wouldn’t this work well for Valentines day?

WHAT’S THE BEST WAY TO EDUCATE THE CONSUMER?

Again signage is an obvious way to get a message across. ‘Plant Now for spring colour!’ for example, is a good way to highlight the autumn bulb season and sell the promise of blooms the following spring, but there are other ways too. Sticking with our bulb example, displaying basic add-on sales such as fertiliser and bulb planters will educate and increase the value of the sale, but you can take it a step further by using brightly coloured planters in your display to show that bulbs look great in pots, while the bright colours reinforce that promise of spring – or summer – colour.

HOW CAN A DISPLAY BE ENTERTAINING?

Dragging a little theatre and drama into a display with the use of appropriate props is an excellent way to entertain the customer. a show-stopping display of Christmas roses with frosted branches and berried stems is a great way of encouraging impulse sales at Christmas, reminding them of the arrival of Christmas as well as having a ‘wow’ factor if done with flair. Humour too can be entertaining, so it’s worthwhile keeping that in mind when you’re creating your signage and looking out for props.

“Words such as ‘new’, ‘unique’ or ‘exclusive’ when used in point-of-sale signage help to convey this message”

HOW DO I ENGAGE THE CUSTOMER IN A DISPLAY?

One of the best ways to engage the consumer is to appeal to their senses. Smell and touch are perhaps the best to play on. For example, the scent of Lavender or Santolina backed up with a ‘Pinch Me!’ and ‘smell Me!’ signs work well to highlight that the scents of summer are upon us. Using grasses, or fluffy-leaved, tactile plants such as Verbascum and Stachys with ‘stroke Me!’ encourages customers to engage with the plants and the display. Sight too plays an important roll. Inflict the coming season on your customers by using appropriate colours and stock – yellow and green combined with flowering pots of daffs means it must be spring and time to start gardening again, weather permitting of course…

As you can see from these few examples, there are many ways to encourage customers to buy and it’s not enough just to put plants on a bench and hope they will sell. You need to work on displays and use the ‘Es’ as a checklist in order to drive sales. Within those displays you can train the customer and reinforce the seasonality of gardening as well as selling the promise of whatever season is to come, by highlighting the benefits of that particular time of year.

Of course there’s more to it than just this. You need to plan ahead, get your props, signage and stock ready, and make sure your pricing and offers are right. Remember to measure and record your results in order to improve on your sales the following year. Also, don’t forget your display must be sellable, easily restockable and be easy to maintain – there’s a fine line between being creative and having a cluttered display.

Finally, make sure you’re ready to change quickly. In our climate spring can become summer in one afternoon so make sure you’re always prepared for the next season. ✽

LIAM KELLY is one of Ireland’s leading retail consultants. Having originally managed one of the country’s biggest garden centres, he established his own consultancy business retail services & solutions in 2007. Since then he has provided invaluable support and guidance at every level of garden retail and counts some of Ireland’s most respected retailers as clients. Liam can be contacted at retail services & solutions, 118 dolmen Gardens, Pollerton, Carlow. 086 822 1494 or 059 913 0176, lksolutions@eircom.net, www.lksolutions.blogspot.com