Small change

The (sort of) Butterfly Effect at work in the garden retail sector

Retailing at its most basic is about the product, the display, the people and the price. The smallest alteration to any of those can lead to all sorts of changes down the line and can ultimately lead to lost revenue – or increased sales.

The Butterfly Effect – poetically paraphrased as ‘Does the flapping of a butterfly’s wings in one country eventually affect a tornado’s path on the other side of the world?’ – is a concept put forward by a meteorologist called Lorenz when he discovered that minute changes in air pressure caused larger changes further down the line in weather systems.

It might not be as simple as that – or indeed, as accurate – but you’ve no doubt heard the theory and grasped the notion.

This premise can be applied to garden retail too, where one link in your business can lead to losing a €1.99 sale, or more importantly, missing out on a €500 one.

SO, HERE’S A STORY…

“Johnny likes plants. He hasn’t much room in his garden, as a large trampoline currently occupies much of it, along with a rather contrary dog called Buster. Buster’s raison d’être seems to be the removal of every non-human, living thing from Johnny’s garden, but Johnny is resourceful enough to always find a way to do a little gardening, which up to now is mostly limited to a few herbs on the kitchen window and the odd pot and hanging basket at the front of his neat, modest house.

He buys his plants at the local supermarket and he’s proud that he has managed to keep these alive. He loves to cook and the idea of growing something edible has started to appeal to him. So Johnny decides to try to grow some tomatoes since they are one of his favourite vegetables. And anyway, how hard can it be?

Johnny sets off to the local garden centre. They’ll surely help him; they’ll know what to do and show him how to grow a few nice juicy toms – the thoughts of picking them and eating them straight off the tree is making his mouth water.

The garden centre isn’t busy when he gets there and there’s a bored looking girl sitting at the checkout. He manages to catch her eye and politely asks where he can find out about growing tomatoes. She sighs and points him towards the back of the garden centre.

‘Da way,’ she says impatiently and returns to the important task of looking at her phone.

Johnny is a little taken aback but continues on past all of the lovely displays of houseplants, the rows of garden care products and garden furniture, and continues on out to the plant area. Loads of blossoms greet him, the colours and scents bombarding his senses. He wonders why he’s never come here before? After a bit of searching, he eventually spots a person almost camouflaged amongst the plants apart from the word ‘Horticulturist’ – whatever that means – printed on the back of their green top.

Johnny clears his throat and a dour-faced individual, clearly annoyed by having been disturbed from his work looks up at him. ‘Yeah?’

Johnny starts to explain that he wants to get a tomato tree and that he’d like to grow other vegetables after that but he has a few questions fi rst…but before Johnny can get any further he’s interrupted by a snort of laughter.

‘They’re a fruit actually… and they don’t grow on trees!’

Johnny is mortified, but he stumbles on still buoyed by his enthusiasm. He explains that whatever they are called he’d like to grow some and asks how would he go about it.

‘Well they take a LOT of work’, the dour man says. ‘You need to have ideal weather conditions and given our precipitous climate that can be an issue…and you need to know how to look after them and how to remove the internodal shoots and leave just the flower trusses. Oh, and you’ll have to watch out for blight and whitefly.’

Johnny’s confidence starts to fail, as he doesn’t know what the man is talking about. He asks if he could perhaps grow some small ones on his windowsill? Or in a basket? Can that be done?

‘Oh I guess you could I suppose…but we don’t have any like that at the moment,’ the dour man says, his face straining under the false smile he has plastered on it. ‘Sorry,’ he says without conviction. ‘There might be some in next week…’ And with that, he turns back to his work.

Johnny feels dejected. He turns and walks back through the store. On the way back he spies things called grow bags. Surely you plant tomatoes in those? Then he walks past a greenhouse, part of a display near some packets of seeds. Could you grow tomatoes in one of those? He thinks about going back out to ask the dour man again but decides not to disturb him. After all, he seemed to be very busy.

Johnny has some money, and he spends it carefully and wisely. How much would that greenhouse cost to set-up he thought? A few hundred maybe? That would be a good investment, and Buster wouldn’t mind sharing the garden, but there was hardly any point. It sounds too much like hard work and you’d need to be one of them horticulturists to do it right, he thinks.

He dismisses the idea. Anyway, he only came in for a tomato plant, or bush or whatever they’re called. Imagine going home with all that stuff? It was crazy and laughable. Still…

Johnny leaves the shop and makes his way home. Buster will be waiting to be fed and the kids would be home from school soon. He had hoped to have something new to teach them or show them, as they were like sponges for information. But he had learned a valuable lesson: gardening properly must be really hard.

So how do you make the butterfly flapping his wings the right way? This tale would have had a different outcome by having the right staff and training them first to be focused, and secondly to be effective salespeople.

REMEMBER…

INSPIRE PASSION

A love for gardening should be encouraged and nurtured, especially within your store.

LOOSE THE JARGON

Don’t blind your customer with big words and negative comments, start with simple responses and gauge their knowledge.

NEVER ASSUME

Be aware that someone coming into your store to buy one small item can often afford the big-ticket items, they might just need a reason to buy.

ALWAYS BE ‘ON’

Stay focussed on the customer at all times. Listen, respond and remain attentive right up to the point of handover at the checkout or their exit from the store.

BE A PROMOTER

Selling to your customer needs to be a win-win for both the business and the customer, after all, they have made the decision to come to your store so chances are they want to buy. ✽

LIAM KELLY was general manager of one of the largest garden centres in the country, where he was instrumental in transforming it into a large lifestyle store. He established Retail Services & Solutions in 2007 and has since worked with many garden centres, nurseries and hardware stores in Ireland. He has experienced every aspect of garden centre work from maintenance to sales and purchasing to management. This combined with his problem-solving ability; honesty and hands-on work ethic make him unique in his area. He can appreciate the nitty-gritty of the day-to-day running of a garden centre better than most, as he knows the products, mindset and ethos of the Irish garden retail sector. Liam Kelly, Retail Services & Solutions, 118 Dolmen Gardens, Pollerton, Carlow. 086 8221494 or 059 9130176 lksolutions@eircom.net, www.lksolutions.blogspot.com