Strategies to increase sales for inventory

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ever wonder how do you keep your inventory looking fresh great question by Triple Creek Farm Greenhouse they asked that very question how do I keep inventory looking fresh I tell you I have 10 tips for you the first thing is to obviously rotate and REM merchandise your inventory a lot because you want to make sure that you're showcasing your new items your seasonal items trending products you know and keeping it all very visually interesting I love to share the story of Zara and how their average customer visits their store 17 times in a year 17 times in a year the average store I mean I'm not saying your store is average but your customer visits you three or four times a year your average customer like when you average everything it's three or four times a year why does Zara get people in 17 times a year because their inventory always looks fresh they actually merchandise a couple times a week now I know that's not necessarily realistic to do it but their customer knows that every single time they come into that store it's going to look new it's going to look fresh it's going to look exciting and the thing is is that we sort of even stop seeing the displays in our store and the upper displays and some of that stuff because we're just in this store all the time and there's a million other things to do right so for sure once a month and even more often if you can even if you just do like the when you first walk in and you see that first table that's there the speed bump that I like to call it that should be changed once a week for sure the only way that I found to keep track of it was to have a schedule of how often everything should be changed that that's the right way to do it so another thing that's super critical is to make sure that every area of the store is also maintained that it's clean that it's not full of dust and bugs and all that stuff and the only way to manage that also is the same way I would divide my store into five sections or seven sections is what we tell our clients to do and then every day is a different section and so then you can have your team when customers aren't there uh a rare occurrence I know you can have them REM merchandise or clean the area right just make it a system because when it's a system you don't have to worry about it right so that's the important thing okay so another thing that's also really helpful to make things look new and fresh is making sure that you create focal points in your displays like it's not just a whole bunch of stuff but there something that the eye is really drawn to either because of where it's located like is it the peak of something or is it a color that stands out from everything else or is it large Easter Bunny because it's Easter time or a pumpkin or whatever it is this draws as attentions to that specific thing another thing is to make sure that you've identified your highest margin and bestselling products and don't forget to also feature them so often what can happen is that we have so much inventory moving in and out that you're always featuring the new stuff and you forget about some of your best sellers so make sure that you have those items also that you schedule a time to make sure that you have those items featured in your merchandising so the fifth one is to match your marketing with your merchandising so whatever it is that you're pushing that week on social media whatever it is that you're talking about make sure that those items are on your speed bump when people first walk in the door that's critical it makes it look very cohesive you know how I'm a nerd about consumer psychology and what happens so often is that people will see something on Instagram or Facebook or something and then it reminds them to come into your store and then they walk into your store and they honestly this is a fact often don't even remember why they're there they don't know what drove them there but then if they see the item that they saw on social media they see that right in front of them and they're like oh oh yeah I saw this online I really liked it see what I'm saying so make sure that your marketing matches your merchandising in our sales breakthrough system in our retail mavens coaching program we talk about having a system for all of that because it just makes everything in your life easier so now six make sure that you're including seasonal items I would bet the most of you do that already you just do that instinctively but did you know that when you do that it makes people respond more emotionally to the items than if they just see a collection of merchandise there if they see Easter Bunny with it a Christmas tree or whatever they actually have an emotional response to that so then the seventh thing is you also want to create interactive experiences sometimes is there vendor that you have do they have a video on YouTube that perhaps you can put on an iPad and have join that all the time or put a sign up saying hit play to see the video about this or what else could you do like that to get people to interact with the merchandise samples oh my goodness samples you won't sell food unless you sample it like demonstrations is there a way that they can play with it like a toy store might have an art project out there when you see a customer looking at it say hey let's play with that and then they get more involved with it then they can see who on their list that could help and that could serve so eight is make sure that you're also paying attention when you're in the store to what customers is there one display that that they're reacting to more than others the ninth tip is to make sure that you're training your team to help you with these steps because I would want my team to also tell me if customers are interacting with one display or more than another and often the way you find that that's true is because you sell out of the items that are in that display fast so make sure that you're talking to your team about that and you're asking them want to know like what do you think they like and what are we selling out of okay the last one don't forget the importance of cross merchandising items it's very typical like take a sweater or something and then you'd put jewelry with it right that kind of thing is Pretty Natural but also don't hesitate to mix if you carry gifts and clothing mix those two things up you know put a robe up there and with the robe or the PJs include a coffee mug or include a book and then signage signage is another Super critical thing that really helps people get in the mood right something about a cozy morning and then you have the components of that cozy morning right in front of them so those are my top 10 tips for keeping inventory looking fresh and exciting let me know which of these tips you implement and if you have any question questions don't hesitate to ask you know we're happy to help here happy retailing