Cat's Creations Scrapbooks . Mineral Well's Texas If you’ve read our columns in Craftrends Magazine, or attended our Retail Adventures in the REAL World!™ seminars at industry trade shows, then you know how fond we are of in-store events and promotions. We’ve always said that to build foot traffic, retailers need to hold one major and two to three minor in-store events each month. Major events take lots of planning because they bring in the masses; minor events are easier. They’re also the life blood of creativity in your store.
Minor events include the classes and crops you hold each week, but there’s one minor event that’s anything but minor: in-store demonstrations.
We’ve seen live demos in scrapbook and craft stores fall silently by the wayside lately and that’s bad; bad for shoppers and bad for business. Know why grocery stores have demoing food items at just about every turn? Because those demonstrators sell product – they get new product and old favorites into the customer’s hands. The demonstrator says, “Try it, you’ll like it!” and the shopper says “Sold.”
Why not get in on the added sales action and start a weekend Summer Demo Program? All you need is a pub height table or two, product, and a demonstrator with creative talent and the gift of gab.
Make a list of items to be demonstrated, along with all the details such as, dates and times, location on the sales floor, and who will do each demo. It’s also a good idea to assign each demonstrator a sales goal, that way you’ll know which demos you can run again as-is and which demos need to be dropped or re-vamped.
Place your demo tables in high traffic areas: one of those high traffic areas should be near the front of the store, outside of the Decompression Zone, just past your Speed Bump displays. In this location every shopper is sure to see it. Draw attention by tacking a bunch of helium balloons in a single color to the corner of the table, and make announcements that the demo is about to start on the PA system.
Another add-on sales imperative: display all the product the demonstrator uses adjacent to the demo table. You might even place these components on a portable rack that you can easily move each time you move the demo table. By the way, those balloons you attach to the demo table will come in handy if you can’t physically move the product. Tie balloons in that same single color to the fixture housing the product; demonstrators can tell shoppers they’ll find the product used “on the fixture with the blue balloons.”
Demos introduce shoppers to new items and applications and create excitement for new product arrivals. They create excitement on the sales floor, energize your associates, and thrill your customers. And that’s what your sales floor needs right about now, isn’t it?
Minor events include the classes and crops you hold each week, but there’s one minor event that’s anything but minor: in-store demonstrations.
We’ve seen live demos in scrapbook and craft stores fall silently by the wayside lately and that’s bad; bad for shoppers and bad for business. Know why grocery stores have demoing food items at just about every turn? Because those demonstrators sell product – they get new product and old favorites into the customer’s hands. The demonstrator says, “Try it, you’ll like it!” and the shopper says “Sold.”
Why not get in on the added sales action and start a weekend Summer Demo Program? All you need is a pub height table or two, product, and a demonstrator with creative talent and the gift of gab.
Make a list of items to be demonstrated, along with all the details such as, dates and times, location on the sales floor, and who will do each demo. It’s also a good idea to assign each demonstrator a sales goal, that way you’ll know which demos you can run again as-is and which demos need to be dropped or re-vamped.
Place your demo tables in high traffic areas: one of those high traffic areas should be near the front of the store, outside of the Decompression Zone, just past your Speed Bump displays. In this location every shopper is sure to see it. Draw attention by tacking a bunch of helium balloons in a single color to the corner of the table, and make announcements that the demo is about to start on the PA system.
Another add-on sales imperative: display all the product the demonstrator uses adjacent to the demo table. You might even place these components on a portable rack that you can easily move each time you move the demo table. By the way, those balloons you attach to the demo table will come in handy if you can’t physically move the product. Tie balloons in that same single color to the fixture housing the product; demonstrators can tell shoppers they’ll find the product used “on the fixture with the blue balloons.”
Demos introduce shoppers to new items and applications and create excitement for new product arrivals. They create excitement on the sales floor, energize your associates, and thrill your customers. And that’s what your sales floor needs right about now, isn’t it?
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