New NRHA Communication – February 2014

Four Tips for Selling Storage and Organization

• Sell the basics. Storage solutions are in every part of the house, including food storage, organizers for the office, modular units for apartments and college students, or baskets for the laundry room. Find the latest and most creative designs to make your category stand out from your competitor’s offering.
• Display assembled products. Many customizable storage systems are easy to install, but may not seem that way to a customer who is staring at the box. Dedicate a space to show a sample of a storage system—such as a closet or garage wall—installed with easy instructions on how customers can design and install it themselves. If you have limited space, use photos showing installed closet systems from vendors or customers that have tried the product.
• Keep current on style. Instead of white wire racking, brushed steel, chrome and colour are popular for shelving units today. Some people even want cabinets in that closet or garage. Visit department stores and specialty storage retailers to see what’s hot and what’s not.
• Use special orders. Use your storage vendor’s special-order capabilities to cut down on inventory, give your customers more options and fetch high margins. Train your employees on the ordering process so it’s easy and fast for customers.

Three Ways to Market Your Store’s Pricing to Your Advantage

• Establish a Price Image
  First, take a step back and look at the big picture. What brand image do you want for your operation when it comes to pricing?  Determine your market needs and determine how you can fulfill that need. There may be some categories where you can offer specialty services or unique lines. Identify items that can command higher prices versus categories or items where you need to be more competitive with the low-price leaders in the market.
• Tell Your Customers
  Tools such as shelf bouncers, interior banners and bandrails, tri-mobiles and static cling decals help create retail excitement and demonstrate to your customers that you have competitive prices.
• Implement Price Matching
  - If you decide to implement a price matching policy, keep online retailers’ pricing in mind in addition to your bricks-and-mortar competition. It’s important to create written guidelines for your price-matching guarantee and post it around the store to remind your customers and employees that you do price-match. Most often, online ads don’t include the price of shipping, which a customer would be required to pay on top of the listed price. One way to handle situations like this is to say that you’d be happy to honour the price with the shipping price included. Just be sure to explain your reasoning.
  

WRLA IN PARTNERSHIP WITH NRHA
The goal of the North American Retail Hardware Association is to help independent hardware and home improvement retailers become better and more profitable merchants through a wide array of educational and training programs, financial management resources, and human resource tools that are all available online. WRLA members get unlimited access to a full range of training and management services when they join NRHA through the WRLA. 

Visit www.wrla.org or CLICK HERE for more information about NRHA.