How can River Market Pottery help your business thrive and survive in the current economic climate?
Posted by Alec Junge on 18 November 2008
As the credit crunch tightens, garden centers located in the even most affluent of communities are finding that their customers are restricting their spending and being much more selective about those purchases that they do decide to make. The typical retail consumer’s budget for major improvement projects has been slashed, if not totally eliminated, resulting in declining revenues for the retailer as the components for these projects sit unsold on shelves.
While your customers may no longer be able to afford the large landscaping project they were planning last summer, most are still seeking affordable ways to improve and beautify their home environments. A lesson can be learned from general merchandise retailers; although sales of large-ticket items such as couches and appliances may languish, sales of affordable “luxuries” such as throw pillows and candles can skyrocket. This “nesting” phenomenon is seen in almost every recession, and offers retailers who target these shoppers an opportunity to survive and potentially to thrive during such a downturn. While it can be frustrating to keep seeing it reported that Wal*Mart’s sales are climbing during these tough times, a major reason for their success is that their shelves are lined with these affordable comfort items.
Remember, it is important to keep your shelves full even during tough times. Your customers don’t want to feel as though they’re shopping in a store that’s getting ready to close its doors – this experience is totally contradictory to the “luxury” items that they are shopping for, and will inhibit your ability to capture their dollars. As gas prices began to soar last summer, one of the buzzwords was “staycation”, meaning that people were choosing to seek entertainment near their homes rather than leaving town for a vacation. Shopping was a key component of many of these staycations, and people engaging in these behaviors are driven by the retail experience – it is critical that you offer these customers an inviting environment in order to capture their business.
As consumers embrace the concept of the yard as an “outdoor room”, there are multiple opportunities for garden centers to capitalize on this nesting behavior, ranging from low-cost plants to candles and torches to pottery and planters. It is important that you be active in these categories and that the items you carry in them be distinctive from those found in national retailers – your customers are looking for “trophy” items. They want their guests to notice that they have something that differs from the norm, and that enhances their sense of uniqueness when they look at it.
Pottery is perfectly suited to appeal to these customers, and River Market Pottery is dedicated to helping you capture their business.
• We offer a wide range of ½ pallet and 1/3 pallet assortments – smaller packs mean that your initial investment is lower, keeping your cash flow healthy.
• Many of our retailers are noticing a trend towards smaller pots – this is probably due in large part to the housing crash, as fewer home buyers means that fewer people need to outfit new yards and patios with giant planters.
• Almost all of our collections include smaller pots with impulse-purchase retail price points. Many even include pots with suggested retails below $5.00. Keep in mind that just because your customers may be looking for ways to economize, it doesn’t mean that they are looking for “Cheap” – they are looking for value.
• Our flowerpots are unique and distinctive – all are individually crafted by hand.
• If the prices are comparable, your customers will almost always prefer a unique, high-quality product to the typical big-box selections.
• Each assortment includes a wide variety of products – adding even a ½ pallet or two of our planters to your store will allow you to quickly become a “pottery destination” for your customers.
• It takes a long time to produce our pots, and they can’t be mass-produced in quantities sufficient for big-box retailers – your customers will NEVER find our pots on the shelves of the national chain down the street from you. If the products you sell offer a distinction from those found in the big boxes, you aren’t forced into price-based merchandising to compete with them.
• That said, because our logistics model offers substantial savings from the industry standards, you are able to put our hand-crafted pots out at retails which are in line with those charged by the boxes for their mass-production goods.
• We offer generous terms for our collections, helping you to ride out the financial upheaval.
• We maintain an on-hand inventory of most of our collections during the spring season – you can order what you need, when you need it without over-extending yourself.
Contact us today to request a catalog or a visit from one of our sales reps.