How To Make the Commitment to New Merchandise in Retail | Retail Today With Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor - Flash Briefing

Yeah, the one thing that I find, like if you're a hot tub dealer, "Oh, we're going to be in the backyard outdoor space, so we'll put in a barbecue." It's like, let's just have this orphan little barbecue in the middle of all these hot tubs and say we're in the outdoor space. No, you have to commit to it. You have to buy enough that it looks like, "Oh, it's a store within a store. Oh, this is a barbecue place." Then, you have to make it, arrange the merchandise in such a way that it looks like somebody's patio, and it gets people's attention. It looks like it is seamless between the hot tub and the patio world.

So, my thoughts are, commit to enough merchandise. How are we going to make a store within a store with it? How are you going to sell it? Then, know your numbers. If you're going to buy in $300,000 worth of product how soon does it have to sell for it to make your money back? At the end of the day great merchants, I think, are smart. Know your numbers and make an educated guess but, ultimately, that's why you're an entrepreneur. You're willing to do that work, you know your numbers, and then when you decide maybe you just say that, "I've seen this, I'd use this, I love this, I can passionately sell it because selling is nothing more than transference feeling. I can sell it so I can get my crew to sell it. Well, that's great, but if it's just like, "Oh, we're going to start carrying jewelry. Why?

So, a lot of times I think retailers go through and think if we just added more merch we would be more successful. In this day and age that's rarely the case. Most of you need to cut down your number of SKUs, make the merch more compelling, and make Instagramable displays so that the merch actually goes out the door instead of just sits on your wall or your tables. I hope that helps.

 

If you love what you heard on Retail Today connect with Bob by visiting retaildoc.com, or send a message to Bob@retaildoc.com. Thanks for listening.

If you love what you heard on Retail Today, connect with Bob by visiting retaildoc.com or send a message to bob@retaildoc.com. Thanks for listening!