Aftermarket

Collection selling

JenniferRobisonMy favorite things to merchandise are apparel brands and collections. I love showcasing a brand, or part of a brand, to make a statement. It’s the kind of merchandising that has now started in powersports retailers.

The point of showing a collection is to show the customer value in purchasing products from the newest styles, colors for a season or technology. Collections usually include additional goods that coordinate with the collection or theme. In some cases, collections feature selections of goods from head to toe.

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I like stores like lululemon athletica, which takes a specific category of apparel and makes it appealing to people that are not necessarily looking for yoga wear. First, lululemon breaks its stores into men’s vs. women’s goods. From there, two to three collections of goods are featured using on-the-wall and floor combos like shown above. Above you see a combo of images: dressed body forms in the feature zone and selection at a stocking point level. The display is simple. It uses hanging stock, feature shelves with coordinating product and floor displays with additional goods close to the shopper traffic. Since this is a collection, it’s easy to update the wall weekly by switching the placement of garments and still have a great fresh appeal. The graphics are smaller in scale and yet enhance and draw your eye.

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Mainstream apparel retailers, like lululemon, can take an important category like workout pants and showcase them in a way to make it so easy to find what you like for fit and style and pull the size. They also position these displays near the dressing rooms, so you can easily go and try them on. SMART. The powersports industry can do a similar thing with both street and off-road riding pants. This could be a way to get them to sell better. I know I have many retailers that avoid stocking any kind of pants because the sales numbers tend to be lower, but if we can overcome this challenge, the ROI could be worth it. Mainstream retailers, as I refer to them, work to find ways to sell products, brands and types as effectively as they can. Each retailer has to appeal to its shoppers. Merchandising is a strategy that will really help you make more.

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Sometimes collections are simple floor displays or one table. Collections may be as simple as the Levi’s jeans in Nordstrom’s showroom shown above. It’s straight- forward: one single display of the Levi’s brand with the selections that Nordstrom’s has chosen for its customers’ style needs. The display is clean, easy to shop and easy to maintain, but separated and featured.

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Above is an example of three collections of goods in a powersports retailer (Thompson’s Motorsports Terre Haute, Ind.).

Look at your showroom. How can you separate and feature brands, products and types of goods to make a stronger appeal and encourage high sales.

QUESTIONS TO ASK:

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  • What collections do you carry?
  • Have you ever considered purchasing a collection?
  • Are your collections grouped together? ALL OF IT?
  • Do you or can you get support POP (fixtures, images, props, etc.) to complete the look?
  • When is the last time you updated your collections?
  • Have you stuck with the same goods year in, year out? Do you need a fresh collection or two to make a new statement?
  • Is your display a draw or a dud?

Jennifer Robison’s career began in 1987 when she served as a service writer/parts sales for a high-end import auto dealer before becoming one of the first generation of Harley-Davidson Motorclothes managers at a Northwest dealership (1991-2000). From 2002 on, Jennifer has been with Tucker Rocky Distributing. Jennifer has educated the Tucker Rocky sales force and dealers about the powersports apparel business and powersports retailing. Jennifer’s expertise is in powersports retailing, merchandising and display, promotions and in-store marketing. She has lectured and written about powersports retailing and continues to perform dealer educational workshops and seminars across the United States.

Contact: jrobison@tuckerrocky.com
Website: www.tuckerrocky.com 

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