Let’s dive into why it’s so important to pay extra attention to in-store shoppers and look at their behavior and what brands can do to capture their precious dollars.

All About Purchase Decisions

How many decisions are made at the store?

Despite the increase in online shopping, brick-and-mortar retail isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. In fact, while 27% of consumers make an online purchase every week, 40% of consumers physically go shopping on a weekly basis. Furthermore, 70% of consumers count the ability to purchase in a store as impacting their choice of brand and retailer.

So, do in-store shoppers use the internet at all? Yes. 74% go online to do research, see if an item is in-stock, or check store hours, making it imperative that retail suppliers have a strategy to make sure their items are in-stock and up to date.

And for those worried that the “kids these days” will drive a decrease in foot traffic, that’s turning out not to be the case. Gen Z, the most digital generation yet, actually prefers to shop in-store. 81% report that they prefer brick-and-mortar because it helps them discover new products and more than half indicate that it’s precisely because it helps them disconnect from their phones.

The numbers are in folks and they’re looking good for retail suppliers. Even a global pandemic couldn’t wipe out people’s passion for retail therapy. Indeed, it may have fueled appreciation for it.

But what does this all mean for in-store retail strategies? If the foot traffic is there, how can brands capture purchases?

Two Foci for Retail Suppliers: Planned and Impulse

Brands need to have a two-pronged strategy to maximize their in-store sales.

First, they need to prepare to meet customer expectations. For instance, if that customer has gone online and checked to see if a product is in stock and shows up at the store to purchase it, that item had better be in stock. The consequence of it not being in stock? A bad brand experience, an unhappy customer, and a competitor captures those dollars and perhaps all their future business. In other words, risking a domino effect.

Second, brands need to capitalize on impulse decisions and retail therapy shoppers. In fact, 84% of shoppers have made impulse decisions when buying in-store. This is a huge opportunity that brands need to embrace and capitalize on with visual merchandising.

Visual merchandising at its core is making sure your inventory stands out from the crowd via packaging, in-store marketing, and in-store promotions.

But what happens when you have a visual marketing strategy but the retail execution levels don’t go according to your plan?

Retail Execution Levels

Most retail suppliers choose one of two options to meet their retail execution needs: relying on the retailer or partnering with a third-party retail merchandiser.

What do execution rates look like when using just the retailer’s resources?

There’s no one number to point to as it varies retailer to retailer, store to store, and brand by brand. It will even vary from week to week. And the retail labor shortage isn’t helping anything. But what we’ve seen as have other merchandisers is execution rates hovering around 40% when it’s up to just the retailers.

What’s more telling is how brands struggle to have an accurate view of what’s going on with their inventory when it’s in the store and how much (25%) of sales are lost due to poor retail execution.

To understand your brand’s retail execution rate, you need to look at a few factors:

• On-Shelf Availability: is your inventory where it should be or is it in the backroom?
• Endcaps and Promotional Displays: if you secured a promotional display, is that display where it should be? Is it set according to your planogram?
• Retailer Knowledge: is the retailer staff able to answer questions about your product? This is especially helpful for electronics.
• Pricing and Promotions: are the prices on your products what they should be? Are your promotions, like instant redeemable coupons, being placed?
• Planogram: are your products being executed according to your planogram?

You’ll want to track trends over time to get a feel for seasonal changes, consistent gaps, and most importantly – to understand how many sales are missed.

There’s a glaring problem with this though, how can you measure retail execution rates without having a good grasp of store-level activities?

That’s where third-party retail merchandising partners come into play.

How Third-Party Partners Improve Execution Rates

Third-party retail merchandisers like RMS help retail suppliers by conducting store-level audits and inventory maintenance to make sure your sales are maximized. This helps brands trust their retail data and make better decisions based on real numbers, not estimates.

See all of our services here: https://www.rmservicing.com/services/

Increase sales, profit margins, and minimize lost revenue by partnering with a third-party retail merchandiser. Make more strategic decisions based on good data to make sure your brand is prepared for tomorrow and next year.

See if we’re the right fit for your retail merchandising needs!

Get in touch with us today!

The post Maximize Sales: Visual Merchandising and Retail Execution Rates appeared first on RMS.

What is retail merchandising?

Before diving into what retail merchandising can do for your sales, it’s important to understand what retail merchandising is and what retail merchandising is not.

Retail merchandising is not Space Planning. Space Planning uses software to apply visual design and planogram layouts to store fixtures. Space Planning creates assortment organization and improves space efficiency. Retail merchandising is also often confused with visual merchandising, which is the design element that you think of when you see window displays.

Retail merchandising companies ensure a brand’s product is fully stocked according to the space plan design and kept clean and bright to be visually appealing to the customer.

Retail merchandising companies don’t just make sure your product is available and attention grabbing. A merchandising company can help brands better understand their competition, customer behavior, and keep a pulse on trends at the retail stores they work in. 

Being able to make sense of key analytics is no small feat and one that brands consistently underestimate. McKinsey reports that businesses who use their customer analytics “are 6.5 times more likely to retain customers, 7.4 times more likely to outperform their competitors… and nearly 19 times more likely to achieve above-average profitability.” 

Retail merchandisers can help you gather this data, make sense of it, and apply it in real-time so your sales can increase. 

Partnering with a retail merchandiser can help you:

1. Trust your inventory counts are correct and product is stocked frequently.

Without inventory, you have no sales. But how do you know if the retailer you entrust your inventory to is auditing inventory and restocking your product frequently enough? Employees at big box retailers get busy and are asked to wear many hats, which means the data they send you may not be 100% accurate.

In fact, did you know that the inventory accuracy threshold for retailers is only 63%?

Make sure that your inventory isn’t part of the 37% that’s incorrectly accounted for. Retail merchandisers visit the retailer and track down what’s actually going on with your inventory. They’ll count it, restock it, and make sure that your products are exactly where they should be: on the shelf where customers can buy them.

2. Make the investments made in endcaps and displays drive the sales you expect.

Brands know the investment it takes to secure an endcap or display area inside a retailer. Endcaps and other display areas are highly visible and increase exposure to a brand’s products in high traffic areas and help you stand out from the competition.

What manufacturers may not know is that these secondary locations are set late, set incorrectly, or not set at all almost 60% of the time.  

Endcaps and displays are also not stocked as frequently as a product’s home location. A merchandising company can audit these locations making sure product is set correctly and fully stocked, maximizing your return on investment.

3. Manage store-level lifecycle.

Retail merchandisers can help manage the lifecycle of your products in a few ways by helping you out with Instant Rebate Coupons (IRCs). Using IRCs can help you increase sales by turning over slower-moving products or those nearing the end of their lifecycle. They are most effective when used applied surgically in heavily inventoried stores or regions coming out of the holiday season. Brands can also choose to add permanent IRCs to perishables during product rotation to clear out expiring inventory.

IRCs help brands maximize their profit margin on inventory by increasing inventory turnover and reducing markdowns. 

However, managing IRCs can be time consuming and expensive if done by your own staff. Retail merchandising companies can manage the process of implementing IRCs by placing them, or neck hangers, on your products right in the store, saving you time and labor expense.

What else can retail merchandisers do for you?

If you’re still on the fence about whether partnering with a retail merchandiser is an investment you want to make, consider these additional services they can provide.

• Helping you with safety recalls and packaging issues
• Replacing and updating shelf displays and ISM materials
• In-store marketing initiatives
• Scan-Based Trading management

But don’t just take our word for it. Talk to current customers and representatives at the retail merchandising partner you’re considering. Ask customers about their experience and why they would, or wouldn’t, recommend that partner. Ask representatives of the company exactly how they work with their customers. What type of service can you expect? What happens when you need something done immediately? Ask to see their compliance and execution rates. As a reference, Retail Merchandising Services, Inc. regularly achieves rates of over 98%.

Partnering with an expert retail merchandiser can make the difference between missing your holiday sales goals or having your best year ever. Give yourself confidence that your inventory is performing as it should and that it’s where it should be. Having a partner that manages the in-store headaches for you can make all the difference to how your holiday season will go.

Learn more about how Retail Merchandising Services, Inc. can help your make your sales increase.

The post 3 Ways Retail Merchandising Will Make Your Holiday Sales Less Spooky appeared first on RMS.