3 Merchandising Tips for Brick & Mortar and Online Boutiques

Hey, everybody, it's Sarah with the Boutique Hub. Welcome to three Tips about Merchandising. I would like to introduce myself. So a lot of you are new. I am your director of partnerships and education here at the Boutique Hub. And merchandising is something that's extremely important to me. I've been very passionate about it ever since I started in retail back in 1993. I know. It ages me. Yes, that's when I started in retail, so owned a store for many years. And I'm very passionate about the art of merchandising and what it can do for your store, whether you're brick and mortar or online. And I think this is a very important time to bring that to everyone. You know, kind of increase our knowledge a little bit about merchandising this time of year as we're going into a transitional shift right from holidays into spring. So, anyway, we're going to jump in with three Tips about Merchandising. And I just want to say hi to. I see a lot of familiar names there. So good to see you guys. And just so you know, many of you have. Are enrolled in Retail Bootcamp or have went through the course. I go into merchandising in depth in the Course in Retail Merch in Retail Merchandising in Retail Bootcamp. The course is now open. It's open till next week, but today I wanted to give you three of my main tips. Right. And kind of go into it briefly because I feel so passionate that merchandising is not something that just happens. It's. It is a true science. It's a psychology of how people move around and what entices them to buy and what makes them stop and look and touch and feel things. Now, granted, you're not going to touch and feel things on your website, but it does get people to stop in their tracks, Right? It does get people to make a move and pause and really look and start to get them to think, is this something that I want? Would this work for me? So let's dive in. Good morning, everybody. Thank you guys again for joining me. For you that are jumping on a little bit late, I'm Sarah Burks. I'm the director of partnerships and education here for the Boutique Hub. I also teach Retail Boot Camp and boutique owner basics with Ashley and do an awful lot of speaking. And one of the things that I really like to talk about is merchandising and moving inventory, because those of you that have been in Retail Bootcamp know inventory is supposed to work with you. Not against you. Right. A lot of us have a lot of cash tied up in our merchandise, and we need to turn it into cash as quickly as possible. It's very important to keep that cash flowing. Right. Can I get a positive thumbs up on that? Super important to get that merchandise in and out of the store as fast as you can. So today I have three tips for you, and for all of you that know me, it's probably going to turn into more like six. But anyway, I just want to say you guys have all been in merchandising. No matter if you think you're good at it or not, if you are a mom, give me a thumbs up. Who here does the grocery shopping? Or who here stocks your refrigerator? Yes, that's me, right? Anybody? Anybody here go to the refrigerator this morning to get whatever it is you want to get for breakfast? Guys, you don't even know it, but you were involved in merchandising at that moment. Right. Kind of got to dumb it down sometimes and make yourself think, oh, my gosh. Wait, how is that possible? What is she talking about? Well, where do you put the milk in your refrigerator? You put the milk at the front. Why? Because it has a short shelf life. It expires. So you don't ever want to put the milk all the way to the back. What's the stuff that we find in the back? The stuff that can last forever. Right. If you want your family or whoever comes to your house and uses your kitchen, if you want them to use that milk up and get it when you bring it in, you want to get it gone because it's going to expire. You don't push it to the back. It has the best placement in your refrigerator of probably all of your products. Right. That's because you need to move it fast. So that is just kind of simple 101 merchandising. You need to make sure you're thinking about the product placement in your store. Another thing I want you to think about, you know, when you go to Target or you go to Walmart, or you go to your grocery store, the placement of products, it doesn't just happen. There's a science behind all of it. So we call that planogramming. And you can look in, you can look that up. There's a whole, whole laundry list of items that go into planograms for store locations and displays. The beauty of your business is it's up to you. You don't get a planogram sent in the mail to you every weekend and have to have it precisely done exactly that way. Right? The beauty of independent retailing is it's up to you. You can be as creative as you want to be. So I love that. I love us telling a story through the merchandising because you want to entice people to react and buy from you because you're different than everybody else. Most targets in our area are set up the exact same way geographically. It ranges a little bit. Kohl's, Walmart, things like that. Those displays don't just happen because the manager came in and said, oh, I'd like to do this. They're told by higher ups who are told by higher ups, not you guys. You guys get the creativity to do it on your own. So let's jump into three tips to make you the very best merchandisers possible. And again, we go into this in way more depth than retail Bootcamp. I'm very passionate about this, but I think it's really important today, as you're transitioning from coming off the holiday season into spring, that you start focusing on this a little bit. So tip number one, inspiration. Make sure when you set out with a merchandising plan that you are inspired by something. It needs to be triggered by end result that you want to have, right? Don't just start throwing things out on the wall or don't think on, on shelves or table displays or whatever it is, or just onto your website without a return on investment in mind. Right? Is there a promotion you want to run? Are you being bombarded with new merchandise? Has UPS driver like surprised you lately and you're sitting on a ton new merchandise thing that you hadn't really planned on? Do you need cash flow quickly? Right. These are just some things that might entice you or inspire you in your merchandising. Is there an event coming up in your community? You know, is it especially in the fall, Friday night football games or maybe, you know, we're starting to think graduation dresses, Mother's Day outfits, things like that. What is happening in the world? What is happening in your community that is going to inspire you on how you're going to merchandise and display your items? Right? A lot of this depends on the collections that you've received at this time. But nonetheless, I really want you to focus in on a plan, right? Get an idea on what you're wanting to encourage and entice and inspire your customers with. What is the result you're wanting to do? If you finish with this new layout plan or a new display and you say, okay, Yep, that's fine. Odds are it's not fine. Odds are you need to go back and figure it out and redo it. If you're not inspired, if your staff's not inspired by it, if they're not excited by the end result, it's not good enough. Okay. So a lot of times you get in a bind, you're like, oh, I have to re merchandise the store. Let's, let's do this. Let's, let's do, you know, let's do a table display here. Let's do, you know, face out, waterfall on the. Over here, that sign. It's fine. It's going to be great. If it doesn't inspire you or it doesn't inspire your staff, you need more. Right. Because at the end of the day, we're trying to stand out from everybody else. So what is that inspiration going to come from? It's going to come from the collections of merchandise that you brought in. Right? It's going to. You want to tell a story to your customers. You want to get them to pause and stop and interact. You want to get them to stay on your website, you want to get them to stay in your store. Number one rule of merchandising is getting people to spend more time with you. The more time they spend in your store, the more time they spend on your website, the more cash that you get in your. In your register. Who doesn't like that? Right? Absolutely. When you think about it yourself, when you shop, what makes you turn around and leave? What makes you jump off that page and go to somebody else's website? What are those things that drive you crazy about shopping? What are some of them? Messy stores. Right. Dirty racks, things not hung on hangers properly. Flat lays. On a website that are too confusing, you're not really sure what they're selling. So many items on a flat lay that you're not sure if they're selling the shoes or the shorts. Right. What else drives you crazy? There's no, there's no story, there's no line of traffic of what you're supposed to be following in the store. Right. One message. Absolutely. Crowds too close of quarters. I'm a big, big believer that less is more when it comes to merchandising, being able to think through the process and see items. And this gets me into number two, tip number two, thinking like the customer. But I'll jump into that right now. When you merchandise, you have to think like the customer. What are the headaches that customers have? They're in a hurry. They're not blessed with the knowledge of retail and clothing and what goes with what. Like we are, right? We're. That's our thing. That's our gift, right. They are confused. They want help. They want almost a, a step by step instruction when they shop, what's going to go with what, especially when it's gift giving. Right. Because that's always a very stressful time. So I highly recommend you tell a story with your merchandising. So you've been inspired by a plan that that's what you want to do, that's the information that you want to provide, that's the merchandise you want to showcase. Right. This is a traffic pattern you want your customers to follow whether it's online or in store. So that's, number one, your inspiration behind what you're going to do now. Tip number two is you have to make sure you're thinking like the customer. Make sure what you're putting out there falls into their needs. Right. Again, customers are in a hurry. They don't have time to dig. When I walk into, when I walk into TJ Maxx, I'm instantly stressed because there's so much there. Everything is a mess. I have to dig. You own a boutique, you don't want people to have to dig. You want people to be inspired and feel comfortable and want to mill around and spend more time and see something over here that draws, that is drawing their eye and yet their feet are going to follow. Right. You want to introduce them to a table display that has a number of different things on it that you want them to touch and feel it and be inspired and think, oh my gosh, I can totally see that in my house. I need that in my closet. Right? You want to think and tackle some of their main pain points the time. Can you tell a story in your merchandise that they can immediately be drawn to something and be excited about it, or do they have to dig through everything to be excited about it? Right. So improve that customer experience, a big one on improving your product, making sure your product is quality, but that experience has to be quality. Again, people's time is very, very precious. And you want to make sure that you are not pulling them for a full hour to find that one or two things they want. This is a reason why I'm not a huge fan of the color story system, Right. Like my basics, my basic tank tops or black pants, things like that. Having those in an area, that's fine. But an orange wall, a purple wall, I don't get that. And I Feel like that had its time and it had its place. But I feel some of those stores that kind of hung their hat on that color story situation and just put everything that was red in one spot, everything that was orange in another spot, they're not around anymore. So unless you have customers specifically coming in asking for an orange shirt, make that orange shirt relevant. Put it back with your khakis or your browns or your navies or whatever it is. Make it a grouping, make it a collection, make it tell a story. Because nobody's gonna walk around in an orange shirt, orange pants, orange scarf, right? So that's just confusing to the customer. Unless you are going with basics. Again, if you're going with basics, I get it. Like some of those just basic white tank tops that are those go to items. If you have some of those basics in an area that I get. But for the most part, when people come in, they want to be inspired. They want to feel like they're gonna fit in, they want to be noticed when they walk back out your door. They shop with you because of the knowledge that you have. So in that merchandising, I urge you, if you don't have some body forms. Now granted, mannequins are expensive and mannequins are hard to work with. But invest in some body forms. Basically what those are is just the bodice, right? And you can put dresses on them, you can put, you can put full on outfits on them, but you can tell a story there, right? You can even put hats on them. I love the body forms because they can go up in height, you can give the dimension, you can make a person's eye go up and down and you can totally tell a story. I'm a big believer in a table display with some jeans and things laid out onto the table and three mannequins in the back. A tall, a medium and a short. That tells that story and gets people to sit there and look at the whole collection as a whole, right? When I had my store, I had tons of customers that bought whatever the mannequin had on. So the mannequin was dressed head to toe. It gave that person, the shopper, confidence that they knew they could put that outfit together and it was going to look good. Again, guys think like the customer. A lot of your customers trust you to educate them, which is a great thing. That's why they shop with you. So don't do them wrong, right? Help them be that silent seller in your merchandising. Because some people like space, some people don't Want you to come up and say, this goes with this and you can do this and this and this and this and dah, dah, dah. And all of a sudden, after the second this, they've got the deer in the headlights glossed over look because they're just confused, right? But if they can take their own time, look at it on the mannequin, see how it works with those other transition pieces that you've laid on the table display or you have right next to it on the racks. It makes sense to them and they feel confident in it and they feel confident they can take that home and put it in their closet and wear it. Now, this online is the exact same thing. I'm a big believer in your flat lays with your collections, right? But don't overdo it. I'm a big believer in collections on your websites to make it easier merchandising as far as game day collections, wedding guest collections, spring must haves things like that that make a shopper think, this is what I'm looking for. I'm going on a trip. I'm going on to a beach vacation. So I like to go and click on the website that says vacation wear whatever it is that helps me feel like my shopping is going to be more selective. I'm in the right spot, right? It helps. It's that silent seller. It puts it all organized. Solves my problem of time. It solves my problem of feeling like I'm jumping around going, having to dig for things. I love it. Mary says put it together for them and it makes their life easier. Oh, my gosh. Absolutely. I love the easy button. For those of you that have went through retail bootcamp, I'm a big believer in easy buttons because we're all very, very, very busy people, right? Very limited on our time. So again, the longer your customers are in your store, the longer they are going to look around and the more money they're going to spend. So this, again, this is on your website as well as your social media as well as in your store. So big, big no, no. And this is. We go, like I said, we go into this a ton in retail bootcamp. But I feel like this is very important to talk about because I've seen a few threads about how your store is layout laid out. Please pay attention to where your, your traffic patterns are in your store. And I guarantee you that your customers do not like to come in and immediately go left. The biggest honey honey holes in your store are going to be to the right. So please don't push your. Put your cash wrap immediately inside the front door at the right, because that's a dead. That's a space where people want to buy from, right? And if you put your cash wrap right there, it makes people feel like they're supposed to come in and stick, stop, and that's. That's where they're going to purchase and buy something or else they're going to turn around and leave. So I'm a big one on speed bumps. I'm a big one. Which would be like getting them to stop, right? To get them stop, change directions. I'm a big one. The eye level, the bi level, you know, you. I'm a huge believer in waterfall racks, face outs on your. On your walls. Basically what I'm talking about is, I'm talking about not just bars going across the walls, right? You want to have some face outs that like come away from the wall that you can show again with a body form on them. Just a. Like a. Just a torso with the. The hook on them that you can put a shirt, a vest, a jacket, a scarf, layer it all up, right? And below that you can hang the shorts or the. Whatever is going to go with it so you can tell a story in your visual merchandising Gives people confidence. It makes people inspired. People are get excited and think, going to wear that to graduation. I'm going to wear that on a date this weekend, whatever it is. So you want them to look at something and put themselves in that outfit in a certain lifestyle that's going to entice them to buy. Okay, so tip number one was inspiration. Tip number two is think like the customer. Tip number three is my biggest, biggest pet peeve. I'm always asked, always ask in retail bootcamp. I'm asked in this group all the time is what do I do with old inventory? And I might immediately come back and say, is it old? Who says it's old? How do you know it's old? Okay, granted, some of you guys have stuff that is, you know, growing, growing, literally growing on your hangers. Yes, I get it. But is it old to you? Is it old to your staff? Because it came in three months ago, does that mean it's old to your customers? Can I get an amen on that one? I know it's like radio silence right now. What I wanted you to understand and really think about is just because you're over it doesn't mean your customers are over it again. Go back to that refrigerator example I talked about this morning. What happens to those Leftovers. What happens to that stuff that gets pushed to the back of your refrigerator? People forget about it. Your kids are like, there's nothing to eat here. And you're like, yeah, there is. There's so much food in that refrigerator, girl. Just get in there, open it up, take a lid off the container, and you're gonna find gold. What did I just ask my kids to do? One, go dig in the refrigerator. Nobody wants to do that, right? They're hungry. They want to open the doors and find some food. They don't want to go dig for anything. So there could be amazing things back there, but nobody's gonna find it. There could be amazing things in your store, but when you hide them away and put them in bad spots and, like, cover them up and all this stuff, put them in a basket on the bottom in the back corner of your store, underneath the rack of pants, and you're like, gosh, we have not sold all those scarves. Why haven't we sold those socks? Like, somebody goes, where are they? I don't even know where they're at. Eye levels, Bi level. Making it new again. Your customers really have no idea how long it's been there. And I bet for all of my more legacy boutique owners here that have been in business for quite a while, even if you've been in business for a year, two years, you guys can attest to this. I guarantee you, you have re merchandise your store at some point in time, brought something, even if it was a layering piece, brought something up front and center, put it on a body form, walked away from it, and a customer walks in and says, oh, my gosh, how long have you had that? That's brand new. I love it. I've got to have that. And you just instantly are like, absolutely, you bet. We just got that in just yesterday. When the truth is, it's like six, eight, ten months old, Right? You've just made it new again. So my tip number three about merchandising is don't get discouraged over merchandise that sits. You have got to be excited about it. You have got to make it new again, or your customers are going to think it's old and your customers aren't going to find it. So, yeah, absolutely, we've all done it, man. I. We would laugh about this all the time in the store, but making it new again, nobody knows it's. Nobody knows it's old. And let's be honest, how many things do you have in your closet. Closet. That are over three months old and you still Wear them right, they're still relevant. Absolutely. No, maybe super, super trendy things you've ditched, you've gotten rid of, but make it new again. Be excited about it. Show your customers. The more you show, the more you sell, right? If it is stuck on page 64 of your website, girl, nobody's gonna find it, right? If you have got a crap ton of cash tied up in, let's see right now, Black leggings. Black leggings, you're transitioning into spring. Course, those of you that are in the winter, you're still selling those things. But if you have that stuff, transition pieces, right? Get those out there. Make sure they're involved in whatever it is you're selling, right? Don't just push them back because you feel like, well, people aren't always buying black leggings right now. Well, if you're saying that, then they definitely aren't buying black leggings anymore. But if you have a lot of money tied up in cash, you better figure out a way to get those turned into cash right now. Because I guarantee you, the longer they live in your store, the less valuable they are. So please, on my tip number three, we talk a ton about this in retail boot camp. A ton about life cycle of product. Understand your life cycle. Understand when it's about to reach its expiration date. So that milk that got pushed all the way back to the back end of your refrigerator, you dang sure better get it out and put it back where it's supposed to go so people use it and can get its life out of it before it's no good anymore, right? Yes. Oh, my gosh. The liquid legging that went crazy and then died. Okay, if you've got a trend and I, I joke. Cause I say fidget spinners, right? If you're sitting on a bunch of inventory of fidget spinners. Yeah, you probably missed the boat on that. Wait long enough and it'll come back. But I'm not an advocate for that. But what I'm telling you is just because something's been in your store for three months, you cannot lose the excitement about it because the customer coming in does not know when you got it in the first place, right? Layering pieces, turn transition pieces, cardigans, whatever it is, you might be kind of over it, but it. But your customer still needs to see it, right? If you pass over it, then your customer is going to pass over it. What is the first personal thing here in yourall's closet? Right? You guys went in your closet and Got dressed this morning and I guarantee you, you have these things that you're like, I haven't worn that in a long time. Right, well, think about your sales staff and think about yourself when you're working with customers. Is there something in the, on the sales floor that you haven't sold in a long time? If you haven't sold it, ask yourself, why haven't I sold it? Is it a crappy fit? Is it a bad color? Does the vendor just not. Did they ship it on the at a wrong time? What's the reason? It's still sitting there. And if you can tell yourself honestly that there's nothing wrong with it, it's just been here for few months, then, girl, get excited about it. Make it new again. Throw it on, do another flat, lay on it, ask one of your employees to throw it on for the day, rearrange it, whatever you've got to do, re photograph it, make it new again, get excited about it. Because if you're excited about it, your customers are going to get excited about it. So that leads me into. Can I just say tip 3.2? Because I'm not supposed to go, no, I. Anyway, you knew I was going to do more than three tips. I feel like I've given you about seven so far. But how often should you redo your displays? This is another question I get asked an awful lot of times. If you're thinking about your store, say we're talking about a brick and mortar store and you've got table displays throughout the store, right? You need to be redoing those weekly. I'm a big believer in that. Big believer in weekly. I, I feel like if you get complacent with it, one, hopefully they start to look, the displays start to look kind of disheveled and picked over in a week, right? Because we hope your customers are buying off of them. If you've done it right, they're buying off of them, Right? So read making a commitment to redoing your displays every week. And I, I even mean your walls, right? How you're merchandising your walls, redo those often. Because the more it changes, the more people keep coming back. Think about your Facebook profile picture. How many people have, if you haven't changed your Facebook profile picture in about six months, how many people are liking that currently? Nobody. Very few people. Now, if you change your profile picture today, I guarantee you you will have a bunch of new likes on it before this video is over today. Right? Because it's new, it's common sense. Guys give them newness, give them freshness. Nobody wants to see the same thing over and over again. They're psychologically, if you go into a store that you haven't been into for. For two weeks or for two months, and they have the exact same thing there. Right. That they did two months ago. Two months ago. My gosh, that's for Christmas. That would be bad. If you go in there now, the middle of January, and then you go in the middle of February, and it's still the same stuff immediately, what do you think? I think this store's old. It doesn't have anything new. They're boring. I don't want to shop here right now. If you come back and everything's new again and then all of a sudden a Facebook Live video comes on, or they do a tour through their store, through their warehouse, or. Or they send you an email and all these, all these things you're seeing are completely different than what you saw the last time. You're like, who smokes? I need to get in there. That place is on fire. If I don't get it now, I'm not going to get it. It's that sense of urgency, right? That fear of missing out and oh, my gosh, as women, we all suffer from that. Yes. And you can totally do this online. You can totally do this online. That, that, that new arrivals page. That, the same stuff that says new arrivals, that said new arrivals in September. It's not new arrivals anymore. Right. We've got to shuffle these things around. We've got to make them new again. That basically, you. What I'm saying about reinventing those things or reintroducing those things. If you take the same picture you took, say in the fall, in the fall foliage outside with this blanket scarf on, and you, you take that exact picture and now put it back on. New arrivals in January as a winter type scarf. No. Get outside, take a new picture in the snow. Whatever it is, make that thing relevant today. Because people are looking at it right now. And people are not surrounded by fall foliage right now. They're surrounded by winter stuff right now. So make it relevant now. Does that make sense? All right, let's see. How could you do this if you were online only? Okay, Jennifer, that was example. Just like that. Re merchandise those layouts, right? Make new collections, bring new things front and center, but mostly re photograph things. I know that's time consuming and I know it can be, but at the same time, your inventory is not getting any younger. It's not going to get better. With age. It's not like wine at all. It ages and it grows, right? We have got to reintroduce it, we've got to stay aggressive and we've got to stay excited about our merchandise, because, heck, we bought it for a reason. We bought it to sell it. We didn't buy it to sit on it.