Boutique Owners Guide to Merchandise Planning with Old Whaling Company
Hi! This is Libby Diament from Diament boutiques in Washington D.C.! I am super excited to share how we focus on merchandise planning with a great brand like Old Whaling Co.
Merchandise planning is such an important part of the retail industry, and with a few key tips, you can be well on your way to success!
As a retail store owner, it's important to keep tabs on current trends to make sure you're offering your customer what they want. But it's also crucial to find ways to stand out from the competition.
Luckily, we've put together a helpful guide for making thoughtful decisions about what products to carry in your store. Keep reading for everything you need to know about planning and selling your inventory. Market demand will be higher than ever after this guide!
Review What Merchandise is Selling Best
Our customers can't get enough of their favorite Old Whaling Company scents and we're happy to accommodate. Before placing a new wholesale order, we review sales trends of what scents are selling best and what customers are saying. In order to have effective inventory management, we are constantly checking what we have left in our stock room. Look at historical data in your store when deciding on what categories do best for you. Merchandise planning will help you to best sell your product categories.
From body butters to bath bombs, customers have been especially keen on scents that remind them of various times or places, like summertime beaches or an amazing vacation they took. Scents like Coastal Calm always do great for us since they evoke positive associations.
Be sure to keep shelves stocked with all their favorites! Customer needs and consumer demand can lead the way in deciding what you want to purchase.
It's important to look at your previous sales season when making your purchasing decisions. You can do a sales forecast if you want to preorder for future seasons.
Ordering the right quantity is important. We also love to provide a great merchandise mix that customers will love. Choosing what to purchase is a critical piece of merchandise planning. Read on to find out more about how to display the new merchandise!
Testers are Important
We always order testers for candles and self-care items. Keeping our testers clean and sanitary is a priority for us here at our store! Our testers allow customers to try out the product lines before purchasing. For example, we provide testers of the Old Whaling Co Body Butters so that a customer can smell the scents and feel the nourishing quality.
By making sure testers are clean, it encourages customers to take their time trying all the different scents that we offer, and ultimately make an informed decision when it comes to their purchases.
With candles, make sure to dust and inspect the tops of the candles so that they look fresh. Keeping one candle outside of the box is helpful for customers to quickly smell the beautiful scents.
One reason that customers enjoy brick and mortar sales is because they can touch and feel the products. Testers will help a customer to do this.
They also smell so amazing, the testers help sell the product. Typically once someone tries it, they quickly decide to purchase one or two! Customers tell us how great this body butter feels. It's so important for them to be able to try the product because it literally sells itself!
Receiving Your Shipment
Receiving a shipment can be an exciting event, but it is important to pause and inspect everything before displaying the new items.
With all brands, take the time to unpack the shipment, ensure that you received the right merchandise, and check for any damage. This will reduce markdowns in the future.
Being thorough when receiving shipments will help ensure that everything goes as smoothly as possible!
Merchandising Old Whaling Company Products
A great merchandise display can enhance the shopping experience of your customer. Retail merchandising is key in selling products. It can be very important for products with scents.
To best merchandize your goods in an eye catching way, it's important to organize products neatly and succinctly. Place items in a clean, easily reachable section on shelves, and be creative with the visuals. A lot of selling merchandise involves engaging displays. Displays will vary depending on the color of the items, season, size of the order and more.
You always want to have enough of the product so that it looks fresh and full, but you also don't want to have excess inventory. We typically display the same amount of each item so that we can monitor stock levels and visually perform inventory management quickly. For example, we may put out 3 of each scent of candle. This also makes sense from a visual perspective so that things look uniform.
Product testers near each scent can help customers quickly try the item. Make sure that the price is clear and easy to find.
I want to share one more great tip about selling Old Whaling travel sized body butters. Put them near your register! They sell amazing as a last minute add on, while customers are checking out. Have them eye level is ideal for customers.
Showcasing merchandise in an attractive and organized way leads to increased store sales! To read more about merchandising ideas, check out our blog post on boutique ideas.
Share About New Products!
Keep your customers in the know with up-to-date website and social media posts! Make sure to update all of your business sales channels so it's always fresh, featuring all of your products, including those newest arrivals.
Perhaps you want to share about seasonal products or a new product category that you ordered. Some scents can be perfect for a particular season. Brands like Old Whaling Company usually offer seasonal scents that are always a customer favorite!
When you update your website, don't forget to share on social media too; let folks know what you have in stock and give people a reason to come shopping! Social media is also a great way to learn about customer preferences.
Care Packages
During the pandemic, we found a huge new market for the business by selling care packages. We carefully curated them using popular products from our shop. We used Old Whaling Company products in so many of these care packages. They are so loved by recipients! Here is a sample of one of these care packages. This might be a great way to try selling merchandise through social media or online.
Conclusion
So in summary, if you’re running a successful retail business, creating a list of items that are selling, maintaining clean and sanitary testers, unpacking and inspecting new shipments, merchandising items in an appealing way and updating your online presence with news of items in stock are all important tasks to keep up with. Merchandise planning is key to understanding how to order and showcase products! You may even find an employee that can focus on being the merchandise planner.
Doing these tasks will keep customer demand high, encourage them to return and increase sales potential. Retail merchandise planning is critical for running a successful business. The retail industry is competitive and buying from great brands is so important.
Old Whaling Company has been a consistent seller and we are so happy to partner with them and represent their goods in Washington D.C.!
I hope this article is helpful for understanding a bit more about merchandise planning.
Good luck and happy selling!
Ahoy y'all! We hope you enjoyed our first guest blog! March 29th is National Mom And Pop Business Owners Day, and we thought what better way to celebrate than to feature this guest blog from one of our awesome retailers.
Libby Diament is the founder and owner of Diament Jewelry in Washington, DC and Arlington Virginia. Libby got her start in 2008 when she started selling her designs at craft fairs while working for MAC Cosmetics. Read more about Libby's journey and meet her team here.
