Repeat business

So, how was your 2010? This year has seen most sales figures range from over 10-percent down to 3- to 4-percent up on 2009—which, I probably don’t need to remind you, was a bad year itself. Throw in some weather issues in 2010, and, sadly, it was NOT a good year to be in the woody plant business.

Meanwhile, in other commercial sectors, the outcome wasn’t quite so gloomy. And the outlook is even optimistic in some places, as the stock market’s rise continues to confound the experts—even as it plants seeds of hope that in a “big picture” way, the economy is slowly getting some life.

What you want to know, of course, is whether there is any reason for optimism on the home front? Actually, there is. I recently conducted a quick survey of 20 smart garden center owners that revealed a target sales growth in 2011 from 4 percent to 10 percent, so even they are feeling a bit more bullish than might be expected.

They can feel that way, perhaps, because they recognize that the shopping game has changed. Consumers are still spending—but selectively. I have seen this described as “surgical shopping,” where a shopper goes for just what they need or what they heard about in a well-publicized sale. I read a recent survey that quoted shoppers as considering fewer products, making a shorter visit to the store and stopping less on impulse on the way to their destination items.

To thrive in 2011, garden centers will need to meet the needs of this new “Vintage 2011” consumer. To do that, I would suggest, you’ll need to touch the following bases.

See it like a customer
It is often hard advice to hear but I tell some of my clients to walk across the street or drive past their store and ask themselves: “What would make me visit this store today if I didn’t own it?” In a world where competing for the consumer’s attention is top priority, differentiation is what keeps winning garden centers relevant.

The public may be down but they are not out. They still have aspirations to fix that deck, hide that air conditioning unit, build a patio around the three-year-old fire-pit, replace those worn out tropicals, make home grown salsa, get the kids to play outside (!), figure out drip irrigation before their vacation trip, find hanging baskets to attract hummingbirds, prune back that lovely but invasive bush they inherited, and so on. If you can be the source of inspiration—as well as the source of the products they need to complete each task—you’ll keep customers coming back.

Become the bull’s eye – again!
We were “it” in the mid 1990s, as consumers flocked to us inspired by Martha Stewart’s armloads of cut flowers from her perennial garden. The garden business was the lifestyle sweet spot. We were the bull’s eye. We managed it again in the dark days of 2008-9 when the population planted veggies to stave off bankruptcy. Now the financial pressure is off slightly; still, consumers don’t see a need to buy trees, shrubs and so on—even fall pansies and mums didn’t ring their bell. Halloween was a bust.

In the short term, it should be easier to tempt today’s loyal, core customers to visit one more time. Garden centers can quickly get back in the bull’s eye by running sales, specials and discounts, as saving money is always relevant.
Then they need to carry products that relate to consumers’ lives, and shout about it. As someone who has spent years trying to get garden centers to reduce inventory I am not calling for a national filling of the gondolas. However, I do recommend a careful expansion into specific products that can bring people back one more time—a kind of “surgical buy” to match their “surgical shopping.”

Don’t bet the farm
The ideal way to perform a “surgical buy” is to devote between 5 and 10 percent of your buying budget and 20 percent of your advertising budget to carrying these new lines and to shouting about it loud.

Choose a few lines or subclasses that consumers consider essentials, research the supply and make a buy that makes you look serious in the category. Buyers need to show confidence and go deep in a few lines to have a destination offer. Spreading the money around several departments to reduce the risk just leaves you with a bit of everything and a lot of nothing.

Some of our clients are seeing success with new products that their customers buy anyway, but never expect that garden center to carry. Clothing has been successful, as has gourmet food (especially if you have a history of produce), pet treats (cookies, collars, leads, beds), personal items like lotions/soaps and jewelry, as well as casual inside furniture.

Come back soon!
I have said for many years that if every garden center could just get their regular customers to visit once more per year, there would be no problems. This is very much the case at present. If customers are resisting their “plant-y” impulses and being more “surgical,” the average-sale per visit is not going to rise. So we had better get them to come more often.

Remember, 91 percent of the workforce in the U.S.A. is still working. They might be watching their budget, but they are not living in caves. They have homes to decorate, gardens to improve and maintain, spare time to fill, friends and families to give to. There is a war going on for customer attention. Loyalty declines when times are tough, which means retailers can win or lose market share almost on a weekly basis.

Assuming that this “surgical spending” approach will continue for some time, you need a strategy based on successful actions like those noted here and in the sidebar. If these ideas and actions worked in 2010, they will surely be successful in 2011. Ho Ho Ho!


Contributing editor Ian Baldwin offers other useful ideas in his “TLC … Think Like Customers” sales training program, available at www.ianbaldwin.com.