Retailers Find Ways to Stand Out

Following the response to our recent post on our USGNN newsletter “calling all glass and mirror retailers” I’ve been doing some pondering about retailers and competition. I started considering this with regard to another area with which I’m pretty familiar. Last year I began landscaping my new home and now with spring back I’ve already made three or four trips to Home Depot for bags of dirt. And when I’m making a trip for topsoil I’m usually sidetracked by brightly colored annuals as well.

However, the thing about going to the big box stores for plants is that you end up with the same stuff in your yard as all of your neighbors. And that’s fine, because it’s pretty stuff that you already know will grow well in your area. But on the way home from Home Depot I like to stop at a little garden nursery just down the street. It’s a little pricier, but has a wider variety of shrubs available. Of course, its advertising always states that the store has landscape experts on staff, even though the high school kids ringing up purchases have yet to be able to answer any of my questions. That disconnect between the advertising and reality always irks me a bit, so I tend to be a little more critical of those higher prices unless they have something I absolutely can’t get anywhere else.

Now my goal this summer is to make it back up to the traffic nightmare that is Fairfax County to the little nursery I’d once passed that had declared it had “150 Types of Herbs.” Despite the terrible location and lack of discernible parking spaces, that distinction piqued my interest. In this day and age where there’s even a vegetable garden at the White House due to the green and economic benefits of growing one’s own food, I’d bet this sign would appeal to other passersby as well.

The point is that all of these small retailers have a distinction that separates them from their competitors. For the big box store, it’s a supply of basic materials for a reasonable price. For the local nursery, it’s a wider selection of materials hand-picked to suit the region. For the third option, it’s a trendy selection of products that is likely to change depending on current demands.

For the store with the bad location, obviously that isn’t something that can be fixed, but they’ve offset it with unique roadside advertising designed to lure in traffic-weary travelers. I would guess that a rotating selection might lure those passersby back into the traffic trap to check out their new selection.

For that second nursery, the fact that their staff doesn’t support their advertising and that the customers’ expectations aren’t being met is a factor that could cause shoppers to turn elsewhere to have their needs met, despite the fact that they have a good selection of product available. But is the store manager aware of how damaging this disconnect is? Maybe, maybe not. I would expect that if customers brought this to the manager’s attention, some positive changes could be made that would in the long run improve sales. Is there a number where those advertised landscape experts can be reached? How about hour-long weekend tutorials where shoppers can learn tips for caring for roses or properly planting shrubs, and then have their questions answered?

Now on this note, in case you haven’t yet seen the USGNN blurb, in anticipation of its upcoming retail-focused July issue, USGlass magazine is looking for interested glass retailers to open their shop up to a review from our secret shoppers. If you’re interested in this opportunity, e-mail me at mheadley@glass.com by June 1 to put your name on our list. We’d like to show you how your customers really see your shop, and offer suggestions that could help boost your sales. Or if you’d like to share your tips for success with our other readers, I’d welcome those suggestions.