Retailer’s Guide to Merchandising: Now is a good time to comprehensively reassess your showroom design - Jan 2024
By Jennifer Bardoner
Anne Brouwer has spent 25 years in strategic retail consulting. Now a senior partner at McMillanDoolittle, working with clients like Marriott, Publix and McDonald’s, she’s learned that “retail is not brain surgery-it’s harder. Week to week, month to month, there’s always something new,” she says. “Your competition is changing; your customer is changing; technology is changing, cost structures. You can’t just get caught up in the day-to-day; otherwise, you get lost in the dust.”
A retailer’s showroom is a key element of their success, but with everything that’s on an independent business owner’s plate, it can easily end up an afterthought. Showrooms too often become static, marginally adjusted to accept new displays or departments without a comprehensive re-evaluation or guiding strategy.
With flooring retailers’ plates being cleared a bit with the drop in demand, now is the perfect time to take stock of their showroom’s design and (re)align it with their goals.
“It energizes your internal team to see some changes in your showroom,” notes Danny Crutchfield, vice president of Shaw’s Flooring Network.
DETERMINE WHO YOU ARE
Brouwer and Crutchfield agree that the best place to start when evaluating your showroom is your mission statement. Your showroom’s layout and aesthetic should be an extension of your identity. Whereas displaying discounted items at the front of a budget-oriented retailer’s store makes sense, that would send the wrong message in a high-end dealer’s showroom, for example.
“We talk a lot about ‘Do you know who you are?’” Crutchfield says. “In the last five weeks, I have visited almost 50 customers of all shapes and sizes. The better ones really know who they are, and they become the best version of whatever that is. Some of the ones that are struggling are doing so because they don’t know who they want to be. Really spending some time on ‘What’s your identity, your purpose? What does success look like?’ and trying to build your showroom and website to mirror that and align is important.”
Jon Moullet and daughter Kylee Naffziger recently completed an overhaul of the family’s 27,000-square-foot flagship showroom in Bozeman, Montana, in conjunction with the opening of a new outlet store nearby. The revamp started in 2020 with a re-evaluation of the operation’s name: The Flooring Place. While it was an accurate portrayal of the products and service provided when Moullet opened the store in 2001, the offerings had gradually grown, with appliances, window coverings, cabinets and countertops filling in behind the namesake products. To reflect its expanded focus, they decided to rename the outfit “Monteriors.” The trademarked rebrand took over two years, prompting them to think about other ways they could maximize their stores’ identity.
“When you walked into our showroom three years ago, it was a typical showroom: a bunch of flooring samples right there,” says Naffziger, noting that the community already knew them for selling flooring. “When you think of a grocery store, why is the milk in the back? Because they want you to walk past all the other products to get to the milk.”
Taking inspiration from that analogy, they moved the flooring to the back of the store. Then, they decided to revisit their mission and determined that their goal was to create inspired experiences.
“We looked at our showroom-was it inspiring?” Naffziger says. “Each expansion had just been thrown into the space we had. When you walk into our showroom now, you walk through 12 different vignettes, and it is inspiring.”
Your mission should be a core value that drives your business despite market conditions, says Brouwer. Crutchfield says that, “I have talked to retailers trying to redefine themselves a little bit because they think they’re missing part of the market. And it might not be what you think-it’s not the high end, but the low end, they’re missing.”
CREATE A WELCOMING ENVIRONMENT
The vignettes at Monteriors pull double duty, providing not only visual inspiration but also a comfortable place to sit. The first, an inviting living room scene, welcomes guests to relax while they wait for a design consultant. Another, located near the mock living room, houses a beverage station complete with custom glasses and mugs featuring the new Monteriors logo, which customers are welcome to take home with them.
“Make hospitality part of your experience,” Crutchfield advises. “If a couple comes in, maybe one of them wants to sit and rest while the other shops.” Incorporating designated seating areas also allows for the integration of dual-purpose multimedia, he notes. Consider a TV loaded with scrolling room scenes, product videos or examples of your work, providing inspiration and entertainment at the same time. “Any customer that comes in is an important piece, particularly now as things are starting to slow down,” he adds.
Most people are out of their element in a flooring store, so it’s important to greet them and make them feel comfortable, which includes a clear idea of how to navigate the store. “The best showrooms I’ve seen have a really prescribed way they greet customers, whether they have a dedicated greeter or within two minutes a retail sales associate (RSA) says, ‘Welcome, is this your first time here?’ not just, ‘Welcome in,’” Crutchfield says. “One of the most important things when somebody walks in your store is to help orient them to your environment, both through signage and interaction.”
Shaw’s consumer research shows that while those in the market for new flooring are doing more research online before coming into a showroom, they are still overwhelmed by the process and plethora of options available. Gerry Yost, vice president of merchandising for Avalon, a network of flooring stores across the Northeast, points out that this is why consumers come to a local retailer, and making that process more approachable helps distill some of their trepidation.
“Flooring is such a mystery product that it’s hard for people to wander a store on their own,” he says. “Most people do want help, no matter what they say. That’s why they come to a store like us, to show them what else can work for them: that same budget, that same choice of durability or application for the area that it’s going in.”
A low-pressure overview of the store’s orientation not only begins a dialogue and helps establish a relationship, but it also ensures customers are aware of all the offerings. Yost likes to tell the story of the ad agency rep assigned to enhance the marketing for Avalon’s window treatment offering. While standing in the window coverings department, located at the front of the store, they asked where the window treatments were. “You would think people see something, but they generally don’t,” he says. “So, success comes from having good salespeople.
“Shopping for flooring and window treatments is a different experience from a supermarket-people coming in for tile are coming in for tile; they are not coming in to get wowed by carpet and change their mind. When they’re ready for carpet, they will come in for carpet, but what we want to do is make sure they know we offer carpet even if they’re just shopping for tile. We’re not necessarily moving things to the front to drive it, it’s just so they see it, and you can have a conversation while pointing to the department.”
Ensuring that your environment is welcoming truly begins before a customer passes through the door, but, like the showroom itself, your store’s exterior may have slipped into the rear-view amid pressing daily priorities. Crutchfield advises having a friend drive to the store and note their impressions. Was it easy to find? Is the exterior appealing? Monteriors added an outdoor living vignette to help draw customers into the store, but simple things like updating lighting and placing some plants out front can have a big impact, even for stores that don’t have full control over their surroundings because they are just one of many stores in a shopping center.
CURATE THE SHOPPING EXPERIENCE
Crutchfield says customers like to see products grouped together by category, which is how both Avalon and Monteriors organize their showrooms. This makes it easy to compare similar products without having to crisscross back and forth across the showroom. Within those categories-with hardwood, LVT and laminate grouped together-they then organize by manufacturer.
“By having it sorted by vendor, they can see everything, flip through and go, ‘Oh, I didn’t think of a color like that,’” says Yost. “Sometimes, taking them right to what they’re looking for doesn’t open them up to all the options available to them.”
This is a concern he has with color-based organization, which Avalon is trying in some of its stores. “Some people love it, and some feel they’re only allowed to look at these three racks [of their preferred color] and not everything else,” he explains. “Sometimes, customers feel if they don’t see everything, they can’t make a decision. We don’t show them everything, but we want to show them enough to say, ‘That’s a great selection.’”
Still, he recognizes that color is a top purchasing driver. Avalon features color walls in its tile departments as a way to help customers quickly compare and find something that speaks to them, but those same tiles are also incorporated throughout the department.
“You can take a customer right to it and say, ‘Here’s all our great tile. If you like this, let me show it to you in a bigger piece,’” says Yost. “In wood, laminate and vinyl, it’s harder to do that because you get a sea of sameness, and it doesn’t make as great a presentation.”
Providing inspiration is an important part of the sales process, regardless of whether it’s what the customer actually purchases. “Sometimes things are ‘wows’ that may not sell, but people always go over and look at it, touch it, feel it,” Yost says, noting that this then propels them to continue browsing in search of their personal must-have product.
Like Monteriors, Avalon also incorporates vignettes on the show floor, offering inspiration and the chance to see products in scale in a real-life scenario. Moullet and Yost agree they are a great sales tool.
“Our close rates picked up because I think people look at us as more professional,” notes Moullet. “It’s easier for our designers to put packages together. Our average ticket price has gone up, and profit margins are up as well.”
The products featured in both companies’ vignettes tend to see higher sales, but incorporating items you want to sell isn’t the only consideration. Naffziger designed Monteriors’ 12 vignettes to encapsulate different design styles and material offerings, while also making sure that each of the store’s cabinet, hardware and appliance brands are represented.
“There is modern, farmhouse, industrial, European-inspired, so customers can walk through and say, ‘What inspires me? What do I love?’ Then, they can meet with their design consultant and say, ‘This is what I love; this is me,’” she says, adding, “I think that’s what most sets our store apart from traditional flooring stores.”
Yost also makes sure to include “good, better, best” options in Avalon’s vignettes to showcase viable alternatives if budget becomes a concern, but he also uses them to illustrate that premium tile can be an affordable complement. “We may put a really expensive mosaic with an inexpensive tile to show people, ‘Look, you don’t have to spend a lot for an accent piece,’” he explains. “Maybe the accent piece is $80 per square foot, but you only need a couple square feet to make it a ‘wow’ in a $2.99 tile.’”
Crutchfield believes vignettes work best when combined with product visualizers, citing secret shopping Shaw recently conducted that found that consumers want to be able to visualize a product in their space.
Another avenue to help them see products in a real setting is room scene photography, which is widely available and does not require the level of investment and maintenance that vignettes do. Avalon features room scenes on the back of its sample boards, and Monteriors has added QR codes to its samples that take shoppers to scenes online.
Another option Crutchfield has seen success with is retailers taking pictures of real-life installs for social media and then having them turned into displays for their showroom. This not only offers inspiration but also quality assurance, which helps move consumers to a purchase decision. Similarly, displaying customer reviews can also push them to a purchase, he says, though he notes that capturing such data is not a one-and-done deal. It must be part of your culture so you can regularly provide new inspiration and ongoing assurance.
Whether or not to display pricing is a hotly debated topic among flooring retailers, but our sources agree it is an important aspect of smoothing out the sales process. If a customer falls in love with something, only to get through the sales funnel and realize it’s out of their budget, it can be hard to move them to a different product, and the relationship could be damaged by their embarrassment at not being able to afford it. But if they can establish those parameters on the front end, they’re more likely to find a compromise that works for them on multiple levels, Yost explains.
Crutchfield says Shaw’s secret shopping found that consumers expect to find pricing online and in-store. Avalon includes straightforward pricing even on its vignettes, while Monteriors utilizes QR codes on product samples that link to current pricing, among other things.
STREAMLINE YOUR AESTHETIC
One of the most difficult parts of store design is balancing the need for showcasing inspiration and selection with a store’s available square footage so as not to overwhelm the customer with a crowded, cluttered showroom. Most retailers opt for as many SKUs on display as possible, but knowing where to draw the line is key.
“Real estate is valuable, so you want to make sure that whatever’s on the floor is doing a job, whether it’s to attract people, inspire people or sell SKUs,” Yost notes.
There is a myriad of resources to help retailers track and drill down into their sales data, which can be helpful in culling products from the floor. Crutchfield recommends doing this a couple of times a year, adding that it’s all too common for retailers to have products on display that have been discontinued.
“One of the biggest things, and this information is available through any manufacturer or distributor you do business with, is making sure you track sales by display,” he says. “You can also start to notice trends through consumer behavior if a certain product or style stops selling or really cranks up.”
This can also help you strategize the placement of various displays or even departments, depending on your goals and customer. Yost reiterates that not every product on the floor will be a top-seller, but everything on display should still be contributing to performance. Avalon tried curating one of its stores’ window treatment offerings to only best-sellers-which were all neutral color palettes-but instead of boosting sales, it had the opposite effect.
“Nobody walked over to it because it just looked ‘blah,’” Yost says. “When you throw in a really wild patterned roller shade or a blue cellular shade, people may not buy it, but it looks attractive, and they go over and look at it.”
When determining how many products to display and where, it’s also important to create an obvious flow pattern, says Crutchfield. “Direct and guide them to the place where you want them to be, areas where you feel like, as a retailer, you stand out or are differentiated, or maybe it’s where you’re most profitable, where you have the most success,” he advises.
At many Avalon stores, hardscapes are displayed at the front because they are some of the most beautiful products, says Yost. Monteriors strategized placement based on the home renovation process, starting with cabinets and immediately followed by hard surface, as the two tend to go hand in hand, then carpet, Naffziger explains.
Creating clear sightlines is also important for navigation, but this too can be a challenge with so many different manufacturer racks. Monteriors has transitioned to its own display system, constructing slatted boxes that stand at eye level and painting them all white for a unified and streamlined aesthetic.
Avalon has a merchandising “bible” that helps ensure a polished and cohesive appearance not only in each store but between its network of 17 stores. Similarly sized racks are placed together to offer a more pleasing visual, with enough space to move easily between them. And Yost makes sure that his colleague, who is 5’3”, can see to the back of the store and physically access all of the products as easily as he can at 6’2”.
REVISIT YOUR SHOWROOM DESIGN OFTEN
An effective showroom design requires maintenance, from making sure that racks are clean and dust-free to aligning them with current trends and removing products or displays that don’t generate sales. Yost says routine tweaks also help keep the experience fresh for customers, who may end up in your store more often than you think.
“People do come into our stores fairly regularly, and we want them to look at the whole showroom as an experience,” he says. “Maybe they’re doing their living room in January, and they may come back and do a bathroom in October.”
In addition to sales data and industry-related trends, both in terms of colors and presentation, RSAs can be helpful in determining what works and what doesn’t. Yost and his team are constantly assessing their stores and making adjustments. That could mean moving displays or changing them out, thinning out product, or adjusting the layout.
Yost notes, “Sometimes after a year, we’re like, ‘Alright, this creates sight line issues or blockages. Maybe we need to go in and change it around a little bit.’”
Additionally, technology is continuously evolving, and retailers need to be up-to-speed on the most current offerings, which can also impact their store design. Crutchfield highlights visualizers, QR codes and the Samples app as some of the available options to consider.
“It’s a symphony, and every aspect of it creates that sale,” says Yost. “Look at your store as a whole and a whole experience. Would you want to shop there? Are you wowed?”
It’s important to leave room in your showroom for workspaces where shoppers-especially designers-can comfortably group products together. “We all know designers have a lot of influence on purchase decisions,” Crutchfield notes. Vignettes can help in this regard, but Monteriors and Avalon also have dedicated workspaces.
Copyright 2024 Floor Focus
Related Topics:Coverings, Shaw Industries Group, Inc.