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2010-12-19

Would You Like Fries With That?

A few weeks ago I celebrated my wedding anniversary. On my way home from work I picked up a few things for my wife. I started at the florist where I had a bouquet of flowers put together. I then headed to the drug store where I picked up a card and a box of chocolate. My next stop was Radio Shack where I purchased an Apple iPod and an iTunes gift card. I then ended off a yet another drug store to buy a gift bag.

All off this crisscrossing the streets back and forth got me thinking.

Nobody Asked Me! But ....
I think that some of the merchants that I visited were leaving money on the table.

Florist
This is easy. Instead of just offering those small blank business card size notes for free, they should carry one small line of greeting cards. I would suggest a serious line with two or three cards per occasion on good quality paper stock that sell for $3.00 to $5.00 a card. If I am spending $40 or more on flowers another $5.00 for a nice card is easy.

In addition I would carry a premium brand of chocolates like Godiva that come pre-wrapped and with beautiful ribbon all ready to gift. Here all that they would need to offer would be a selection of two to three sizes ranging in price from $15 to $40 dollars.

Another easy addition would be to sell a small selection of gift cards for department stores, clothing stores, iTunes, Amazon etc.

Between the cards, chocolate and gift cards the merchant would not have to worry about anything going out of style, etc. as they are all basic items. A deep inventory would not be needed as they can all be easily replenished.

Having just these few line extensions could easily add another 25% to 100% to the sale. In addition it would make it incredibly convenient for customers like me that failed to adequately plan to play catch up and walk in the house looking like a hero.

They already have many items that could be used as gifts. They should add greeting cards and gift bags in various sizes.

I am not suggesting that every store should be a department store and carry everything but rather by tweaking assortments with “related” products some retailers may be able to increase sales while providing a more convenient experience for their customers.

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Posted by Steven N Levy at Sunday, December 19, 2010
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1 comments:

  1. There's a small Kosher Mini Market close to my home run by a friendly family that have been around for ages, and while the prices are higher than the large supermarkets, there is a broad selection and the store is kept immaculately clean and well stocked. The store seems to be busy whenever I go in day or night. They seem eager to please, and over the years have introduced many new things; continuous fresh perked coffee was followed by pre-wrapped home made sandwiches (for the bus-stop crowd), small containers of fresh cut fruit to-go, etc. They continuously fine-tune the layout so that one walk around back to counter is all you need.
    This past Friday afternoon I needed a last minute item for Shabbat and as I paid was asked "Would you like some reading material for Shabbat ? Im sure your wife would like Mishpacha Magazine, Hamodia, Or Yated (Popular Jewish interest magazines) sure enough I chose 2 (which upped my bill by a few bucks) and told the clerk "I guess thats your version of "would you like Fries with that" !!
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