When stocking larger products such as ladders, it is important that the often limited space is maximised by utilising marketing and POS materials within the branch. Joanne Mitchell, WernerCo’s Marketing Manager, discusses how collaborating with suppliers can enable merchants to engage with customers and maximise sales.
For builders’ merchant stores, space is a valuable commodity and it can often be a challenge to juggle the demands of suppliers versus demand for products. With often limited space available to stock, display and demonstrate larger products, it is key that merchants make the most of marketing materials and POS to maximise sales.
A report conducted by WernerCo looked into purchasing behaviours, where over 200 respondents were asked about outlets and sources used when purchasing ladders. It found that despite a rise in online sales, most customers would still rather purchase from a physical store.
Historically, large items such as ladders can be hard to display on the shop floor and are often hidden away in the back, especially when space is restricted. However, this is when crucial sales opportunities can be missed — once products are out of sight, they are often out of mind.
Functional ladder displays have been a key tactic used to help grow the sales of ladders within stockists, but it is an aspect of in-branch marketing that has been relatively untapped before WernerCo introduced its Tactical Display Units (TDU) for its brands.
The TDUs and shop floor racking have already been proven successful around the world and further developments have been made to create dynamic POS and marketing collateral to help grow the brand’s presence and better educate users on which ladders should be used for certain jobs.
For example, research has shown that painters and decorators remain the key market for ladder purchases, with on average five ladders likely to be in the van at any one time. Similarly, functional ladder displays have been a significant tool in helping to grow the burgeoning fibreglass ladders market in the UK (which has historically been small in comparison to, say, the US), with electricians a core customer demographic.
Accordingly, the design of the TDU is beneficial for two reasons: it provides both the safe storage of products and is also able to showcase a variety of products within one display. Also, high-quality POS can boost order numbers when used correctly, and variety is key. The TDUs are compact in size and, with two different sizes available can allow up to five or up to nine products to be displayed.
The £70 million ladder market presents a huge opportunity for retailers, with over half of this accounting for the trade sector. Most commonly, ladders are purchased to replace an older set, however customers are now more frequently purchasing a new ladder to meet the needs of a specific job as users become aware of the safety requirements for different tasks.
With this in mind, WernerCo has continued to work closely with its merchant stockists to enable a bespoke approach, suggesting the product groups that would work best for their customer base as well as working with sales staff to arm them with the knowledge they need to sell the equipment in the right way — translating this new expertise into sales.
It’s also key to ensure products are readily available, which is why WernerCo offers a next day delivery on most ladders, meaning merchants shouldn’t lose sales due if the stock is not available.
The benefits of looking at new ways of displaying stock mean you can provide your customers with more than one option. A one-size-fits-all is no longer suitable for most stockists and with online stores posing an increasing challenge, it is crucial that merchants are able to meet demand and ultimately grow their sales.
For more information on the range of access solutions from WernerCo and its marketing support for merchants, visit www.wernerco.com/eu.
