In tomorrow’s Inventory lesson we will talk about volume levels in Inventory, but today I want to talk about the products themselves and what to consider when creating a product catalog. I will talk a lot about art, decor and handmade products, but the same rules apply if you are curating collections for resale.
There are two categories into which you can split your inventory in three levels; Price and Size. Sometimes they will correspond with one another, but not always.
Ticket Price
It is important when stocking a booth space to consider all of the different customers who will come through your space. Some will be looking to make statement purchases and others aren’t looking to spend money at all, they are just browsing. You want your booth to invite everyone in, the active shoppers and the browsers. Because once you have them, if you have great products and a well designed display you can turn browsers into buyers and paying customers into collectors of your work and products.
High Ticket Items
Depending on what your product offering is, this price point could be anywhere from $50 - $5,000. These items typically take longer to sell, though not always. The point of these big ticket items is to catch your customers eye and really pull them into your booth to see not only this piece but the rest of your work.
Average Price Point
Again, it depends on if you are selling soap or furniture what this price will be, but these are the items that you generally sell the most often, and they are usually the focal point of your product offering. Having plenty of options in this price point is a must, since this is what you are producing most often and trying to move at a higher rate.
Quick Sales/Impulse Buys
These are small versions of your work. Perhaps items creates from scraps of larger products or if you are buying for resale these are things that compliment your main products but make an easy grab and go. Customers don’t have to think about whether they can afford these items. It’s an easy, “love it, buy it” decision. These are for the people who love what you have, but don’t want to spend much money or don’t realy need anything, but just want to support you.
Product Size
It’s important to create a display with depth and interest. That means, you don’t want 200 of the same sized thing peppering the space. That is done a lot in big box stores and if you’ve built your brand to the point that the demand is so high you can’t keep up with it, then maybe you have a product you could do that with. MOST of us though, need visual interest to pull our customers into our displays.
Oversized Items
These are large pieces that once again will really serve the purpose of drawing people into your space. These are pieces that a customer knows exactly where they are going, and sometimes takes time to consider and come back to pick-up. Again, you won’t sell as many of these most likely, but they are perfect for pulling people into your brand to see what else you have to offer.
In some retail spaces these items are display only. Think of a giant Wine Bottle that leads you to a wine section, or a huge Paper Mache Rattle hanging from the ceiling that indicates where the Baby section is. This is possibly a good option if all of your items are small, even if they are high-ticket items. But if you create your products and you can create a couple of oversized pieces that pull people in, I would put a price on them. You never know what someone’s space is like. These pieces are often bought by other business owners outfitting their own commercial spaces. We’ve sold these to coffee shop or restaurant owners and office spaces even.
Average Size Product
These are once again the pieces you will typically sell the most of in your space. Customers can usually pick up these items and carry them out of the store by themselves. Even if your main product offering is larger furniture pieces. It is often ‘smalls’ and tabletop decor that will sell most easily for this reason. If this isn’t your main product offering you don’t want to overfill your space with it, but staging for larger items is really important, and since these items can move quickly, it is important to have product available to refill the empty spaces quickly.
For most booths this is the main source of income and typically the primary item being marketed. Though if your focus is smaller items like jewelry for example, you may add decorative jewelry boxes or neckforms for staging to be the ‘medium sized’ item in your display. While it is possible that these items are not for sale, unless it is hard to replace and crucial to your display, I personally price everything. Customers get really disappointed when there is an item that they love that isn’t for sale. Another option for these items if your product is small is to crate gift bundles. Maybe as a Bath and Body Product Line you collect items of the same fragrance and package them in a box or basket to have a larger product - and price point - available for purchase. It also makes gift giving even easier!
Small Items
These are items that are easy to pick up without asking the question, “but where will I put it?”. These are usually going to be your low ticket prices also, but they don’t have to be! Smalls make great collections inside a display, and collections make customers subconsciously choose their favorite. Once they have a favorite it is hard to walk away. If you are creating a product you might be able to repurpose your scraps into unique small trinkets, or if you create soaps for example you could cut smaller bars to create sample sizes. Sample doesn’t necessarily mean free! Just an opportunity to try a smaller purchase before making a decision.
Next week we will spend a day talking about Displays and there are also three eye-levels to consider. For now though, gathering your inventory is the important part. So in today’s handout I want you to sort your existing products into these categories, and if you see gaps brainstorm the products you could add to fill in those spaces. Remember to keep your customer and your brand in mind when adding product. New Products should compliment what you already offer when possible!
