Recently, garden centre is one of the most thriving industries in United Kingdom. Some statistics even show that it is progressing rapidly even in the face of recession. It is even expected to continuously grow this year. The most surprising fact is that even the top garden centres in UK only hold a small fraction of the market in 2009. It clearly implies that there is no dominancy in the garden centre industry.
If you are interested in putting up a garden centre, this might be the right time for you. To ensure productivity and success in this endeavor, here are simple but helpful tips to guide you along the way.
Find the right location. The place or location of your garden centre is very important. It greatly affects the flow of incoming customers. It should be easy to find and readily accessible. Look for an area where you can get many potential clients like near the roads.
Know the right retail outlet size for you. There is actually no standard on what size to obtain. Pick the size that you think you can manage well. Do not go over board and waste your money. You do not have to get a large area to gain more nor too small that would limit your potential for a bigger profit.
Create a realistic business plan. Planning is inevitable in business. It is good to think ahead but be sure it is realistic. Establish business goals to guide you in finding the right path to get there. This will also help identify strengths and weaknesses, your competition and financial status in the future.
Properly display and price products. Place your products where people can properly see them. Group products in terms of purpose and usage. Place signboards with prices so that customers can identify the plants easily. Labeling plants provides the basic facts asked by clients. Prices should be affordable and competitive.
Hire and train a competent sales team. Your sales team should be well trained and competent enough to sell you products. They should be good sales talkers, able to answer questions, and inspire customers to buy. With a well-rounded personality, they will be able to win the trust of your customers.
Listen and understand your consumer needs. Attend to what your client needs. Do not annoy them with unnecessary lies. A good business relationship is the secret to a successful business.
Before engaging to any business venture, you should be aware of the risks involve. At first, business may do well. In the long run, sales may go down and the number of clients may decline too for certain reasons. Here are a few simple tricks you can use to increase your sales and attract more customers.
1. Appeal to your client's senses. Attract more customers with music, aroma oils and scents, or providing good lighting. Select music appropriate for the age of the majority of customers. Using essential oils from plant extracts can create a feeling of exclusiveness or simply provide a warm and uplifting mood. In addition, you can also use varied lightings to create an ambience of different effects. These are fun and sure way of enticing your customers to linger more on your place.
2. Signage and Live Labeling. Labeling provides information about the product. Instead of ordinary labeling, you can opt for live labeling by including real pictures of plants. This is an effective way of showing the client the probable outcome of the plants when growing. Signage is also the best way in grabbing attention. Just like labeling, it uses lifestyle pictures of plants with the customers enjoying them in a larger scale.
3. Engage in E-Commerce. One of the best ways to increase sales is expanding your business through online websites. Just make sure that your sites are updated, properly organised, secured and comprehensive. It is much more accessible and convenient to place orders.
4. Offer a rare but fun experience. Shopping in garden centres is not a chore so it should be fun. Offering a unique experience to clients and visitors will keep you ahead of your competitors. Examples of ways to make the place livelier are: putting up coffee shops, restaurants and playgrounds.
These are only a few tricks that you can use to improve your business. These may change through the course of time. As the saying goes, "The only constant in business is Change." You need to be updated and immediately adapt to new developments in order to survive. Success only happens through hardwork. It takes skills and a lot of patience to get there. Stick to your goals and focus on the things that you should do. Use marketing plans that work well and you are guaranteed to a bright future.
