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[ FEATURE STORY]
CHA-CHING!
Enhancing point-of-sale to make the cash register ring
by Maura Keller
Retailers are largely in charge of their own destiny. You’ve found the perfect location, built up your stock, trained your employees, made your displays look perfect, invested in advertising, and are now ready for some serious sales. In fact, one of the biggest potentials for increased sales is right at the point of sale. Overhead, countertop and undercounter displays and other POS techniques can have a lasting impact on your sales, when it counts the most—at purchase time.
Creating sales avenues
Ask yourself what attracts you to your favorite retail store. Is it the wall colors? The level of customer service? Or product displays? In the retail sales game, it’s all about getting people to remember your business, products and service.
Lasting impressions can rise out of the simplest things—from how your phone is answered to the quality of your products to the cleanliness of your bathrooms. Confusing store signage, a poorly designed store front, or even employees who are rude or not helpful can send the wrong message about your business and has the potential to kill a sale.
So, how do the best marketers create point-of-sale displays and campaigns that make targeted customers comfortable enough that they loosen their purse strings? Conversations with experts produced a list of old-standby practices that, with a couple of unique twists, can make for a unique POS marketing plan. Among those practices are evaluating how your customers respond to POS product displays, crafting an appropriate message from employees to enhance each sales transaction, all while ensuring that you give customers proper access—either visually or physically—to your POS displays.
Common sense approach
For Rose Logsdon, manager of Smoke-N-Save in Columbus, Ohio, one of the simplest, yet most effective point-of-sale techniques she uses is getting impulse and “must go” items in front of the customer.
“If I want to increase sales for candies, trinkets, or other products, I simply put the products where they can easily be seen and accessed on the counter near the register,” Logsdon says. “It works quite well.”
Accessibility and visibility are two key components when it comes to POS marketing.
“With the growth of the OTP market, there seems to be a push to enhance this area (of POS marketing),” says Tim Zock, design director and sales member at Visual Marketing in Chicago. “Of course, the entire tobacco category is always striving to develop a better presence both on and off the rack—whether that be through traditional merchandising methods or through technological advancements. With LED lighting and LCD technologies, for example, the price for electronics is becoming a viable solution for many retail needs. However, a well- designed and functional unit is always a top priority.”
Visual Marketing designs and manufacturers displays and retail environments that offer solutions for both brand marketers and retailers. Their Visual Tobacco Solutions merchandising system maximizes existing wall and window space—eliminating the need for special cabinetry, slat walls, or grid walls.
In fact, experts agree that streamlining POS efforts can make a big difference in the success of their store. “If they run their store properly, they are ahead of the game to start,” Zock says. “Beyond that, they should be aggressive with signage, pricing and making sure the consumer knows when there are special offers. I feel that when there is a consistent, cohesive feel to the entire section, sales increase. This is not always easily done, with every major tobacco manufacturer having slightly different POS, prices and demands. But every display produced for tobacco has a specific reason it was developed that way. If it is just used the way it’s intended it will probably be its most effective.”
Harry Banner, vice president of sales at California Quality Plastics, agrees that retailers need to focus on making the most impact with the space they have. “Many of our customers want to do what they can to improve their POS efforts,” Banner says. California Quality Plastics provides a wide variety of acrylic merchandisers to retailers, including under-counter cabinets and trays, overhead cigarette merchandisers and the company’s newest product, Easy-Stack, which offers an all-in-one system with no extra parts required.
“While we receive requests for overhead merchandisers, which have been around for many years, many retailers want the ease and accessibility that is offered by our newest Easy-Stack system,” Banner says.
Sam Difiglio, vice president of sales and marketing at Don Salvatore, says that he is seeing more manufacturers developing counter-type displays to go along with tobacco products and accessories. “We design point-of-sales displays that have our products so the retailer has a choice on how to display them,” Difiglio says. “Every store is different. Most retailers do well with point-of-sales displays whether they are a high-end shop or moderate-line shops.”
POS at its best
While POS displays and marketing techniques can improve your bottom line, other common issues that are inherently linked to your POS approach can also  diminish your POS marketing efforts. By following the advice of the experts, you may be surprised at how good your POS results really are.
Listen to a customer’s needs. Selling is more about listening than it is about talking. One of the inherent mistakes many retailers make is not listening to a customer’s request. Listening and pinpointing exactly what the customer wants will help streamline the sales process and enhance your referral business. At the point of sale, make sure you ask each customer if they have found what they were looking for. Or comment on their selected product. This conversation could lead to further product recommendations and a resulting sale.
That said, you also have to understand your demographic customer base and how they respond to various marketing efforts. “When we design merchandising programs, we keep in mind the target audience,” Zock says.
Know your customers’ buying preferences, shopping habits, cultural values and POS merchandising preferences. Offer product choices based on cultural background and display them in a way that people know they are being recognized as a valuable customer.
Experts say businesses should also examine their customer databases. This allows a company to see what ethnic groups use their products and informs them which groups don’t so they can market their POS efforts more effectively.
Update your display products and counter space. If you really want to enhance your point-of-sale efforts, take a good look at where your products are being housed. Dented, scratched, outdated and dirty displays can have a dramatic effect on the overall look and feel of your store. Banner of California Quality Plastics recommends that you update your display units approximately every five years.
The same can be said for counters, which are core facets of the sales process. In fact, when it comes to the role counters play in impulse sales, Logsdon says that she has found it beneficial to periodically rearrange product displays to grab the attention of customers—especially repeat customers who may become “conditioned” to your store’s surroundings.
What’s more, Zock says that “while there are so many variables to counter areas, make sure the consumer can see the product, it’s well priced, and people know if there are special offers.”
Difiglio says the most common mistake he sees retailers make, “is to not put displays on top of a counter when the space is available. Very often retailers keep accessories down low in a display case that makes it inconvenient for a shopper to identify a potential purchase.”
Make a good impression. In the retail world, as in the food service industry, cleanliness is one of the biggest factors driving repeat business. If your floors are dirty, counters and display cabinets worn and your store is cluttered, customers are going to notice. “Probably one of the largest mistakes retailers make is simply a poorly run store,” Zock says. “Signs flipped open, product not neatly arranged and a general chaotic, dirty look behind the counter can be a problem. The pricing also needs to be clear and consistent.”
Disheveled employees can also impact your customers’ experiences. Establish a dress code in your employee manual that clearly identifies what is expected of them in terms of dress and personal hygiene.
Avoid overselling. As in many industries, retailers have a tendency to “oversell” their merchandise or to provide too much information. You think the more a potential customer knows about a particular cigar manufacturer, for example, the more likely they will buy the product. In reality, though, information overload can have the opposite effect. Instead of leading to a sale, it may lead to an exit—especially if a customer is overwhelmed with too much information. So be sure to monitor the amount of information you provide while watching for the overall response of the customer. If you have a unique product, with a unique story, then tell it. But be sure to gauge the response of the customer and their interest level in purchasing the product.
Train employees well. Your best customers have formed an image in their minds of what you are, what you do and how well you do it. But all of that can be quickly undone by a misguided employee. Your employees are the walking, talking billboards for your business. Every time someone in your company comes in contact with others—whether they are customers or vendors—you leave a lasting impression of your store’s “brand” on their minds. Be sure to train employees to conduct themselves in a manner consistent with your store’s brand message and they will be good-will ambassadors to your current and prospective customers.
To entice employees to improve your POS results, possibly offer incentives for increased sales during their shifts, Zock suggests. Also provide training and education on the important difference additional point-of-sale transactions make on your bottom line. Sam Difiglio suggests using cash spiffs or bonuses on humidors and accessories. Whatever method, train your employees and give them the necessary tools and displays so they feel comfortable making a concerted effort to enhance the dollar amount of each sale.
 Remember to communicate. One of the biggest mistakes retailers make is forgetting to communicate with their customers after the sale has concluded. However, this is a key communication point and sales opportunity. Remember, your customers often spend a considerable amount of time and money with you—you owe them a ‘thank you’ and you owe your store a chance to communicate with the customer one more time.
Periodically offer a “sample day” for customers interested in trying new tobacco products. You can also provide discount cards for repeat customers who spend a certain amount each month at your store.
All of the above efforts play a key role in point-of-sale marketing. It’s important that tobacco retailers find ways to begin looking at the current status of their stores and what competitors are doing to more effectively market their products at the point of sale. TR
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