Pampering Your Customers

“Developing Markets,” a monthly series that will appear in each issue of Lawn & Garden Retailer, will profile eight of these potential new markets, giving insight into the health of the market, relating how other garden centers have mastered the category and profiling some of the best new products in the category.

• January: Pet Supplies
• February: Gourmet Food
• March: Tabletop
• April: Linens
• June: Stationery
• July: Personal Care
• August: Jewelry
• November: Collectables

Picture this: Spring is over, summer is coming to a close and all you can think about are your aching bones, dirty finger nails, sun-scorched face and cracked/blistered feet. One day, as you are sitting in your office crunching the numbers, hoping and praying that there is one more zero to be found on the end of that spring total, in walks your best, most wealthy customer. They walk up to you and present you with a certificate for a day at the spa (because they wanted you to know how much they appreciate that you have the best quality plant material, most exciting merchandise and best customer service around), you suddenly get whisked away and spend the day getting pampered with a massage, facial, pedicure, manicure, hair cut, makeover, and the list goes on and on (yes, guys this can be you too; we women aren’t obsessed with spas just to get out of doing the dishes). Suddenly you realize, “wait, why I am here getting this done at a luxurious spa when I have all of the products in my own store to do this at home?”

Ok, so that thought would not really have entered your mind as you were getting a heavenly massage, but it was a good segway into what I am trying to get to, which is carrying personal care items in your store. Within the last 10 years, bath and body products have become a huge trend in the gift market. Ten years ago, these products were considered a luxury or a treat — something you got for special occasions (because they were so expensive). Suddenly, personal care has become affordable and a hot new item. Sure, there have always been basic hand lotions and soaps, but nothing like what we see today; it’s on almost every street corner. Stores such as Bath & Body Works, The Body Shop, Crabtree and Evelyn, and more have become pampering powerhouses. There are products out there that make you smell good, add extra moisture, soothe you to sleep at night, keep your hands from cracking, anything and everything to make your body a glowing haven of youth and serenity.

Bring the Spa Home

Last year, sales of personal care products (e.g., soaps, cosmetics, lotions and potions) totaled $20.7 billion, up about 4 percent from $19.9 billion from 2003, and there are no signs that the growth is going to slow down, according to a study done by Unity Marketing. Garden centers all across the country are adding lotions, soaps, shower gel and more to their gift departments because, plain and simple, it is in such high demand. Ever since the big box vs. independent garden center (IGC) debate became so popular, IGCs have been looking for ways to stand out — to keep the customers coming to them instead of going to the boxes. Adding an extensive gift department was one of the greatest ideas. Most of this merchandise will not only appeal to the customer visually but physically as well. That is where personal care items come into play.

Garden centers are looking to offer the home gardener the whole experience of gardening, not just the materials to put the garden in place. There are the garden accents to add ambiance, the outdoor living materials to show it all off, the nick knacks to bring a hint of the garden inside and the luxury personal care items to pamper the customer after spending long hours in the garden trying to make it beautiful.

Manufacturers are making it much easier for garden centers to add these types of items to their gift departments by adding gardeners’ lines of lotions, soaps, sun screen, chap stick, shower gel, etc. Gardeners feel that there is something out there for them; someone cares about all of the hard work they do in the yard to make it look so beautiful, and now they deserve to be pampered because of it. Implementation

Yes, many garden centers have been housing personal care items for a while now, but not all are using the product line to its full advantage, or worse, some garden centers have not started carrying those items at all. This category has huge potential to add a lot of volume to your gift sales…as long as you do it the right way.

If you are off to a slow start or want to start carrying personal care items, there are some good ways to see if customers are going to bite or not:

Many times just setting up a small display at the cash register is one way to grab the shopper’s attention. Make it an impulse item. Have a sample of some of the items sitting right there so they can try it in line and grab one on the way out. Personal care companies have tons of product samples and usually don’t mind giving them out to show people what their product is all about. Ask the manufacturer for some free samples and use them in a promotion (spend $10 and get a free lotion sample) or have a day where everyone that walks though the door gets a free sample (this is also a good idea for those off-season times when you are looking for things to bring customers into the store.)

In Judy Sharpton’s article on page 14, she suggests that gardens centers should invest in a container gardening department, and in that department there should be an area where the customer can get their hands dirty and pot up some plants. However, that should not be the case unless there is a nice sink right there to clean up with. What better place to put those new personal care products for the customer to try?

Finally, carry the brands that are designed specifically for gardeners. People tend to feel special when a product is made specifically for them, and they are drawn to it. They will stand there and read the package and think, “yes, I get cracked hands after gardening; I do tend to get a little sun burned; I would like some good anti-bacterial soap to clean up with.” That connection with the product will often be enough to make the sale.

Catering to the Customer

There are so many things you can do to help introduce these kinds of products to your customers. But ultimately, who are the customers you want to introduce this type of product line to? We all know that 80 percent of your customer base is women, and who loves to be pampered more than anyone in this world? Women. Personal care product packaging and POP are usually geared Á toward women. Give the women a special day at your garden center. Call it women’s appreciation day, and use these personal care items to your advantage. We all talk about how we want to sell more plants, we need to make people understand that our quality is better or our customer service is better, right? What better way to do that than by pampering the very people who are going to see those characteristics the most.