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Examine your customer demographics and stock new inventory to attract and appeal

I spoke to a colleague of mine who is also in the garden centre industry. His family runs a very successful garden centre called Dutch Growers in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

The amazing thing is that the fastest growing category for their business is women’s fashion, apparel, purses and jewellery. In a garden centre! And they’re not the only ones!

As you can imagine, this sparked a lot of great conversations among other garden centre owners. The topic of selling apparel and jewellery in a garden store was discussed and debated, with some believing that these product lines go too far away from a garden centre’s core business, plants and trees. (more…)

Plan for the year with a renewed sense of optimism

Are we out of this recession? Most days, it honestly does not feel like it. However, being down at the Americas Mart Atlanta (North America’s largest gift trade show) I certainly have a renewed sense of optimism.

Compared to last year this time, the energy is greater, people are more excited, the vendors are displaying more new items and the general sense of optimism is much greater. It’s very refreshing to see. It’s almost as if everyone took last year to regroup, and now they’re ready to move forward.

For us, it is affecting our buying as well. This time last year, we were all about reducing purchases, reducing inventory and conserving cash. Now for this coming year, we’re back to looking for opportunities to buy more new products and grow our business.

I know we’re excited for the coming year. Cheers to a successful 2010!

Refine your purchasing strategy to buy products that sell

I recently had a phone conversation with a large retailer from BC. We were discussing purchasing strategies and the upcoming trade shows that we were both attending.

He told me something that he learned 30 years ago and has always stuck with him. He said; “You have to work hard to find really great deals.” He went on to say; “When I find an amazing deal, in my mind the product is already sold.”

For those of you travelling to trade shows, or reviewing your vendor buying programs, make sure you look for those great deals. Find the deals and the sales will follow!