What’s on the front of your cash wrap station?

If you’re like one retailer at a recent trade show, your idea books and magazines are on the front of your cash wrap counter. And they’re not selling.

When we spoke with her, this retailer was upset with the publishers. Her concern? Her books and magazines weren’t moving—and she didn’t know why. After all, she had merchandised them face-forward in clear plexi holders. They were grouped together to create an “Idea Center” area. They were all placed right by the register.

Where? By the register?

“I hang my books and magazines in plexi pockets attached to the outside front of the cash register counter—where the customer stands when she’s paying,” she said.

Oh, no! As it turns out, this is one of the biggest merchandising mistakes retailers make.

Placement Promotes Product

“Don’t merchandise any product at or below waist level,” advises retailing guru George Whalin, author of Retail Success who spoke at ACCI in 2002. While that’s not always practical, especially for retailers with a small store, it is a good piece of merchandising advice to follow when talking about your cash wrap counter. Whalin even showed this slide at his seminar: A picture of a cash stand with product attached to the front of it. He commented, “Never display product at knee level. People just don’t see it.”

Our retailer’s register faces the center of her store, which is filled with racks and t-stands of merchandise. The customer would never be far enough away from the front of the register to get a straight-on view of the book and magazine covers.

Another factor that played a role: Like many retailers, her register is right inside the door of her store—inside the all-important “decompression zone”. This zone is the front 10-12 feet of the store; it’s a great place to put a register because any merchandise placed here is typically unseen and unsold. Why? When the customer enters the store, she needs to “decompress”, or get acclimated, before she can shop. A customer’s senses are affected when she walks into a store: the temperature changes, sound and smell change from the sidewalk to the inside of your store. And of course things change visually, too: the customer leaves the wide open space of a parking lot and enters a small, colorful world of papers, stickers, pens and more in a dazzling array. It’s visual overload!

This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t place signage behind the register or merchandise small impulse items on top of the register counter. Customers who are making a purchase will be forced to wait for at least a few moments while their purchases are tallied, giving them a chance to read the signage and look at the impulse items. If there’s a wall behind the register, post class samples, “Look What’s Coming” signage or pages designed by the Scrapper of the Month.

Our Retailer’s Lesson

And our retailer? After talking about it, she decided to ask an unbiased third party to visit her store to look for specific items she had merchandised on the front of her cash wrap stand. She planned to make changes to her merchandising based on the results of this visit. If her mystery shopper couldn’t find the latest issue of Memory Makers magazine or Making Designer Scrapbook Pages after a few minutes in the store, she knew to move these items away from the front of her cash wrap counter and place them in another area. The results of her test? Her third-party “customers” could not find their assigned products—and the retailer realized the potential loss in sales.

“I originally put the product on the front of my cash wrap because I simply didn’t know where else to merchandise it,” our retailer reported. “And because I knew the books and magazines were, I forgot that my customers didn’t! Now I know—and I’ll put those idea books and magazines where they’ll sell!”

Tips on Merchandising Books and Magazines

1. Establish an Idea Center to merchandise idea books and magazines. Position titles face-forward, allowing the customer to see as much of the cover as possible. One independent retailer has all her idea books in one library in the store; new books are placed on a table at the front of the store.
2. Take advantage of the projects in books and magazines—they help you sell product! Make a sample project for display, then place the sample next to the book.
3. Merchandise books and magazines next to the product category. For example, place Cardmaker’s Idea Book ((LINK TO 2333) next to your Cardmaker’s™ products (LINK TO CARDMAKERS CATEGORY PAGE). It will help inspire impulse buys of the book and in the long run, sell more of your consumable product such as paper and embellishments.
4. You sell what you show. Suggestion-sell books and magazines. If a customer is purchasing vellum, ask her if she’s seen What Can I Do With Vellum? (LINK TO 2281) Even better, ask her this question when she’s debating whether or not to purchase that vellum—you may get an unexpected sale!
5. Books of paper are different than idea books! Don’t merchandise your Paper Pizazz™ paper books with idea books—place them with your scrapbooking paper.
6. Don’t forget another place to “merchandise” your books: in your promotional literature…newsletters, emails, gift registries—any place where your customer can see the book or magazine even if she’s not in your store at the time. Be sure to announce new books (and corresponding product) together.