In Pro Shop parlance, 2009 may be remembered as the year of the “affordable souvenir”. Keep this and return on investment in mind as you think through product selection and prepare your staff for the upcoming season. The Winston Golf Company mentioned last week has some great products that fit this definition such as stainless mugs and coaster sets but probably the easiest way to provide this $25 - $30 item is with headwear.
Take a look at pre-books and the selection of shirts coming in for spring. Place an order for 6 dozen caps (6 skus, 12 deep) that are unique to your current selection and match up well with the incoming shirts, remembering that a neutral cap can work with even the most flamboyant of shirts. Role play with your staff suggesting headwear with every shirt purchase and display the six dozen piece order near the register to make this process easy. This retail salesmanship is the kind of service and conversation you want your staff to have a reputation for if they don’t already. If you sold 3000 shirts last year and 1000 hats and you were not educating your staff to suggest one with the other you lost 2000 opportunities to increase your volume and perhaps more importantly your margin.
A partner who has all the ammunition you need to improve this customized category is Imperial Headwear. Below are a few ideas as to how to take advantage of Imperial’s incredible service, innovation and realization that it is your brand being marketed on customized product – not theirs:
MARCH – Imperial can now ship New Era caps including licensed rights to Major League Baseball, NBA, NHL and collegiate logos. Consider buying six skus with the local college logos and set up a table with club-logoed shirts in the same colors with perhaps even some needle point belts and/or key bobs from Smathers & Branson with the same school logos. This is a great table to have on the floor for March Madness. More on Smathers & Branson later [see Sites to Visit].
APRIL – Build a shirt and hat table with the local MLB team logo on the cap. If you are at a high-end club in Denver thinking that the club logo is the only one you want to display, consider that all your headwear- wearing members probably own 10-12 caps and visors with the club logo but may also be adamant Rockies fans who would like to patronize the shop with that business. Check the MLB schedule and no matter where you are located, take advantage of the Yankees/Red Sox match-ups. The N.Y. Yankee cap is the largest selling customized cap on the planet and the Red Sox logoed headwear is not far behind.
MAY – Go Green! Buy six dozen caps that are recycled or naturally organic fibers - see pages 2-3 in the Imperial catalog [see Sites to Visit]. Place one each of the six caps on the counter and have your Imperial rep educate your staff as to how to strike up an Eco-Friendly conversation. Culturally it is one of the “in” topics to be discussing and an opportunity to sell a cap to the member/regular customer who has a wardrobe of club caps but only has cotton twill.
JUNE – Go High-Tech! Take an 8” wall, rig it with 3 – 4 waterfalls of performance shirts and finish off the top of the display with a shelf containing 6 – 8 skus of high tech caps that complement the shirts - see pages 4-8 in catalog. Again, make sure your staff understands the proper jargon to suggest this product. Four-ways that allow you to shelve one of the sides for caps is another great space for this performance story. POS pieces that explain high-tech product also help this type of display.
It may sound from these suggestions that there is some conflict between lowering your inventory advice and buying as many as 24 dozen extra hats this season but it is hard to be over-inventoried in goods that typically cost less than $10 per unit and easily retail for $25. It is, in fact, the category that should be easiest this season to increase and sell through if there is an execution of the plan.
Rick White (President), Roger Landry (Vice-President) and the rest of the Imperial group are truly empathic about your business. They can turn orders overnight and look at every customer problem/issue as an opportunity to separate their company from the competition. Imperial continues to reinvent themselves and their product line knowing that, while the basic cotton twill wall may remain the crux of your business, there should be more to your business. You may want to speak to your Imperial rep to give one or two of these ideas a try.
If you have any unique suggestions or experiences with merchandising headwear please share them in the comments under this entry.
Take a look at pre-books and the selection of shirts coming in for spring. Place an order for 6 dozen caps (6 skus, 12 deep) that are unique to your current selection and match up well with the incoming shirts, remembering that a neutral cap can work with even the most flamboyant of shirts. Role play with your staff suggesting headwear with every shirt purchase and display the six dozen piece order near the register to make this process easy. This retail salesmanship is the kind of service and conversation you want your staff to have a reputation for if they don’t already. If you sold 3000 shirts last year and 1000 hats and you were not educating your staff to suggest one with the other you lost 2000 opportunities to increase your volume and perhaps more importantly your margin.
A partner who has all the ammunition you need to improve this customized category is Imperial Headwear. Below are a few ideas as to how to take advantage of Imperial’s incredible service, innovation and realization that it is your brand being marketed on customized product – not theirs:
MARCH – Imperial can now ship New Era caps including licensed rights to Major League Baseball, NBA, NHL and collegiate logos. Consider buying six skus with the local college logos and set up a table with club-logoed shirts in the same colors with perhaps even some needle point belts and/or key bobs from Smathers & Branson with the same school logos. This is a great table to have on the floor for March Madness. More on Smathers & Branson later [see Sites to Visit].
APRIL – Build a shirt and hat table with the local MLB team logo on the cap. If you are at a high-end club in Denver thinking that the club logo is the only one you want to display, consider that all your headwear- wearing members probably own 10-12 caps and visors with the club logo but may also be adamant Rockies fans who would like to patronize the shop with that business. Check the MLB schedule and no matter where you are located, take advantage of the Yankees/Red Sox match-ups. The N.Y. Yankee cap is the largest selling customized cap on the planet and the Red Sox logoed headwear is not far behind.
MAY – Go Green! Buy six dozen caps that are recycled or naturally organic fibers - see pages 2-3 in the Imperial catalog [see Sites to Visit]. Place one each of the six caps on the counter and have your Imperial rep educate your staff as to how to strike up an Eco-Friendly conversation. Culturally it is one of the “in” topics to be discussing and an opportunity to sell a cap to the member/regular customer who has a wardrobe of club caps but only has cotton twill.
JUNE – Go High-Tech! Take an 8” wall, rig it with 3 – 4 waterfalls of performance shirts and finish off the top of the display with a shelf containing 6 – 8 skus of high tech caps that complement the shirts - see pages 4-8 in catalog. Again, make sure your staff understands the proper jargon to suggest this product. Four-ways that allow you to shelve one of the sides for caps is another great space for this performance story. POS pieces that explain high-tech product also help this type of display.
It may sound from these suggestions that there is some conflict between lowering your inventory advice and buying as many as 24 dozen extra hats this season but it is hard to be over-inventoried in goods that typically cost less than $10 per unit and easily retail for $25. It is, in fact, the category that should be easiest this season to increase and sell through if there is an execution of the plan.
Rick White (President), Roger Landry (Vice-President) and the rest of the Imperial group are truly empathic about your business. They can turn orders overnight and look at every customer problem/issue as an opportunity to separate their company from the competition. Imperial continues to reinvent themselves and their product line knowing that, while the basic cotton twill wall may remain the crux of your business, there should be more to your business. You may want to speak to your Imperial rep to give one or two of these ideas a try.
If you have any unique suggestions or experiences with merchandising headwear please share them in the comments under this entry.
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