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March 2008: The Mystery Shopper's £100 Makeover Challenge - Issue 55.
With March comes the return of longer days and a renewed feeling of business vigour for many people. The arrival of spring also triggers a natural urge to tidy one's nest, in the shape of spring cleaning. With the busy period of Christmas and St Valentine's Day in the past, March is the right time to look at giving your business a makeover or more extreme face lift. Our own Gok Wan (an anagram of Go Wank, it's been pointed out to me) ETO's Mystery Shopper -Queen of the High Street- pulls on her rubber gloves and reaches for a paintbrush to give some suggestions on how to make the most of your shop this spring, for not a lot.
I don't want to brag, but I've probably been in as many different sex shops as anyone, and have perhaps cast a more critical eye over them than most. While I might sniff at hand-written notices and the lack of visibly priced product, it's very rare that I see a problem that £100 and a morning's work wouldn't fix. While much of what follows is common sense, the practical advice given is based on problems I've seen time and time again in adult shops. So here's my £100 Makeover Challenge, which will hopefully make your store look 10 Years Younger.
Starting outside, which is where your customers come from, take a long look at how your shop appears to the casual passer-by. Is it appealing? Is it welcoming? Would it make you want to come inside and look around? There are some key things to look at:
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" If the eyes are the windows of the soul, your shop's windows are its eyes. Obviously there are a lot of local council rules about what you can have in your window -if anything- but even if yours are painted out or covered by blinds, give them a wash. Inside as well as out of you can. A dash of vinegar in the water does make a difference, or use a cheap window cleaner from your local supermarket. 74p for 500ml from Tesco
" Unless you sell dust and dead flies there shouldn't be any in the window, so get in there with a vacuum cleaner. Cobwebs and remains of tinsel have no right to be there either. £Free.
" Consider reworking your window display. Ideally it should change monthly, but this may not be practical for you, especially if you work alone. However, if it's not been touched for six months, now is the right time to pull everything out and refresh the products before they get too sun-bleached to go back on display. Have a look at a market leader like Ann Summers or even La Senza for ideas on how to keep it simple but effective. Depending on your window size, aim for between 3 and 10 products; it is a case of less is more. Stuck for an idea for a theme? Seasons are always good, and have the advantage of only needing changing every three months. You've 'Put a Spring in your step', 'Summer Lovin'' and 'Winter Warmers', for example. If you've not already got one elsewhere, a list of your opening hours in the window is a helpful addition. £Just some time and effort.
" What surrounds your windows is very important too. Like a frame to a picture, it sets them off. Peeling paint really looks bad, and it's not a big job to rub them down, add some masking tape and give them a lick of paint. Paintquality.co.uk has some great advice on what paint to use for different surfaces and how best to apply it. Approx. £5 for 250ml.
" After the window/s, the next most critical thing to get looking good is your doorway. Do you need all the stickers and signs on it? A warning about being over 18 to enter is important, but I see lots of external doors with all kinds of notices on them. Declutter if you can. If there's a large step up into the shop, or several steps, think about painting the steps a contrasting colour to make them more obvious and easy to use in low light, or for anyone with poor eyesight. In a growingly litigious society, anything to keep any accident the other person's fault is a good idea. £Cheap.
" Look up from the street. If it's your storeroom, are there boxes in upstairs windows or very ugly curtains? Could an LED or neon OPEN sign on a timer be up there instead? £30 from eBay.
" Further up, are your gutters ok? I see a lot of stained brickwork on adult shops, and it's a sign of water getting where it shouldn't, which in turn can lead to damp problems inside. It'll take a ladder and a head for heights to check them, but it's worth doing, or having done. If upkeep is the responsibility of someone else, they may have to regularly inspect and repair things as a part of your contract, of course. £Free?
" Speaking of discoloured walls, masonry paint isn't expensive, and repainting the outside of the shop is another job to do or have done while you've got that ladder out. With a big brush or long nap roller to get into the cracks, it's perhaps the single most important thing you can do to spruce up the outside of your shop. The choice of what colour you can use may be controlled by your local council or landlord/lady, but if you can move away from black or white, it will make your shop that bit more attention-grabbing. £12.98 for 5 litres from B&Q. The 'Knowledge Centre' on their website, www.DIY.co.uk is well worth a look for practical painting and decorating advice.
" Signage is particularly prone to gathering grime if it uses raised lettering, so a bucket of warm water with a dash of washing-up liquid and a sponge with scouring surface might be useful. Not that you'll be peeling anything off on my say-so, but the plural of Mag is Mags, not Mag's. £Free.
" If you're allowed one, a sign at right-angles to the road is a good idea. They're often more eye-catching for the passer-by on your side of the street. If the cost or other factors stop you from having one, a floor-standing sandwich-board type sign is a sensible alternative. Your adult shop licensing contact should be able to tell you whether you're prohibited from having either or both. £Various. From £27.98 from eBay. Search for Sandwich Board.
" Again take a step back and see if there's anything wrong, dirty, broken, ugly or missing with the face your shop presents to the world. You might believe your customers don't give a damn how it looks, but they do, and the people who could be put off visiting by how it looks do too. And even if they don't either, your local councillors probably do... Presenting a business-like image to the world is perhaps the best way to be treated in a business-like way by it.
Around the back, if you're lucky enough to have parking or even a second access point to the shop, you need to make as much of it as possible. With discretion, or at least convenience, being important to adult shop customers, rear entry must appeal! Make sure you promote your private parking on the front of the shop and try to make it as nice as possible back there. Doubtless there will be bins and bobs, but a couple of shrubs in pots either side of the back door will distract from them. Paintwork can safely be extra bright and you can add a security light and a fake camera to dissuade burglars. Less visually attractive features, such as window bars, are also a wise investment. I've been in several shops recovering from the effects of robberies where the perpetrators had come in through the rear of the building, away from prying eyes. Insurance companies don't pay out unless they're happy you've taken reasonable precautions against theft. Some might regard a lack of ironwork as not taking reasonable precautions.
Back at the front of your shop, you may well have an antechamber leading to your sales area to comply with licensing rules. In my experience, these are often woefully underused because they're effectively 'dead' space. Whilst it's not easy to utilise as a sales opportunity, I've seen 'tasteful' framed art prints screwed to the walls used to good affect. First impressions count and this is the first taste your customers, and potential customers, get of the inside of your shop. At the very least some clean bright paintwork and regularly cleaned/hovered floor will make it feel warm and welcoming.
Moving properly inside, three things hit visitors at once; the smell, the lighting level and the floor. Until they actually focus on the products on the wall your stock is just so much 'noise'. Before customers begin browsing, they'll notice the above so it's key to make the right impression.
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" If your shop smells a bit musty when you arrive in the morning, but this smell soon goes away, in fact you're getting used to the smell. Every customer will get the same hint of wet dog on entry, so have a can of air freshener, or better still an odour eliminator rather than masker like Oust®. Give a squirt in the morning and another after lunch, especially if this is eaten on the sales floor. £1 for 300ml from Tesco.
" Lighting design is one of the true arts of retail. Too bright and it seems harsh and clinical. Too dim and the shop feels dark and dingy. Too patchy and you end up with some well lit areas and some dark and foreboding corners. There are 'rules' about what total wattage you should be using for how many square metres you have to illuminate, but this doesn't take into account the type of lighting (spots, tubes, table lamps, recessed, etc.) or how it's arranged. One simple thing to do is ensure all tubes are working, and taking them down to give them a wipe with a damp cloth. Same goes for any dusty reflectors. Think about where your lights are pointing and what strength of bulb they have in them. Keeping it green, consider replacing them with energy-saving bulbs as they fail. £Not much.
" I have been criticised for being a carpet-obsessive but if you, like me, can actually see the difference in your home when you've given it a much needed Hoover, you'll know why I think what your visitor's feet touch is so important. Pick up any bits of packaging, and if possible, stock, off the floor. If you have chewing gum engrained in your carpet try to scrape away as much of it as possible, using a spatula or spoon. Next, vacuum or brush up any loose pieces left. If there is still some gum clinging to the carpet fibres, rub a plastic bag filled with ice cubes over the area, until the gum fragments freeze. Now you can chip them gently away using a spatula or spoon again. Finally, you can dissolve any final traces by dabbing with dry-cleaning fluid and then blotting dry, followed by mild washing up detergent and water, before rinsing thoroughly. If you're still struggling, any commercial carpet cleaner with a hot water extraction unit (steam cleaner) will be able to remove the gum, even if it is an old stain. As this won't be cheap think of it as a last resort. If there are holes in the carpet, consider a couple of basic rugs or mats to hide them. Carpet tape is not a long term solution and you'd be surprised how cheaply and quickly tatty carpet can be replaced by easy-to-clean laminate or easy-to-replace carpet tiles. £Depends.
An addition to the key-three points above, another thing that makes a shop atmospheric is music. The rules on what can be played and who you have to deal with are pretty simple. If you play music recordings in public you need to contact the PPL on 0207 5340 1000 or via www.ppluk.com and the PRS on 08000 684828 or via www.prs.co.uk. There may be two different license fees to budget for, but if you just have music radio on, it'll probably only be the PRS (Performing Rights Society) that you need to pay. Licenses aren't unreasonable and for me music really makes a noticeable difference to the character of a shop. Anything you can do to make the environment more enjoyable and comfortable will make your customers want to browse longer and your products seem more reasonably priced. It's all very subtle, but it's been scientifically proven that the psychological payoff of getting your atmosphere right are visitors who are more likely to stay in your shop longer, more likely to make a purchase, and are likely to spend more too.
Turning to stock, how it's arranged is another art. Displays should be themed by product type (plugs with plugs, dildos with dildos, interracial titles with interracial titles) or by brand (Mantric with Mantric, Fun Factory with Fun Factory, Combat Zone with Combat Zone) - Limiting the number of brands you stock can help maintain a uniform appearance and ease of product identification too. What doesn't work well is running out of space for product X and putting it with product Y until you find the time to move things around. It's an easy habit to get into and very quickly this can lead to a hotchpotch of products which confuses and agitates the shopper, if only subconsciously. A lot of what happens to a browser in your shop is subliminal, but with a bit of thought it is possible to send out all the right signals and make their experience of your shop a positive one.
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" DVDs sleeves are designed to have two faces- the front and the back. The spine is for seeing at home when you've already bought it. If at all possible, try to display your films front-on, without anything covering them up. If this isn't possible, you may need to think about finding more space for films, or stocking fewer titles.
" If you don't have an area for latest releases, consider putting one up. It can be as simple as a small stand on the counter with the five or six titles you think will be your biggest sellers that week. A dedicated area of shelves, perhaps in a contrasting colour to those around them, can also draw repeat visitors who know there will always be something new for them to look at there. £Cheap.
" If individual films are priced, ensure each has only one price label on it, and that's not been stuck over an older one. A dab of 'sticky stuff remover' will get rid of those annoying marks: £4.99 for 125ml from Betterware.
" If you have blanket prices and deals on the DVDs, edging strips for proper shelves are easy enough to make with home PC with printer, and some glossy card. If your shelving is a bit less advanced, A4 is probably too large for a sign. Try printing two per A4 and having one per metre of shelving. If you don't want to go to the expense of laminating them, card with a glossy face can be bought from your local WH Smiths. Try printing using the same 'corporate colours' as the front of your shop (be that black and white, yellow or pink) and attach them with sticky pads rather than Blu-Tack™ or drawing pins as this will cause less staining/damage and trouble when it comes to move or replace them. £1.49 for sticky pads from WH Smith. Glossy card, £Various.
" VHS cassettes are rather 'yesterday' so you might need them gone this spring/summer. They're probably taking up wall or basket space you'd make more from with something else, so don't be shy about getting shot of them. It's not just about what they cost and what you get for them, it's about the money you'll make from that wall space with something more people actually want! They can also make a shop feel old-fashioned and less appealing because of this.
" As with all products, dust and muck won't help make anything look worth what you're asking for it. A weekly dusting is important. You can also use moving the stock as an excuse to put it back in a different order. So long as it still makes sense it'll add interest for returning shoppers.
" Of the televisions and flat screens I see in adult shops, the majority are blank. This always strikes me as a shame. The ones which aren't blank tend to be showing TV for the benefit of the manager or manageress. I also think this is a shame. Of the others, many are just showing a menu screen. This is the biggest shame of all. Screens should, in an ideal world, be showing a recent release, with the DVD case close-by so shoppers will know what they're seeing. Most DVD players can be set to play 'A-B', meaning you can press play in the morning, hit A, skip forward to just before the end, press B, and then leave the machine playing the whole film on a loop until you go home. Giving the screen a wipe with a duster daily is also good practice.
Non-films come in different packaging with their own unique demands. Blister packs and bubble packs can have their hangers in the wrong place, meaning they hang at an odd angle. It's not your fault, but you can fix this problem with either self adhesive hangers or by moving them to a shelf rather than a peg. Alternatively, use wider pegs rather than simple ones to 'force' the product to 'sit up straight'. Other suggestions:
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" Cardboard boxes can really suffer, so if you have anything very tatty, be sure to move it to a Bargain Bin. You don't have to change the price; in law Bargain isn't the same as Sale for retailers. Issue 53 of ETO had some great advice about when a sale is not a sale, and what a promotion is. A bargain never has to be a bargain!
" The choice of when and how to price products is important. Most big retailers don't price individual products these days, choosing to rely on peg-end or on-shelf pricing. As this may not work for you, think about where you want your products labelled and stick to this as far as possible. Top-left and bottom-right seem popular choices, but whether this is on the front for ease of reading, or on the back to 'make' visitors interact with the product by picking it up is up to you. There are strong arguments for both front and rear pricing, but personally I think front is better for adult products that people may be initially too inhibited to pick up and look at the back of.
" Facing-up product was something drummed into me when I worked in retail, and I'd prowl the shop looking for gaps in products to fill with new stock. I still find myself doing it in other people's stores! It gives a shelf a uniform appearance and ensures nothing gets hidden behind slower-selling lines. Ideally you should pull old stock to the front and put the newer items to the rear to avoid anything staying on the shelf forever. £Free.
" If you stock them, non-boxed clothes should be inspected and not over-packed on rails. There should be 6" of free space at least, allowing items to be slid along for easy access to the item which catches your customer's attention. Things also look better on one style of hangers, so if you have a mixture, consider swapping the odd ones with others from home if you have some. If not, £3 for eight wooden ones from Tesco.
" Product range can be a mystery to me sometimes. Why does one shop stock contact magazines while another does not? Why do some have adult board games and others do not? More space typically means more lines, but not always, and the choice of those lines is clearly a very personal thing. Keeping an open mind on what you stock, and trying new things from time to time has to be a good idea though. If it doesn't work out, there's always the bargain bin
One thing I learned while managing a shop and overseeing others was to make sure I did five things in it/them daily which I'd not do every day. That is to say try to find fault, and solve the problem, five times a day. In a working week this is 30 issues looked at. Be they big or small, by being self-critical over time the outcome was -and is- a better retailer. I used to start at the floor and work my way up. Did that cracked plug socket need looking at? Was all the delivery out and stock faced-up? Was there a new product I needed to educate myself about? Was the wall around the light switch clean? Were any of the lights out...?
The counter is the flight deck of your shop. Wherever the till is, this is the control centre. And for add-on sales, it's the killing zone. The number of shops I visit with no visible batteries is shocking. They're an obvious way of adding value to a sale. Make sure there's plenty of lighting above the counter area so consumable products there, poppers, condoms, lube, whatever are well lit. These are all good low-cost impulse purchases and the counter is the place to make the most of them.
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" Most shops I visit I'm met with a manager or manageress on a seat. Or rather, most sex shops I visit. I can't think of any other type of shop that does this as a matter of course. While I accept a seat in a shop that has a low footfall makes perfect sense, I do like to see more than the top of someone's head and hear a grunt to let me know they've seen me as I walk in. A simple hello, good morning or good afternoon, followed some minutes later by a do you need any help? can make a big difference to anyone's shopping experience. All the better if it's from someone who can actually be seen. If you don't even look up from your newspaper you are failing your customers, in my opinion. More than that, it's an invitation to shoplifters to help themselves!
" Clutter isn't sexy, so try to keep it to a minimum. Lots of adult shops are on the small side I know, but if you can keep your range and stock levels pitched right you shouldn't have to have piles of product on the floor or hanging from the ceiling like stuffed crocodiles in an apothecary's shop. Sometimes this can be quite cool, but you shouldn't have to dodge about to get your head from one end of the shop without getting a thigh boot in the ear or ball-gag bounced off your forehead.
" The equipment of a shop, from vacuum cleaner to electric fans, should be off the sales floor except when they're being used. Hide them behind the counter if you have to, but get them out of sight and out of mind somehow.
" Dressing up the front of a counter, unless it doubles as a display case, with posters is a good idea. There's limited POS for adult retailers, but filling otherwise dead space (walls on stairs, door to the office) isn't a bad idea. Standees and other large items only make sense if you've the room for them. Don't try crowding one in where it really doesn't want to be. It's better to have visible products than something visible promoting products, yet hiding others.
" If you've been lucky enough to get a good review on ETO's Mystery Shopper pages, don't be shy about cutting it out, or both pages, and putting it/them up near the counter. Customers find these things reassuring! £Money well spent!
" While at the counter, remember the offer of help will make your visitors feel wanted and valued. If 'do you need any help?' feels too confrontational or like a closed question to you, an alternative is 'if you need any help, just ask'. The classic open question approach of 'How can I help?' may be too assumptive for a sex shop and could easily get the response, 'you can help by letting me browse in peace'. You work surrounded by porn and sex toys every day; it can lead to thinking your customers are as relaxed as they appear on the outside. On the inside they may be far less comfortable and it's staff sensitive to that who I've witnessed in action that have stood out in my memory. The difference between leaving a pleasant impression and a poor one can be as little as a smile and a hello. They will make visitors more likely to return, and more likely to spend with you in future. With many adult shops I've visited it's been the staff -both good and bad- who've had the single biggest impact on the stars awarded, reflecting the importance of good customer service- and simple manners sometimes.
" Your walls shouldn't cause you many problems. In theory they ought to be obscured by stock but if you do find yourself with a gap you can't immediately fill with something that makes sense there don't hold back from pulling the empty peg off and rejigging the other stock to fill the space. You can always replace it when you've something to go on it, and a little more room between products (so long as it's not too much) is better than empty pegs.
" Managing the space within a shop can be difficult. Do you use tall island stands to maximise the amount of stock they can hold, or do you use a lower one to keep the shop feeling open and accessible? There is a right answer to this one, but what it is depends on your shop and your needs. One thing I can be certain of is make sure any side rooms or the stairs to an upper level of products are easily seen and readily identified. A contrasting colour surrounding a doorway to additional sales space is an easy way to ensure it's not overlooked. I've missed antechambers in more than one shop I've seen, and nearly overlooked tiny 'DVD's (sic) Upstairs' notices in another, so don't assume that just because you know where everything is that your visitors will too. Different coloured floor tiles can make a path to follow, and signage is a sure-fire way to highlight additional areas. Breaking a larger room up into themed zones is also a simple way to add interest and clarity for visitors, and if you have ceilings high enough, a hanging sign over them leaves shoppers in no doubt as to what they'll find there. If it works for supermarkets, or on the High Street, and you can adapt it to your needs, there's no reason any useful technique won't work for you
" Still focussing on displays, think about how high and how low you place products on your walls. Your best sellers should all be around chest height to be most visible and accessible, with 'B-List' lines above and below. Only go above head height with male-focus products (dolls?) because they'll typically be the only people tall enough to reach them. Go below knee height with care as not everyone will want to bend down that low - it makes sense to use that level for larger products with big boxes which are easily identified from above, such as games.
" Pegboard was ok in 1977, but I pass skips every day with better display systems piled in them. A specialist shop fitter will be able to convert an area, wall or store to slat wall or you can find mesh display stands cheaply on eBay. Just search for 'Shop Display' - You can also find glass cabinets at bargain prices this way, but only consider something close enough to collect by car or van. Glass in the post is usually a bad idea.
I'm sorry if this feature has felt like I've tried to tell you your business, but the vast majority of the shops I visit for ETO get one or more of the above wrong - and the basic errors really are as simple to avoid as they seem. I hope your store/s is/are among the exceptional ones and if, on reading the above, you can't find any fault with your business, you should feel pretty smug. You've earned it! Five stars!
For more ideas on how to make the most of your shop, do an internet search or get a copy of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Starting and Running a Retail Store or Retail Business Kit for Dummies. A lot of it you'll know, but there may be a gem in there that makes the £9.24/£13.19 (from Amazon) purchase price an investment with a return. Otherwise the '£100 Challenge' advice above was free, and cheap at twice the price!