How can pool and spa retailers improve their showroom design in order to increase sales and make customers’ shopping more enjoyable? We spoke to Ted Lawrence, a vice president of pro sales at BioLab and a retail specialist. He discussed how dealers can feel more confident entering busy seasons. He shares 47 tips for showroom design.
GENERAL SHOWROOM DESIGN
1. A new coat of paint is the best way to refresh a showroom. This can be done by pool and spa retailers during off-season. Modernize your colors and move away from earth-tone browns. Gray and silver will instantly transform a showroom into something more modern and clean.
2. No longer are you restricted to a tropical-themed pool shop. Make your store feel like a home.
3. To enhance the modern look of your store, mix textures such as wood and stone.
4 In order to differentiate between customer and retail associate during the pandemic, spa and pool retailers may have used plexiglass or plastic. It is time to remove those barriers. They were cold and impersonal, and served their purpose.
5 A showroom should feel more spacious than crowded. During the pandemic, we learned that customers like to be close, but not too close. Your congested or tight aisles need to be rethought. Encourage people to gather more. Be more linear and less zig-zag.
6. Make the most of your ceiling height and wall space. Many overstock products are now found in grocery stores. What happens often in spa and pool stores is that we take extra inventory and then, realizing that we don’t have much back room, we put it on the floor. This is a bad idea.
7. You can upgrade your self size. Instead of using a 12-inch or 18-inch self, buy shelves that are 20 inches or 24 inches deep. These shelves will allow you to get more detail and keep the product less cluttered.
8. Reality is perception. It is still all about cleanliness. Lighting can play a significant role in this (think of the doctor’s office). A bright showroom will make it feel cleaner and more sanitary. A higher Kelvin bulb is recommended, anything above 5,000 Kelvin is acceptable.
9. The design of your pool store should be from the point of entry to its back. As you move back in, the pool should become more difficult. Start at the front door and make owning a pool enjoyable. You will find items that make life easier as you move backwards. This includes products such as vacuum equipment and leaf rakes.
ROTATING MERCHANDISE
10. At least three times per year, refresh your store: Memorial Day; Labor Day; It’s important to have a reason for rotating merchandise. It should be thoughtful and have meaning. This is a wonderful time of year to do this.
11. However, it is important to ensure that your staple items are in the same place. Let me give you an example. What would you think if your favorite grocery store moved all of your staple items? I know where my milk is and where my eggs are. I know where the pasta aisles are. It’s okay to make some changes, but you shouldn’t let the mainstays of your store move too much.
12. Make the most of your end caps. The seasonal end caps should be updated with new items. End caps should show items with a high margin of profit: This could be a newer product, something the customer chooses because it’s convenient, or something that is timely. For example, pool and spa retailers could display opening supplies in a seasonal market.
13. Customers should avoid the “triangle purchase.” This is when they walk in the front door, find the product they are looking for, then go straight to the register to pay. It will encourage customers to shop and stay if you replace their end caps and display cases. We all know that customers will buy more if they are satisfied with their stay.
14. Reminder: You not only rotate merchandise for customers, but also for employees. Your employees will find the store both exciting and practical.
APPEAL TO THE SENSES
Sound
15. You do not need a quiet showroom. Listen to music. Many services offer playlists and streaming. Pandora for Business, for instance, is a service from Pandora. Modern playlists are available even from the Muzak company, which is still around. Some hot tubs come with stereos, which can be used to play music.
Touch
16 Touch is all about interaction. Displays should be attractive so that people can touch, feel, and see products. Perhaps it’s the cool display at your swimming pool, with a controller or app that turns on and off lights. Make it interactive.
17. Customers are often greeted with chemicals when they enter a pool shop. ScentAir allows you to sample scents. You will be sent a small sample kit and they will help you choose the right scent for your business. You can also use their scent-masking technology to mask the smell of unpleasant scents. You can also choose a theme scent – different scents for different sections to create the impression that you are in a different area of your showroom.
18. Simple diffusers have become very popular. You simply add essential oils to the diffuser and water is added. The diffuser will then run all day.
Avoid plug-in scents that are cheap. They don’t smell as good and don’t last as long.
Taste
20. Keep a container of ice cream and simple freezer bars handy in the summer. This is a great little icebreaker you can give the customer.
21. Wintertime hot tubs: A little coffee bar with hot cocoa, crushed peppermint, and marshmallows. You can use a Keurig machine to make different types of pods.
22. There are only ceramic cups. This means that the customer must finish their coffee or cocoa before they leave. The customer’s go-to cup is used to say “Get out of here!” while the ceramic cup lets them browse and have fun.
23. Your ceramic cups can be customized with your logo and contact information. Customers can also take their purchase home if they make a purchase.
THE CHECKOUT COUNTER
24. It is time to rethink how big your checkout counter should be. It doesn’t need to be large and occupying a lot of space in the store. It is time to simplify as point-of-sale systems (POS) are becoming more mobile and portable. Apple and other brands have a wonderful way of interacting with customers. There is a minimal counter, or there is no checkout counter at all. They just have associates who are always available.
25. A checkout counter is a great way to personalize your business. You can include some information about the family, the origins of the business, and old photos of the company. A picture of a woman sitting in a pool as a baby was recently shared with me. It was her tagline. Things like this can convey emotion and tell a story.
26. You can also display awards, recognitions, media articles and other things at the checkout counter, including your contributions to the community or giving back.
27. Don’t put pictures or product information behind the counter. Customers want to look at that information in detail and study it. These are usually placed on a wall adjacent to the counter so customers can have fun. They could be scattered around the store to get customers moving and exposed to other items.
28. Check that your products are still relevant at the checkout counter if you have any. You might have a springtime startup enzyme to clean the water. Or you could do the same for fall if you have an updated closing product. You can also display holiday-themed items at the checkout counter.
29. Keep it simple so you can grab the customer’s attention. My favorite saying is: If you want everyone’s attention and you have a casino in Las Vegas, then you should make your entire building black. That would draw more attention than any other neon light, I believe.
PRICING
30. You should price the shelf, not the product. It is a good idea to swap labels for the entire shelf if you have to change prices, especially in today’s inflationary environment.
31. To price a shelf you must be fully integrated into an Enterprise Resource Planning system (ERP) or POS system. This will allow you to scan the barcode to recognize the price. 32. After deciding to purchase a product, the consumer has looked at its shelf price and agreed on the price. They then put the item in their basket and brought it to the counter. They know exactly what they are getting. They don’t have to be reminded of the price or the cost of the basket they are holding as they walk around the store.
INTRODUCING NEW PRODUCT LINES
33. It is best to launch new products at the start of the season, especially for dealers who are in seasonal markets. Your employees should be able answer consumers’ questions when they come into your office and say, “This is the new product over there, and that is why I care.”
34. A strategy is essential when introducing new products lines. Strategy is not about hope. It is not a strategy to put it on the shelf.
35. Awareness must be created within your store. This starts with education. Make sure your staff is trained on new products, and that they are familiar with its uses.
36. Display the new product in an area that has point-of-purchase signage and signage explaining why this product is important to the customer or why it’s different.
37. For a limited time, sales program incentive funds (SPIFFs), should be attached to the product.
PRODUCTS THAT ARE TRIED AND TRUE
38. My advice for your staple products is to keep the same course and continue doing what you’re doing. Keep promoting it as long as you have a stable share of sales.
39. You might consider moving a product to a less popular location in your showroom if a customer is actually coming in for it. You can use that product to encourage the customer’s search. Consider where bread, milk, and eggs are located in the grocery store. People will buy those products wherever they are found.
HOT TUB DISPLAYS
40. You should first show the customer every feature of the most expensive hot tub on the showroom floor. Let the shock go. Everything else will seem more reasonable once that is done. You can then place your most expensive hot tubs at the front and move the more affordable ones to the back.
41. Change your signage and display. Change the style and color of your hot tub display to make it feel more at home. You should make it feel more like an appliance in the showroom, and less like it is in your backyard or on your deck.
42. Product Vignettes are important for a complete picture.
43. In today’s transparent society, where everything is easily accessible, it is important to promote the cost of a hot tub. It’s not a mystery anymore: We all know how much stuff costs nowadays.
SHOWROOM TENDS IN 2023
44. The lighting in stores can be altered throughout the day to reflect a variety of moods. The lighting can be changed to make your showroom look and feel different. Nordstrom is experimenting with changing colors throughout the day. The store can change from pink to green or blue, which changes the atmosphere. It works well and allows for some differentiation.
45. It is important to mix digital and reality. This has been a trend that I believe has exploded in the post-pandemic retail sector. Customers should have the same access online as they do in-store.
46. Digital displays and QR coding are becoming increasingly popular. Use QR codes to link to YouTube videos that show how products work and how they are applied.
47. After the pandemic, full service will continue to be combined with self-service. People want the information but want to make their decisions on their own. After that, they need a sales representative to help them reinforce their decision.
This article was first published in AQUA Magazine’s February 2022 issue. It is the best resource for builders, retailers, and service professionals in the spa and pool industry. All industry professionals can subscribe to the magazine for free. Subscribe by clicking here
