Lucidiom's Blog

Welcome back to Lucidiom’s new blog to help you, the photofinishing retailer, sell more product and maximize your profits. As we did in our first installment with Picture Business, we take tips we’ve learned from our customers around the globe and combine it with our ProfitWatcher kiosk data to develop a wealth of ideas to help you improve your business.

At Lucidiom, we preach the 3E philosophy - education, events and environment. You need to develop all three E’s to grow your business. Last time we talked about educating your retail staff so that they can be better sales people. In our most recent Picture Business column in the printed October issue, we address environment. Now let’s go even more in-depth about your store’s environment.

Retailers, please, change your clothes!

The environment of the standard photo store or photo department is generally pretty static. Nothing much really changes. I recently asked a group of retailers, if they could choose to have only men or only women shopping at the store, which would they choose? The mixed group of male and female store owners and managers all answered, women. The group’s reasons for the answer were all similar: women are generally the purchasers in the household, keepers and takers of photographs, and buyers of photo accessories-things like frames, albums, etc. So we all agreed that women are the target consumer for photo and photo-related retail.

Take a look at a clothing shop, another retail market that caters to women. Ladies, picture your favorite clothier; men, picture a shop your wife frequents. Undoubtedly, the shop has a store window or central display of new product. Is it ever the same? Of course not. Stores constantly are changing the clothes, accessories, even lighting, in their store windows, to attract attention and to show off what’s new or on sale in the shop. If that display was exactly the same every time you went by the store, would you be enticed to go in and inquire what’s new? After a while, would you even look up when you passed by?

Do you change the “clothes” in your store window or central display? Do you display your new holiday cards, poster frames, printed wall art, photo books, portrait ideas, graduation invites, or baby announcements?

To you, a Christmas card, a baby announcement and a graduation party invitation might all just be pieces of paper that come out of a printer, but to your customer, each is a distinct product?and a product that they didn’t know you could produce until they saw it printed and displayed. Displaying your products not only attracts attention, it shows that you have new and exciting products. It communicates volumes about the great products you can products. It’s like having a salesperson standing there shouting out your product line. If you don’t have a dynamic, ever-changing display in your store, it’s time you did!

Here are just a few store displays that some of our customers are doing.

Displays aren’t just for the holidays - they need to be updated year-round. Remember also to create speed bumps like some of the ones in this gallery to help capture even more traffic inside the store. Notice the photos in the gallery from Calagaz Photo in Mobile, Alabama.

Want more ideas for educating your staff and your customers? E-mail me at marketing@lucidiom.com. Or attend one of Lucidiom’s presentations at the upcoming PMA Division meetings and PMA events this fall. We’re on the road in America, Canada, Europe and China this fall to help you find more profit-making opportunities in time for the holiday selling season.

Rachel Van Tassel
VP of Marketing
Lucidiom Inc.
www.lucidiom.com

Welcome to Lucidiom’s new blog to help you, the photofinishing retailer, sell more products and maximize your profits. We take tips we’ve learned from our customers around the globe and combine it with our APM ProfitWatcher kiosk data to develop a wealth of ideas to help you improve your business.

First up, let’s talk education. An educated customer is your best customer. An educated customer knows about the thousands of digital imaging options available to them and is excited to explore.

How do you educate your customers? Let’s start by educating your staff. At PMA last March, Lucidiom VP Kesley Anderson and I taught attendees at the Jennifer store how to find retail success through the three Es: education, environment and events. One of the key pieces within education is creating a knowledgeable sales staff.

First, develop role-playing scenarios with your staff. At PMA, we handed out role-playing cards to help retailers get started with the exercise.

Have one of your staff take on the role and have the other play him or herself, as a staff member. Let your employees play for a few minutes and get into their roles, then as a group, have a discussion about what just happened. Did the staff ask all the right questions? Were all the right products suggested?

Second, encourage your staff to try your products. Have them make their own scrapbooks, posters, DVDs and photo books. If your staff is excited about the products, their excitement will be contagious when they show the products to your customers.

Third, teach them the features and benefits of each product. Why is your photo book process better? What types of music are available on your DVD? What types of layouts are available for your scrapbook pages?

Fourth, teach them the buddy-system of upselling. Every product has a buddy. Instead of asking “is there anything else you need?” have your staff ask a targeted question based on what the customer is buying. Are they talking to the customer about poster prints, then make sure the salesperson shows them the wide assortment of poster frames you carry. If it’s scrapbook pages, show the customer your 12x12 frames and your assortment of albums.

Want more ideas for educating your staff and your customers? E-mail me at marketing@lucidiom.com. Or attend one of Lucidiom’s presentations at the upcoming PMA Division meetings and PMA events this fall. We’re on the road in America, Canada, Europe and China this fall to help you find more profit-making opportunities in time for the holiday selling season.

Rachel Van Tassel
VP of Marketing
Lucidiom Inc.
www.lucidiom.com