At three-and-a-half, my niece Mae already gets it. She meets me at the door wearing a long string of purple beads, fashionably mismatched Crocs and a big bright yellow bow holding back her blonde curls. She immediately notices my new earrings and grabs my multi-colored bag saying, "I love your purse, Auntie. It’s pink, green, blue, yellow and red … all my favorite colors."
Mae has already demonstrated that she has the accessory gene. Too bad she isn’t old enough to work retail yet.
Without important accessories, the products you sell don’t do all they’re supposed to do. Take the almost ubiquitous iPhone. That -and its iPod and iTouch cousins-are probably the most accessorized products ever made. First, there are cases and holsters in every configuration and color. Designers like Coach have climbed on the Apple bandwagon combining their signature designs with the hard-to-miss iPhone style.
And how many of us have scrapped expensive audio systems, opting instead for iPod docking stations? My new car even has an adaptor for my iPhone so I can listen to my favorite music anywhere.
Go a step further, and what’s really made the iPhone unique is the myriad of applications available to "accessorize" it. Without Urban Spoon, Flight Tracker and Yelp, it’s really not much better than any other smartphone. Load it full of apps, though, and the iPhone is a teaching, entertaining, calorie tracking, travel enhancing wonder.
CEA predicts that accessory sales, growing at nearly 10 percent a year, will reach $700 Billion this year. Entire CE companies, like Monster, have built their business strategies around providing the products consumers need to enhance their viewing and listening experiences.
Many custom installers budget 10 percent of the total cost of a project for cables, mounts and remotes, yet pure play retail stores seldom hit that mark.
Opportunities for accessory sales with home appliances have never been greater. Front load laundry pairs are much easier to access when put on pedestals. The best pedestal stands store and automatically dispense nearly a years’ supply of detergent and fabric softener.
Savvy retailers are helping to educate their customers on the need to replace unsafe flexible dryer venting with fireproof aluminum products. A myriad of cleaning products help customers keep their appliances look showroom new.
Increased accessory sales are the ultimate win-win-win. Customers win when they get the gadgets that enhance the performance of the new gear. Sales associates win with additional commission opportunities and more loyal customers. And management wins with added profits.
Like any other product category you’ll have to develop a solid game plan to increase accessory sales.
* Prominently display accessories. Scatter displays throughout the store. Put flat panel mounts near the TVs with a good selection of audio and HDMI cable choices. Display laundry on pedestal stands and put a selection of stainless steel and ceramic cleaners in the appliance department. Don’t forget to put some impulse items near your cash wrap counter. Keep the displays clean and well stocked.
* Establish a sales goal. Treat accessories like any important department and set a monthly revenue goal. Go further and divide that between your associates so that each team member has an individual target. Come up with a daily goal by dividing the sales quota by the number of business days during the month. Post progress in meeting your sales goal where every associate can follow his progress.
* Develop a commission program for accessory sales. Since most accessories provide much-needed margin, pay associates handsomely for the extra effort needed for add-on sales.
* Train your team. Make sure your associates know the value of all the accessories you want to sell. Develop benefit statements for the best sellers.
* Advertise accessories. Let customers know that you have mounts for every possible configuration. Tell them about the great remotes that help them manage all their gear with just one controller. Develop a reputation as the accessory expert.
Treat your customers like an excited three-year-old. In the heat of a purchase, many customers act just like my niece Mae.
They’ll "ooh" and "aahh" if you can find a way to share the excitement in accessories. But if you hide them behind a counter or in the back room your associates will soon forget about them and customers will find them somewhere else.
Elly Valas is the President of Valas Consulting Group. Contact her at elly@ellyvalas.com or at 303/316-7569, or visit her website at www.ellyvalas.com.
