Smart retail today is all about interacting with your products, showing them off on the shop floor so that shoppers can imagine them playing with or using the products.
This is especially true with toys, puzzles, magic tricks and kinetic sand. The more you play the more you will sell. I know from my own experience this is true.
Playing and interacting with products can position your business as more engaged with what it sells than you would see with the same products in a larger retail outlet. This is another way we can compete – by playing with what we sell.
On busy family days – weekends, Thursday and Friday afternoons in a typical shopping centre newsagency – schedule your best players to be on the shop floor playing. Track sales as a result. Keep trying different people until you find your most lucrative players.
Watch your customers and how they react and interact. It could be that they are attracted by the playing but end up buying something else. That is as valuable as them purchasing the product being demonstrated.
The photo shows an elaborate sand-castle made by one of our team members with kinetic sand. It worked at attracting shoppers. Years ago the team member would have been in trouble for playing – goofing off. Now, it’s work, valuable shop floor engagement.
FYI: we’ve been selling kinetic sand since March. It’s been amazingly successful for us.