Kole Imports Blog

Flexible Screwdriver With 30 Bits # OB623

Take a look at what you’re selling in your store.  Do you have enough items for men?  I’m talking about real men who like to go camping and  know how to fix things.  Men who take a shower after work every day, not before.  If your store lacks items for such men, you’re missing out on a key demographic.  Even if these guys don’t shop in your store, their wives and kids do, and they’ll be looking for a good deal on manly gifts for Christmas and birthdays.

Think of how proud Manly Customer will feel when he’s with his friends and asks them “How long is your measuring tape?  Oh.  Mine is 100 feet long.  Yeah, that’s right.  100 feet.  But yours is fine, as long as you never have to measure anything big or important.”  Not only will you have one happy customer, but all of his insecure friends will flock to your store to buy their own 100-foot measuring tapes.

How many of you have heard that line one too many times? I know I have. It was the first thing I learned as a 16 year-old hawking T-shirts over the summer. But have you ever stopped to consider what that phrase actually means? Why does it matter what the floor of your store looks like, if customers are going to dig through your displays anyway? What is the point of re-merchandising windows and straightening shelves at the end of every day? Does what your store looks like truly affect how much you sell?

The answer is a resounding: YES! You may not realize it, but the layout of your store has a profound psychological impact on your customer.  Cleanliness, order and well-stocked shelves can do more for your sales than advertising or merchandise selection combined.  Think about it.  Imagine your reactions to the various stores you frequent in your neighborhood.  When you’re out shopping, do you stop by the sale rack that looks like it’s been picked over and plowed through all day?  Do you reach into the dump display that’s almost empty?  Of course not!  You want to imagine that you’re getting the first pick of sale merchandise, even if you’re the last customer of the day.  You can’t help it.  We were born consumers before we became vendors, and we’re wired to react positively to appealing design.

Don’t believe me?  Try this simple little test:  Compare the two displays below.  Both contain the same merchandise.  Both have the same number of pieces.  Both have been on our showroom floor for the same amount of time.  But I’m willing to bet you a dollar store that you prefer one image over the other. 

                        

                                                           
Why? Because one looks better than the other! Now you know what your customers are thinking when they see a well-tended display versus one that has been neglected for days. People are drawn to things that look appealing, no matter what setting they’re in. The same rule I learned at that T-shirt store in high school still applies to the massive amounts of merchandise I work with today. So here’s your assignment from Kole Imports: next time you find yourself alone in your dollar store, take a look around. Are the shelves straight? Is the floor dusted? Did you change the placement of at least one item that day? Make some simple changes in your daily routine and before you know it, you will see an increase in daily traffic and sales. That’s the beauty of merchandising.

What do customers want when they are shopping at a dollar store?  And what would they buy in a dollar store, even though they didn’t know they wanted it when they walked in the door?

These are relatively simple questions, the answers to which are fairly complex, and vary depending on the location of the store.  How do you answer them?

Obviously, if you’ve been running a dollar store for a while, you know what your best-selling items are, as well as your best-selling types of items.  This is the first place to think about adding items to your inventory.  If  wrenches are selling really well, do you carry nuts and bolts?  If not, you should put some on the shelf and see how they do.   This is called adding a complementary item, and it’s a basic retail strategy which works great.

 If a 16-ounce travel coffee mug is a great seller, you should add some other styles of travel mug to your inventory.  The dollar store customer will have more choices, and if you sell out of one item, people will likely buy the style you have left, which means you didn’t miss out on the sale.  Offering a few different types of a popular item is a great way to generate consistent sales, and to compensate for sold-out items. 

Look around your dollar store for impulse items.  Do you have enough items people will want when they see them?  Are these items placed in obvious locations near the front of the store, or near related items on your shelves.  If someone doesn’t know they’re going to buy something, they need to easily find it.  It’s a simple concept.  Look around your store and see if it’s true in your situation.  A few examples of great dollar store impulse items are toys, lip balm, sunglasses, candy, iPod cases, and small tools.  I’m sure you can think of many more.  When you’re placing an order with a dollar store merchandise wholesaler, think about this when considering what new items to buy.  Do it right, and you’ll increase the average order size, and you’ll make your customers even happier. 

Get into the habit of asking yourself simple questions about how you can improve your store, and over time your sales will improve, and your customers will be happier.  You can also ask your customers what sort of things they’d like to see in your store, and pay attention when they tell you what they’d like to buy that you don’t carry.

We don’t advocate telling your customers they are ugly.  That would be bad for business, and it wouldn’t encourage them to spend more money in your store or ever come back, and some of them might even injure you.  So what can you do to create a win-win situation for you and your customers, especially the ugly ones?  How about selling nice low-priced makeup in your store?  You could create a section for makeup in the Health and Beauty section of your store, or put cosmetics near the cash register to encourage impulse buys.  You’ll be increasing profits and making the world a more beautiful place at the same time.  It’s a true win-win deal.

We just received a lot of closeout cosmetics, and we are wholesaling them now at very low prices.  We have mascara, eyeliner, lip gloss, lipstick, eye shadow, and nail polish.  Click here to see our wholesale cosmetic items.  These are really nice items, and right now we have a wide variety for sale.  Buy now before we close them all out.  Here are some pictures.

36-Pc Mascara Display Wholesale # MK112

LIp and Eye Pencil Wholesale Cosemetics # BE536

Triple Eye Shadow Wholesale Cosemetics # BE537

Can’t find your ice scraper?  We got your ice scraper right here, pal.  It’s a good one, too, with a built-in mitten to keep your hand warm while you’re scraping the ice off of your windshield in below zero weather, trying to calculate the feasibility of selling everything you own and moving to Florida to live on a boat. 

But why move to Florida when you can stay where you are and make big money selling ice scrapers?  Item CA007 is a thick plastic car windshield ice scraper, with an imitation-sheepskin-lined mitten over the handle.  Wholesaling for 79 cents, this item can be retailed for much more, meaning a nice profit for you.  Click to go to our online catalog.  Here’s a picture of our ice scraper with mitten.

Wholesale Ice Scraper With Mitten # CA007

We just received a wholesale closeout lot of CD greeting cards.  What’s a CD greeting card?  It’s a nice 5 1/2 x 8 1/8 inch greeting card with a little pocket in it, containing a 35-40 minute CD of music.  The music varies depending on the theme of the card.  We have birthday cards, Mother’s Day cards, newborn baby cards, and romantic cards, all of which are available as separate items in English or Spanish.  We’re wholesaling them for 55 cents per card, which is a great value, and makes the item perfect for sale in a dollar store, though they would sell quickly at $1.99 as well.  See all of our closeouts at www.koleimports.com

We have a lot of wholesale Halloween items in stock and ready to move.  See them all in our online wholesale Halloween catalog here.  It’s not too late to order Halloween items. Customers will start coming in to buy them in the next few weeks.  Make sure you’re ready.  If you are running a dollar store, you should see a lot of customers looking for Halloween items, trying to save money in this economy and still have a fun Halloween.

We have Halloween decorations, plates, candles, invitations, treat bags, banners and more.  They’re all very nice items, and the prices are low.  Most of them are closeouts from high-end party stores.  Here are pictures of some of them.

Halloween Ghost placemats make great decorations. Item # KH902

This is a 12-pack of paper placemats shaped like ghosts.  Rather than using them as placemats, you could tape them up as wall decorations for a great ghostly Halloween effect.  This is truly maximum Halloween fun per dollar for your customers, and you’ll get a great wholesale price, so it will be good for you too.

Wholesale Halloween Witch Door Hanger Kit # CC212

Here’s a fun craft for the kids.  Make your own witch door hanger with this nifty craft kit.  It makes decorating for Halloween fun and educational. 

Scary wholesale Halloween coffinc candles # KS196

Look at these coffin candles.  Are you scared?  Sorry if we frightened you.  We saved this item for last so you wouldn’t be too scared to read the rest of this blog entry.  These are perfect for Halloween parties on their own, or on top of a Halloween cake.  These are nice candles, at a great low wholesale price.

NFL Season is here!  Support your local team by selling NFL team logo car air fresheners in your store.  We have most of the major NFL Football team air fresheners at low wholesale prices.  These are great cheap impulse items for your customers, and it’s too early in the season for them to know whether or not their team will be any good.  We still can’t believe the Raiders won a game already.   They have the same record as the Super Bowl Champion Steelers.  Take advantage of this by having some cheap NFL team logo items at the cash register.

And if your local team does get into the playoffs, you’ll be ready for all the people who don’t really care about football to jump on the bandwagon and show their support. Here’s a link to our Consumables Category.  Scroll through it, and you’ll see the NFL car air fresheners.

 Here are some pictures. 

Wholesale Colts NFL Car Air Freshener

Eagles Wholesale NFL Car Air Freshener

Wholesale Raiders Air Freshener. Just Win Baby!

Retailing is a very challenging business, even more so when your top price is $1.  And yet, despite these and other obstacles, many dollar store retailers thrive and grow, in good times and bad, by maintaining great customer loyalty.

As a general merchandise and closeout wholesaler, it’s important that we understand what is happening in the retail world.  We talked to several retailers, both small and large format, to get their views on this subject.  What emerges is not so much a secret formula, but instead a checklist of simple common sense rules that keep customers coming back and telling their friends.

To start with the basics, experienced store managers know that when a customer samples a store, they’ll be back.  The bargains they discover are simply too appealing to resist.  The hard part is getting them to come in and try the store in the first place.

Many first-time customers have the idea that dollar stores offer inferior merchandise or that the selection is limited.  Of  course, nothing could be farther from the truth, but lets talk about getting the customer to sample your store.

First, dollar stores are the domain of female shoppers, generally blue-collar workers with household incomes of less than $30,000.  For these shoppers, perception is vital.  They are attracted to stores that look clean and inviting, but NOT those that look like they have spent a lot of money on furnishings.  Shoppers feel they won’t be saving money if the store can afford to splurge on fancy fixtures and decorations.  So, keep it friendly, clean and simple.  No-frills merchandising is the best strategy for attracting customers in this demographic.

Friendly also means working hard to impress the customer with your customer service.  Make it a point to greet every customer at the door, like Wal-Mart does, and train your people to make eye contact and smile.  Nothing impresses a new customer more than a friendly store, and good management can control how the customer perceives your customer service staff.  Store employees should be motivated to be friendly to shoppers.  Of course, there is a difference between being friendly and being annoying.  Greet people, and then leave them alone to shop in peace.  That way they’ll know you are there if they have any questions, but that you won’t be following them around the store asking them if they need help every 5 minutes.

Another thing that keeps customers coming back is inventory turnover.  The most successful chains know that customers enjoy shopping for impulse items, the element of finding unexpected bargains, so make sure those items are turned frequently.  Shopper frequency at dollar stores averages 11 times per year, so that indicates a monthly turn of impulse items is about right.  Consider buying some wholesale closeout impulse items for your store.  Once they’re sold out, switch to a different closeout item so you always have something new and unique for your customers.  Eventually, they’ll come to your store specifically to see what new closeout items you have by the cash register, and this will equal more sales for you and a more loyal customer.

So far, we’ve been talking about convenience.  the other half of the customer loyalty equation is price, and the only way to consistently assure your customers of the best prices is to buy from reputable suppliers who have a history of delivering merchandise on time with no surprises. 

Remember that your wholesale merchandise and closeout supplier is also your partner: suppliers hear about new product breakthroughs before anyone else does, and it’s their business to know the market.  By doing your homework and working with the best suppliers, you can guarantee your customers the best value for their money. And that will keep them coming back for years to come.

Of course, at this point we’d like to recommend you buy from Kole Imports, as we have 25 years of experience in the wholesale dollar store merchandise business, and we are also closeout experts.  Click to see our wholesale and closeout merchandise.

We just received some great new closeout tools at Kole Imports, which we’re happy to offer to you at low wholesale prices.  Take a look at your tool section and think about how these items would fit into your product mix.  If you don’t sell tools, you should.  There is always a demand for basic tools, and they are often bought on impulse, when the customer sees something he doesn’t have in his toolbox.  It’s even more likely to be an impulse purchase if the price is right.  These new closeout tools are wholesale priced low enough to be sold in a dollar store. They are UPC coded and packaged to hang on a display hook.  Click here to see all of our tools or scroll down to see the new items pictured below.

Mini Hacksaw Tool Closeout MT510

Closeout tool item MT510 is a nice mini-hacksaw, which is a plastic handle designed to hold a hacksaw blade.  It’s perfect for cutting things in hard-to-reach places.  This is a very handy tool, but don’t use it unless you’re wearing safety glasses.  What?  You don’t have safety glasses?  Fear not.  Take a look at the next closeout tool below.

Safety Glasses Tool Closeout MT514

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