Frames

Collection-Driven Merchandising

Collection-driven merchandising was on display at theMarchon booth at Vision Expo East 2011.

Brands Define Your Optical Dispensary–
If You Let Them Shine!

By Jay Binkowitz and Evan Kestenbaum

Taking a page from fashion retailers, optical shops can profit from well-stocked collections of widely recognized brands.

Brands play an important role in creating consumer perceptions of a shopping experience. If you walk into a clothing store and see well-known brands, you instantly understand the quality of the store. When you shop there, they have enough of a selection to quell your urge to look elsewhere.

Now contrast that with the impressions that patients get when they walk into an optical.

Sad to say, many independent practices take a flea-market approach to product display. Frames are clustered together into gender groups: men’s, women’s, unisex and kids. Or even worse, by material type: metals, plastics and combos.

Imagine going into a store and shopping for brand-name shirts and finding them grouped into such categories. With high- and low-end brands mixed together, it is hard to tell the difference between them. And by mixing high- and low-end, the perceived value of high-end eyewear is deflated.

The flea-market approach, so typical in opticals, completely destroys the value of the brands you carry and diminishes your ability to sell better products. Support your products by merchandising them to enhance their value. Display them to increase the desire of your patients to try them on and buy them.

Banish the flea market approach in favor of collection-driven merchandising. Successful retailers have used this philosophy for years, and it works well for optical.

Montage vs. Collection-Driven Merchandising

DON’T: Undistinguished merchandise, showcased montage-style.
DO: Merchandise cleanly arranged by brand in collection-driven displays.

If you merchandise your optical in a montage, your patients never get the true presence of the brands you carry. Patients get discouraged because they only see one or two pieces of a brand, here and there. They would rather shop elsewhere because they perceive that you don’t have what they are looking for, and they are not satisfied that they have seen enough to make a decision.

So they go to a chain store, where selections are set up by designer brands and it appears they have more to see. Even though you may have the same selection, they are better organized and more effectively merchandised. Remember, your eyewear has to entice people to try them on.

Merchandising by collection is the answer! Visit Nordstrom or Pier One Imports and learn from the pros. Better yet, visit Sunglass Hut or Lenscrafters and study their merchandising. There are very real reasons for their success.

Instead of setting up a montage of confusion from which to select (which psychologically represents how you do things and thereby relates directly to quality control and trust), create an inviting and desirable, as well as organized, presentation. Send the right message.

Merchandise by collection. Most important, it is well received by your patients and will dramatically increase the positive feel of your practice. Patients learn that you have a good selection, instead of learning that all glasses look the same and aren’t worth the money you’re selling them for.

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Jay Binkowitz

Jay Binkowitz is co-owner of American Eye Care in Astoria, New York, and co-founder of GPN (www.gatewaypn.com), producer of The Edge, a benchmarking and tracking system for independents. He frequently speaks and conducts workshops at optical industry events. To contact him: jay.gpn@gmail.com.

Evan Kestenbaum

Evan Kestenbaum, MBA, is chief information officer of GPN. To contact him: evan.gpn@gmail.com

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