Hardware stores are one of the few businesses still in existence that, no matter what, everybody ends up going to at some point. But according to the experience of customers when visiting the business, they would rather go back to or start using products they can purchase online.
Even if digitalization is the order of the day, if when customers come to our business they receive sound advice and the facility to find and select all the products they need, without a doubt, they would rather visit our store.
For this reason, it’s very important to know how to organize a hardware store. Since order is one of the main motivations that will help us increase our sales and, thus, the benefits we will obtain.
At Emuca, in addition to providing all the products and materials that you need to maintain your business up to date and offering basic, complex, novel and innovative products, we also want to help you increase your benefits, so we are going to give you a few tips so you can organize your hardware store and obtain the maximum benefits.
Go ahead, keep reading!
Why is it important to organize your hardware store?
As we said before, keeping order in your hardware store is simply essential.
And even if you think that the way it is now is correct, there are always points that can and must be improved. Keeping your hardware store products in order can bring many more benefits than we can imagine at first glance.
Benefits of organizing a hardware store
In the first place, and internally, if you know how to organize a hardware store you will achieve better stock management. You will know exactly what you have, and what sells more, which are the products that you must prioritize for sale, how much money is invested and what profits you can expect from them…
In addition, all the employees will know exactly where to search for the different products, facilitating their tasks and optimizing the time they dedicate to each customer.
With good organization you will promote cross-selling. That is to say, even if a customer goes to your business to buy a specific product, when they see the order and notice what there is in each place, they might see other items that they haven’t thought about and that they also need. Therefore, their satisfaction will increase, their shopping experience will be much more positive and, without a doubt, your profits will increase.
Reference management, vital for your establishment
Updating your hardware products and keeping them up-to-date is fundamental for staying ahead of the competition and offering your customers just what they need. If you don’t do this, it might mean closing your business in the medium term.
Therefore, it is essential to change your products up to 10% and 20% gradually during the year to avoid having obsolete products and to offer novelties to your customers.
Reference management is therefore fundamental. Because with this we will know exactly what we have in stock, since when, how many units have been sold and which products sell the least.
Thus, when we place new orders, we will be able to analyse and verify exactly what we need. We can therefore avoid buying too much and remove any products that are becoming obsolete from our lists.
Tips on how to organize a hardware store
Lighting will change your store’s image
To know how to organize a hardware store, the first step is lighting. Hardware stores are usually small stores and occasionally relatively dark.
It is important that your customers feel comfortable in your store and that they can easily see all your products. For this reason, the quality and quantity of light must be adequate, firstly so that customers come into our business, and secondly so that they can easily locate what they are looking for.
Logic between your products
Ordering your hardware products according to logic and coherence is vital for making your store give customers a sense of order and also making it easier to find products. Customers, who also use logic when buying, can go directly to the products and find related or complementary products to those they have chosen.
Remember to think about cross-selling. Place complementary products next to each other, so your customers can buy additional products and you can increase your sales.
Order and more order
Order, order and order. Your hardware store should be like a home. Each product must be in its place and perfectly positioned. Take care of the position of your products’ rows. You can even classify them by colour and size.
For this to be effective you need to clean, and this starts by removing from the shelves the products that you know that are not going to sell and you have to dispose of. And of course, keep the shelves clean and dust free.
If we instil order and logic in the hardware store, your customers will thank you, feel more comfortable and buy your products. Also, this order will help you to build your customers’ loyalty; if they feel comfortable and satisfied, they will come back.
Are you capable of achieving this? So do not hesitate! At Emuca, we want to help you increase your profits. Dedicate the time you need to organize your hardware store and start seeing the results become profits.
