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Retailing Tips: Turn Mass-Market Fiends Into Specialty Lovers Encourage Customers to Buy Toys That Play … and Pay
Here are six tips: 1. Find out what they want. Although Capitol Kids in Madison, Wis., doesn’t carry licensed products, the store does carry toys that are similar in play. “When we ask enough questions and engage them in conversation, we can direct them to items they may like even more,” Owner Peg Scholtes said. 2. Educate them. “Specialty toys offer more value and have an educational aspect, so getting that across to customers is important,”  Sue Warfield, president of ASTRA, told TDmonthly. Explain the educational, developmental and imaginative benefits your toys offer. Remind them that "your toys are kid- and brain-powered,” added Warfield.3. Showcase your differences. Although Karito Kids specialty dolls are in some ways similar to Mattel’s American Girl dolls, President Laura Rangel of KidsGive said they offer more. “Our dolls give kids more than just a doll. They give them an opportunity to help another child and learn about the beauty of diversity,” she said. In addition, she told TDmonthly that the dolls were designed to represent an 11-year-old’s body and are not just baby dolls with older faces.  4. Give them more for their money. ÜberStix’s Überbots RC are progressive, meaning the play changes because a child can rebuild a robot to be stronger when it loses at battle. “Our Überbots offer more play and teach kids how to use simple and compound machines,” CEO Dane Scarborough told TDmonthly. “Eighty percent of the play time is spent designing, engineering and inventing.” 5. Learn from your customers. “We may not carry what they’re asking for, in some cases because we choose not to, and in some cases  because we’re not familiar with it,” said Patricia Masing, co-owner of Tree Town Toys in Ann Arbor, Mich. “We learn from our customers and sometimes end up bringing on new items.”6. Create new regulars. Deb Necker, owner of Amato’s in Middletown, Conn., estimated that 90 percent of redirected customers become regulars. “We have a great retention,” she told TDmonthly. “We’re kind of a fascinating place, and once they come in they usually do come back and become regular customers.” So, get to chatting and highlighting the pluses of all those specialty toys you carry. Listen to what customers have to say, and show them what plays in your store. Here are the toys mentioned in this article:
 Writer's Bio: Terri Hughes-Lazzell is a freelance journalist based in Ossian, Ind. After spending nearly a decade as a daily newspaper reporter, she has worked as a freelance journalist for more than ten years, writing about a variety of topics. Her work appears in newspapers, magazines and specialty publications nationwide. Read more articles by this author |
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