Are Your Frame Boards Shoppable?
Even if you like to keep your optical shop very clean and without POP or visual merchandising, keeping your frame boards organized can go a LONG way. This isn't about visual merchandising (there will be more on that in future posts), this is about creating an easy shoppable experience for your patients.
For example, I recently walked into 1 of my accounts and not only were my frames were all over the place, but ALL of their frames were everywhere. There was no rhyme or reason to to their boards. Men’s, women’s, brands, styles, materials were all mixed together. I moved my frames around and put them together while I was taking inventory and I even offered to organize ALL of their boards, not just my line. They declined. Their loss.
It's not shoppable or visually appealing to your patients/clients to have no strategy to your boards. Imagine yourself in the consumer's shoes. When you're shopping at a clothing store- if all brands and both men's and women's clothes are mixed in together, how would you shop? Can you imagine if you walked into Nordstrom or Macy's and all accessories were in one area mixed together and all clothes were in another area mixed together, regardless of size, gender, category? I more than likely would walk right out, but if I did give it a try, I'm sure I would give up after 5 minutes because it would be too frustrating. Don't lose patients for something so simple. What if a patient's ideal frame is actually on your board, but they don't see it due to it being "lost" in a sea of frames and they decide to go elsewhere for new glasses? That's lost profits for you.
Again, this isn't about visual merchandising, I'll be delving into that much more in the near future. However, with a few simple changes, your frame boards can start making you more $. Once you implement a simple strategy, it's very easy to upkeep even after a busy day.
Here are a few ways to organize your frame boards:
1. Organize By Type: Men's, Women's and Kids. Don't even try with a unisex board, just put any unisex frames together and put them with the men's frames. The majority of the time, men do not like to shop "unisex" frames because women also wear them. Women have no problem shopping men's frames and will almost always go over to a men's board. Men don't go to women's boards. I have seen this time and time again, trust me.
2. Organize by Brand: I suggest grouping the men's frames together and the women's frames together in each brand, but whatever works best for you. Taking it 1 step further, organizing by brand and price point. Keep the higher priced brands close together and the lower priced brands together.
3. Organize by Material: For some offices, it works well to keep the metals together and the plastics together. Then within both categories, organizing by style.
Voila! It's THAT simple and THAT much easier to shop.
xoxo
California Glasses Girl
Ps. If you currently work with me or are interested in working with me, I'm always happy to help you organize your boards or create an inventory management plan!