I hear a great deal these days about special deals in
garden pots. We offer them sometimes. Even the major retailers do.
But we must be careful when buying special pot deals.
When a grocer chain offers 50% off your favourite breakfast cereal you pounce right? Weather you need it or not you know you are going to eat it sometime, probably right after you finish the current box.
This same principle doesn’t work for pots. If a customer doesn’t like a pot and they wouldn’t pay the full price, in many cases the 50% off won’t be enough. They have to look at them every time they walk on the patio, or into the garden, or their friends see them every time they come to the house. Pots are forever, if they are good quality.
We all seem to be looking for the next biggest finish in pots. Something that will be the next craze or fad that will bring the customers to the tills. So at all times the manufacturers are trying new things. Many don’t work ie. Don’t sell. This is often when the special deals surface.
If a Garden Pot Wholesaler, me included, offers you a deal “Half Price” on some pots consider this? If you are buying the pots at half price it is probably because they don’t sell at full price so you need to cut your price in half, or you’ll have them forever. So you haven’t increased your margin.
This is the average scenario. A customer wants to buy 2 pots. They come to your shop looking for just that – 2 pots. The customer buys 2 of the “Special Deals” when they otherwise may have bought 2 of your normal pots quite happily - you have just taken less profit dollars for the sale.
So in short, be wary of Special Garden Pot Deals. Whatever you do don’t fill your shop up with them. Not only do they move very slow, your profit dollars (if not margin as well) will drop.
