When the majority of your customers come in, lie down and look up, it’s crazy how many bed retailers skimp on their ceilings, writes our US correspondent Gordon Hecht, business growth and development consultant to the retail home furnishings industry …
We, the people of the retail world, are legendary for being optimists. When business gets difficult, we know that it will recover. When sales pick up, we invest to keep our business robust.
Looking up is what we do best – except when it comes to our shops.
I celebrated a recent holiday weekend by visiting several furniture and mattress stores. Many were fully decorated and converted their sale to an event. In other shops, a customer wouldn’t know if it was a holiday or an everyday.
The mattresses looked so inviting. I decided to try a few of the new models out for a test rest. About the same as your shoppers, I started out as a back sleeper. And stared upward.
My restful test was interrupted by the view of some fairly frightening ceilings. Brown water stains and cracked ceiling tiles. One shop had spotlights aimed at the pillows. After a three-minute session with the blinding lights, I felt like I was compelled to confess to a crime.
The low point occurred at a mid- to high-priced shop. Above a showroom of $2500-9000 mattresses, I could see plastic construction sheeting taped to the ceiling, apparently being used to protect against a roof leak. Over other beds, the ceiling was peeling and soiled. A $100,000 investment, in a showroom with $75 in protective cover.
I see a white ceiling and want to paint it black
If Mick Jagger and the boys were rolling beds instead of Rolling Stones, they would insist on a ceiling that was non-distractive and encouraged mattress sales.
Black-painted ceilings offer a lot of advantages in a mattress store or gallery. The colour represents darker evenings. It’s more restful for your shopper. Beyond being non-distractive, black paint can hide a myriad of stained or damaged tiles.
When used with low-level lighting, a black ceiling allows your shopper to concentrate on the mattress below, rather than the roof up above.
What! Another expense?
Operating a business is expensive! You pay for insurance, utilities, and taxes. Those are expenses. Necessary, but they do little to increase revenue and build your business.
Advertising, sales training, signage, and store maintenance are investments. These attract shoppers and convert them to buyers.
Just as a home improvement like new flooring or painting is an investment to increase the property value, store maintenance and improvement increases the value of your business. Lacking that investment, your business goes downhill.
You don’t have to take this lying down (but it helps)
Assuming you have 30 floor samples, this will take 90 minutes. Lay down on every mattress in your store. Stay still for three full minutes. Set the timer on your iFruit phone if you need to.
Open your eyes, ears, and nose for the full experience. It’s what your shopper sees, hears, and smells.
It’s the ceiling and lighting. Spotlights aimed wrong, flickering fluorescent tubes, dusty fixtures, dirty air vents. These are silent killers to your sales.
Also, the background noise and sounds. Turn on the massage feature on your adjustable beds. Is it a soft buzz or a sawmill? Is the music too low, too headbanging or honky-tonk? Can you overhear gabbing from the breakroom? Or worse, no music at all?
Is the showroom musky or dusty? Over-perfumed? If you want to add a scent, try sugar cookies or vanilla.
It’s easy to ignore a bad ceiling or lights. You can always put off renovations on your building. It can wait for another day.
Unless you want to keep a roof over your head.
Gordon can be reached at [email protected].
