Finding the Pulse: Following What’s Hot to Stock Impulse Items

Driven by spontaneity, your store’s impulse category plays a crucial role in boosting overall sales. While a few dollars here and there may not seem like a lot, over time, they add up. These impulse items, typically small and inexpensive, provide instant gratification to customers and encourage additional spending beyond planned purchases.

Hardware Retailing spoke with two retailers who have succeeded with impulse products, boosting their sales and customer engagement by looking to trade shows, consulting their wholesale representatives and browsing social media to find products their customers will enjoy.

Provide Something Unique

In 2017, when a solar eclipse made its way across the U.S., Doug Carroll, owner of Brownsboro Hardware & Paint, didn’t give much thought into purchasing eclipse viewing glasses.

His store is on the east side of Louisville, Kentucky, which was just outside the path of totality that year, and in the weeks leading up to the eclipse, he noticed customers visiting his store asking if they sold viewing glasses. He came to the realization he should take that leap and purchased around 2,000 pairs.

“After we got our first shipment of eclipse viewing glasses, they didn’t last a week on our shelves,” Carroll says. “We were completely sold out within two days of stocking them.”

When Carroll bought the glasses, he wasn’t sure if they would sell or not.

“There was so much demand for them that I didn’t realize was there,” he says. “How often do you plan for an eclipse?”

In April 2024, Brownsboro Hardware & Paint was in the path of totality for another eclipse, and Carroll took his approach to eclipse glasses much more seriously.

Follow Current Trends

Carroll relies on many of his employees who are active on social media to find trending products to stock on their shelves as impulse items.

“Having a successful impulse category is all about following the trends and being able to stock those items at the right time,” Carroll says.

Being a small hardware store serving many customers in a tight-knit community, Brownsboro Hardware & Paint has a loyal customer base.

“Our customers look to us to find trending items because otherwise they may not come to the store,” Says Joe Lilly, director of marketing and public relations for Brownsboro Hardware & Paint. “But if they know we have candles, toys and gifts as well, it helps those customers make their way to our store, and it helps make extra sales.”

During the holiday season, Lilly says the store capitalizes on having a post office by expanding on the
impulse items already in the checkout line.

“Last year around Christmas, we set up tables with gift ideas so as people are coming in to drop off packages or mail letters, they’re able to look at other gift ideas,” Lilly says. “The placement of impulse items depends on the situation going on at the store at the time.”

Carroll says a store’s impulse category needs a combination of items that will generate interest and strategic merchandising.

“Some of our impulse products are at our checkout, but if we have impulse paint items, we’ll place those
around the paint section so the chance of that extra sale is higher,” he says. “Look for opportunities like that to enhance the customer experience.”

Before Valentine’s Day, the decades-old job site, vacuum-sealed steel cup manufacturer Stanley announced a special color of its Quencher tumbler for the holiday, sending many consumers into a frenzy looking for stores with the limited color in stock.

In previous years, the Stanley brand was a mainstay at many independent hardware stores, as its customer base was based around job sites, but in 2019, the brand began releasing new colors of its classic cups, and adding new SKUs to cater to the average consumer.

“In the last few years, we’ve noticed a different clientele, mainly the younger generation, who are coming in to shop for Carhartt clothing, which goes hand in hand with Stanley cups,” says Rick Remick, manager of Len’s Ace Hardware.

Remick says his store started stocking Stanley products in 2022 as they became available through his wholesaler. Once he started stocking more SKUs of Stanley products, Remick says his sales saw a major increase.

“It’s been so popular that both our wholesaler and Stanley haven’t been able to keep up with the volume we’re selling, and it’s all mainly the younger generations purchasing,” Remick says. “It’s been crazy seeing it take off.”

Another product Remick says started as an impulse item but over time became a shelf-staple is Carhartt beanies. While his store has always carried Carhartt products in its clothing section, Remick says he’s added over 40 SKUs just in beanies.

“Around 70% of the customers buying our beanies are younger,” he says. “It’s unbelievable how it’s not just guys anymore, it’s young women buying them now too.”

Remick is also involved with promoting their impulse products on social media, playing a role similar to a salesperson on the QVC network, inviting customers to come and check out the store’s cups and beanies.

Len’s Ace Hardware’s Instagram page is filled with quick videos of Remick, other employees and the occasional four-legged friend promoting impulse products at the store.

By promoting items many potential customers don’t think about coming to a hardware store to purchase, using social media has correlated to a higher percentage of impulse product sales for the store.

“Our social media manager, Baylie Grimsley, uses social media in a different way than we normally do,”
Remick says. “She’s always looking for new ideas and areas to concentrate on.”

Get Creative With Impulse Merchandising

Adding an impulse product to your store’s regular inventory involves strategic planning and presentation. Attracting customers’ attention and encouraging spontaneous purchases can be done by placing impulse items in high-traffic areas around your store.

Carroll put extra thought into how to merchandise the eclipse glasses, utilizing the packaging the glasses were transported in to display them in multiple high-traffic areas around his store.

At the Louisville location, he displayed two boxes of eclipse glasses at the checkout lanes, one at their customer service desk and one in the store’s post office. The entire path people walk to get to the post office is lined with impulse items.

“Our post office is the busiest contract station in the state,” Lilly says. “Having that post office location
in the store is such an advantage because when people come in to mail a letter, they’re more likely to stop and look at the impulse items we have near the line. With it being at the back of our store, they also have to walk through the entire store to get to it.”

During the holiday season, Lilly says the store capitalizes on having a post office by expanding on the impulse items already in the checkout line.

“Last year around Christmas, we set up tables with gift ideas so as people are coming in to drop off packages or mail letters, they’re able to look at other gift ideas,” Lilly says. “The placement of impulse items depends on the situation going on at the store at the time.”