Hardware Retailing The Industry's Source for Insights and Information
The impulse section of your store can be one of the most exciting categories to stock. Browsing through social media, walking trade show floors and sourcing customer recommendations are impactful ways to find fun products for your customers and win sales.
Placerville Hardware in Placerville, California, has maintained a unique inventory of products for over 150 years the store has been in operation. Known as the “Oldest Hardware Store West of the Mississippi,” the store was founded during the California Gold Rush and many of the products sold in the store today reflect the area’s rich history. Store shelves are layered with a variety of unique items like cast iron pans, candles, western decor, kitchen accessories, toys, fishing poles and oil lanterns. The store also prides itself on its gift and souvenir section, catering to tourists who visit the area. The entire collection of these western-themed and gift items serves as the store’s impulse section, drawing in last-minute purchases as customers browse.
Location, Location, Location
Placing impulse items around the store, not just at the checkout counter, is key to catching the eyes of customers and making this category a success. Placerville Hardware has these items scattered throughout the store: on countertops, in endcap displays and on free-standing racks.
“Our impulse category is all over our store,” says Melissa Fausel, the store’s co-owner. “We have a lot of countertops throughout the store, and impulse items are on all of them.”
She and her staff are always moving their impulse products around, keeping displays fresh and new for customers.
“We swap out items fairly often and also move the items around regularly,” Fausel says.
Having a discussion with customers while they are checking out or in line to purchase their items has been an effective method for the store to win impulse sales. The fun and intriguing impulse items offered at Placerville can nearly sell themselves, but employees are still an essential part of the equation when it comes to getting these products off the shelves.
“We tell our employees to mention impulse items near the register if someone is waiting,” Fausel says.
Winning Locally
Showcasing your community and supporting fellow independent businesses in your area through a curated local product section is a great way to differentiate your operation from the crowd while bulking up the impulse section in your store and bringing in last-minute buys. At Ambridge Do it Best Home Center in Ambridge, Pennsylvania, owner David Strano believes in the importance of celebrating local vendors and honors that belief by selling many locally made products in his store.
“Locally owned products are key to any family-owned business,” Strano says. “Our customers love seeing we are trying to build the community by carrying local products.”
Ambridge’s local items span from pasta sauce, barbecue sauce and coffee to dog treats, granola and pickles. Strano hand-selects the local products that make their way into his store, often choosing items while he’s out shopping at other stores.
“If it is something that I like, I will end up reaching out to the company to bring it into my store,” he says.
Properly showcasing local products and giving them their time in the spotlight is essential to move these products off the shelves and also provides opportunities to highlight a community’s local charm.
At Ambridge Do it Best, Strano exhibits his local products, specifically food products, by offering sampling events.
“We frequently will do samplings on the weekends for our pasta sauces, pickles and coffee, and occasionally other categories as well,” he says.
For five years, the store has also partnered with Oram’s Donuts, a local donut establishment, to sell freshly-baked donuts on weekend mornings to customers, offering both walk-ins and pre-orders.
“Every Saturday, Oram’s delivers the donuts before we open the store,” Strano says. “We sell approximately 400 donuts starting on Saturday morning until they are sold out, which is usually around 10 a.m., give or take. We started selling them five years ago and it has been a success since Day 1.”
For Strano, shopping local is the key to stocking local.
“Going to local farmers’ markets to see what is popular in your own town and surrounding areas and going to local restaurants that sell their own products are great ways to source locally. Having a vision and keeping your eye out for these products has been the key to our success,” he says. “I tend to make a list of products that I see and want to bring into the store and chip away with bringing them in one at a time.”
Smart Sourcing
Discovering impulse items from a variety of sources is helpful in keeping the category up to date. Partnering with local vendors, attending trade shows and tracking the latest trends on social media are essential practices when building an impulse category or swapping out products. Fausel and her team rely on multiple avenues to bring in new impulse items, including visiting trade shows and using online wholesale marketplaces for independent retailers.
“I used to mostly find new items at trade shows, but I’ve been using Faire, an online wholesale marketplace, more these days,” she says.
While the store doesn’t have an extensive selection of locally made or sourced products, Placerville’s “local” items consist of the store’s branded souvenirs, like keychains and clothing items. Offering a selection of store-branded products is a great way to spread the word about your store, increasing visibility and boosting foot traffic.
“We have some items from locals, and we do sell souvenirs with the Placerville name printed on them,” Fausel says.
As an independent retailer’s biggest asset, customers can provide valuable sourcing information in the form of product suggestions. At Placerville, customer and employee suggestions alike are essential in learning about and adding new impulse items.
“We definitely listen to customer suggestions as well as employees’ ideas,” Fausel says. “For instance, I had an employee recently travel to the Midwest and he brought back a seasoning that I started carrying. It’s been a huge hit.”
