Selling the Experience: How Strategic Product Selection, Rentals and Events Drive Outdoor Living Sales

Outdoor living has become one of the most popular categories in hardware stores across the U.S., with more homeowners investing in their backyards.

According to the Home Improvement Research Institute’s Q4 2024 Quarterly Homeowner Project Activity Tracker, 6 to 12% of homeowners intended to purchase outdoor living products in 2025.

At Ambridge Do it Best Home Center in Ambridge, Pennsylvania, the outdoor living category has flourished through its strategic product selection, robust rental department and tailored customer service. Learn how owner and general manager David Strano has shaped his store’s outdoor living category and has become a go-to store for homeowners in the area for products like grills, outdoor cooking accessories, decorations and furniture.

Helping Customers Visualize

A robust product selection is key to succeeding in the outdoor living category but requires more
than just stocking products—it takes a keen awareness of trends and a willingness to adapt to those trends. Strano’s store carries typical products like grills, pizza ovens and seasonal holiday decorations, but one product category he’s found success in is outdoor furniture.

“Around 20 years ago, plastic table sets dominated this category, but today, customers expect high-end materials and complete furniture sets,” Strano says. “We’ve changed our selection to carry the products people are looking for.”

Ambridge Do it Best Home Center encompasses over 50,000 square feet and has a large parking lot, which has given Strano the space to merchandise his outdoor furniture properly inside and outside his store.

Inside, Strano has around 8,000 square feet of floor space filled with complete patio table sets and multiple types of outdoor chairs. In spring 2024, Strano set up more patio sets and pop-up tents near the front of his store. trano strategically placed the tent and patio sets close to his front doors so customers have to walk by them to enter the store.

“We were forced to set up the tent in our parking lot because we have such a large amount of patio furniture,” Strano says. “We carry so much because that’s what we’ve seen our customers come to us to purchase. Since it’s such a broad category, we have to have something for everybody’s taste.”

Each patio set up inside and outside is merchandised in a way to show the customer how it would look in their backyard.

“We try to make every set look livable,” he says. “On every table, we have glasses and placemats and every chair has a cushion so homeowners can see how they could set it up if they purchased that set.”

Strano supplies his inventory through multiple wholesalers, which gives him access to a wide variety of products. He attends each wholesaler’s market to get ideas for what his customers want.

“When I attend a market, I take a lot of photos of how each booth is set up because when I’m back at
my store, I’m in charge of displaying these products,” he says. “When you leave something in its box, customers don’t get a good feel for what the product looks like when it is set up. Nobody wants to look at a rug rolled up or a patio set in multiple boxes.”

Strano says he’s modeled his outdoor living category and the rest of his store after how he likes to shop.

“When I’m in a store, I want to touch and feel the product and see what it looks like before I make a
purchase,” he says. “When you buy a product online, sometimes you don’t get what you saw in the photo. I always stress to my employees to show our products how people would want to see them in their homes.”

Going the Extra Mile With Rentals

Strano’s store also features a robust rental department. It carries more than construction equipment and
power tools; it also rents inflatable houses, tents and most importantly, every grill it sells. Strano also has a promotion where if a customer purchases a bag of pellets, they receive a free one-day grill or smoker rental.

“If a customer has never cooked on a pellet stove before and is interested in making a purchase, we allow them to test the product out through our rentals before they make that monetary commitment,” Strano says.

Strano compared his grill rental promotion to a personal experience of buying a new car, another large commitment.

“When I was ready to buy a new car, I wanted to do a test drive and buying a grill is no different,” he says. “Some people might spend $1,500 on a grill they’ve never used before if they’ve done their research. But it’s nice to test it out before you get home with that product.”

Strano says some outdoor cooking products can be tricky to use, and the rental day helps break that barrier and lets customers experience the product beforehand.

“The majority of customers who rent a grill or smoker will end up purchasing that product from us
after renting it,” he says.

Strano’s store has added perks for customers purchasing grills, including free delivery, assembly and haul away for any grill purchased over a certain price threshold.

“At the end of the day, my customers could rent the grill from me and purchase it from a big-box store,
but having these incentives has helped them make the purchase with us,” Strano says.

Events Lead to Sales

Throughout the year, mainly in the summer months, Strano’s parking lot plays host to multiple cooking events, intending to bring customers to the store and introduce them to the store’s vast selection of grills, smokers and outdoor furniture.

Strano brings in local professional chefs and artisans for his events and has them cook on his store’s grills. During these events, he also invites many of his outdoor living vendors so they can take part in the event. Utilizing his store’s robust social media presence, Strano informs his customers about these events, posting about them multiple times well in advance to garner more attention.

“Every Saturday, we have a rotation of chefs come out and do demonstrations,” he says. “It’s a win-win for us. These chefs get to show off their skills, and I get to introduce customers to my grills.”

Strano says these events aren’t meant for instant satisfaction.

“I understand that customers need time to think before making a big purchase so these events we host allow my staff and vendors to engage with our customers,” he says. “The people who attend these events get to know our selection and the services we offer and keep us in mind for when they’re ready to make that purchase.”