December 5: Puppies & Kittens Sell

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The kiosk next to us sells sunglasses. I’m not sure how that relates to puppies and kittens, but they have lined up about 10 of these fake-realistic-looking puppies & kittens that have a mechanism that allows them to “breathe”.

If I had ten cents for everytime I heard a customer comment on them, or run over to look at them, this experiment would be done and I’d be in Hawaii.

What is interesting, though, is that people look at the kittens– it attracts their attention– but they don’t buy them. (The sunglasses do alright though, but the kittens don’t guarantee sunglasses sales.)

After a few days of watching that, as well as the other kiosks around us, we are getting a sense for what works with retail sales, and what doesn’t. Just for fun, here are my basic observations:

1. Packaging blocks the client from interacting with the product. They need to pick it up, hold it, try it on, etc.

2. A gimmick will grab attention, but not necessarily close a deal. And if you’re obvious about it, it doesn’t even grab attention, it just bugs them.

3. Too little inventory has “ghetto” written all over your store. We only had one vendor’s supplies for a few days, and kept getting feedback that we needed more stock. Check!

4. If you approach the customer the second they walk over to the kiosk, it scares them away. (This usually doesn’t apply to our friends, though.) Give them a second to acclimate, and then be subtle in your approach.

5. Don’t first tell the customer about the products you like or that you would buy. First evaluate what they like, who they’re shopping for, what they like, etc.  It’s like a conversation, except that what you have to say is extremely secondary.

6. Be quick about the check-out. Fumbling with credit cards and receipts doesn’t inspire them to come back.

Anyway, that’s something we’re learning–how to approach the customers better in a way that is more likely to lead to sales.

Now then, I already blogged about this for a minute, but when I woke up today and saw the nearly 2,000 visitors, I was stunned!

We are so excited that the word is getting out. (Of course, we wish all of you lived in Provo, UT and could come visit our enterprise…)

And in the meantime, we are trying to think of clever ways to maximize our website and perhaps make ordering or products available on the Internet. Give us a day or two. And thank you to those who have made excellent suggestions, which we are looking into doing.

We’ve heard some comments about why we went with a “brick and mortar” rather than an online enterprise. Especially since I’ve been working for an internet startup for the last several months.

That’s a great question. My first thoughts are:

1. My main skills are not technical, rather, organizational/operational. The learning curve for me on an internet project could be steeper, and I have limited time w/ the 30 days thing.

2. There are great things to be said for making money from an internet business. Great things. But, I think you can lose a lot of what I would consider “traditional” business experiences, and I wanted this experiment to be an application of what I’ve learned about good business. Interacting with customers. Sales. Opening and closing shop. Taking an idea from just being an idea to being fully executed, operational, and cash-flow positive (Don’t worry– I’ll let you know when that happens!) Using traditional operations infrastructures– setting up the bank, doing inventory, and seeing the concept realized in a tangible, visual storefront, etc.

Who knows– maybe the next Hundred Dollar Business will be strictly on the web!

As for what’s ahead, we’re excited to work with CopperRain tomorrow on the video interview! Look for this soon.

Ok, that’s all for now. See you tomorrow! Oh– one other thing– if you have retail experience, mall experience, kiosk at Christmas time experience… and have any tips, we’d be glad to hear your suggestions. We are doing well, but we want to be doing excellently. Thanks!

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