In today’s challenging retail landscape, outdoor furniture retailers need to be savvy, innovative and willing to change things up to bring in meaningful business.
Garrett Wallace, owner of Texas-based six-store casual furniture retailer Yard Art Outdoor Living, understands this well and has planned a strategy accordingly. Before we got into discussing successful ways his store does things, he mentioned that he doesn’t look at what other stores do, and therefore it’s hard to say how he does things differently.
He does what works for his stores, and that’s a great reminder that every store needs to do what works for them. However, when you share strategies, you can spark ideas that will work for your store.
One of Wallace’s recent changes to the store was sparked by his sister’s high-end showroom in the World Trade Center in Dallas. Her showroom is designer-oriented, so Wallace carved out a space in his stores to display higher-end furniture in a more luxurious setting.
“The idea is to help us build back our special-order business,” Wallace says. “Our special-order business since Covid has come back, but it’s not like it was pre-pandemic. We’re trying to push that more and offer designs that are a little more unique.”
Despite a recent recession and an uncertain economy, the luxury category has suffered less than products at lower price points because of the type of buyer.
However, the luxury customer requires a certain type of personal engagement in the selling process. You can’t expect to sell someone on a $10,000 sofa if you can’t speak to their actual wants and needs.
“In our training, we stress the importance of the first impression,” Wallace says. “When a customer comes in the door, a sales rep can’t start the conversation with ‘how can I help you?’” We tell employees to make it an outside conversation, talk about the weather or something related to the outdoors. If the customer is a little more focused, we try to ask some different types of questions to engage them in a meaningful way.”
He says the key is asking open-ended questions that are designed to drive the customer to what they are looking for. They’re not intrusive and too sales-y, and each employee can do it in their own way. Some employees are extroverts and can make conversation with anyone. But others may be more reserved in nature, and there are still ways to drive the conversation forward.
Customers can be the same way. Questions like “What brings you in today?” leave space for the customer to tell you if they want you to help them immediately or let them look around on their own.
Wallace says some of his more energetic employees will greet customers with “Happy Wednesday!” on Wednesdays as a way of connecting on a human level.
“It’s not my personality, but it’s fun to see how a customer reacts when employees do it,” he says. “These are small things but they can make a big difference.”
Another behind-the-scenes strategy that Wallace employs builds in discounts to orders of a certain size, which ends up benefiting the salesperson making commission and the customer.
“We try and give our employees tools because this day and age seems like everybody wants a deal, or everyone wants to feel special and like they got a deal,” he says. “So we have different discounts and incentives built in that help our employees want to add to each sale.”
Wallace’s advice to other retailers is to look at each dollar, what you’re spending to get it and where it’s coming from. And then figure out how to enhance it.
“Whether that’s using technology differently or doing more things in-house, looking critically at these things can help,” he says. “For instance, I no longer pay to have my Facebook ads made; I do a lot of it myself. There’s something to be said about saving $500 a month by doing this in-house.”
