Merchandising can provide a lucrative additional revenue stream for franchises operating in the preschool sector, but how can franchisees ensure they make the most of the opportunity with their customers and sell themselves and their services in the process?
Operating in a successful and buoyant industry, such as the preschool sector means grasping as many opportunities as possible to market your brand, your services and your own reputation as a franchisee. Successful merchandising is of course about upselling on-point products that are linked with your brand, but this nature of ‘selling’ doesn’t come naturally to everyone. Franchisees are already selling themselves every time they operate an activity or provide a service to a customer; so having a strong business with an established customer base to work from is a great starting point.
Increasing brand awareness
The key is to invest in product merchandise that you know is going to be used regularly in your classes or by people paying for your service. Capitalisiing on seasonal events such as Christmas, Easter, Father’s and Mother’s Day, can be really effective as your best-selling or popular products will be available to customers at the exact point they are actively looking.
In the preschool activities sector, you naturally find that when products are used within a classroom environment, parents want to be able to purchase that product to replicate those important educational activities at home with their child. Having a small, presentable and well-stocked shop in class or advertising your associated merchandise on your social media platforms via regular competitions and special offers can also help to increase awareness and drive sales as do gentle reminders during sessions to help move that merchandise along.
Most importantly, merchandising is an opportunity for franchises to build on brand awareness within their own customer network. Therefore using activity and class-based sessions as a driving force to showcase your merchandise creates an ideal platform to generate sales.
Not just a ‘nice display’
But creating appeal for merchandise it’s not just about a nice display, providing the developmental benefits of each product helps to market the purpose of the item and its link to your brand. A customer will want to know why they should buy that particular product and why it will help or benefit their child. Providing parents with demonstrations on how products help as well as how to use the product, gives confidence to consumers when replicating the same at home.
For example, musical instruments are a huge seller in the pre-school sector. Not only do young children love them, but they provide a huge amount of educational benefits, which makes them easier to sell. They enable children to listen out for differences in sounds, they are also an outlet for frustration and tension, they develop social skills, listening skills, provide a great sense of rhythm, teach children about cause and effect – the list is endless. So you can see that selling a product is about more than it being a nice to have, people want to understand how it will make a difference to their child.
There are also many other products which are popular from a merchandising perspective and provide a number of selling benefits such as sensory materials, balls and puppets which equally provide a wealth of benefits but my ‘go to’ best-selling product has to be musical instruments for their breadth of opportunity.
Look at what doesn’t sell
More surprisingly, looking at what doesn’t sell as well can give you a steer and a focus for merchandising. Soft toys in particular are often not the biggest seller for franchisees in the preschool sector. We see an increase during seasonal periods, but we find these generally sit on the shelves for longer. If you choose to invest in soft toys, a good quality branded soft toy would work better because at least it links to your business and your offering.
Often, it is so easy to be blown away by a new idea for a product and believe it will ‘sell out’ instantly, when the reality can be quite different. When the merchandise sales don’t come in it can be really disheartening for franchisees. So analysing your data first or doing some decent market research to see what will be a good seller, before you invest, is vital.
Careful considerations
One of the most important elements in building your own line of merchandise is finding a reputable international sourcing company to work with. Without a trusted company to work with, you will have to deal directly with manufacturers, follow testing protocol, approving bodies to name a few. Having a sourcing company, who is experienced in developing merchandise can do all of this work for you. This can help you save time and also money in the long term.
When investing in merchandise opportunities you have to look at the most popular items amongst your franchise and customer base. If you choose an item, which sells well all year round, it is a no brainer, being able to develop your own product, branding it and seeing it sell out, is extremely rewarding.
Safety is also paramount to the development process. Not only looking at the hazards, which could arise from a product, but also looking at the material it is made from.
Good merchandising is all about reminders, on average a consumer has to see a product at least seven times (The Rule of
Seven) before they consider making a purchase, so the franchisee should not be afraid to reinforce what products they have for sale on a consistent basis.
Competitions that showcase your merchandise on social media heighten your profile and engagement. The more people that interact with your postings, the more people within your targeted demographic will see the products and other services you are offering. It gives consumers the chance to then explore your social platforms and website and this can generate further bookings to classes/activities as well as merchandise sales.
Listen to feedback
There will be moments during a franchises’ merchandising journey when something may go wrong, or a product is not performing as it should. The key is to remain professional and listen to the customer’s feedback. Feedback is vital for improving service and if there are a lot of complaints regarding one particular product then an investigation should take place to find out the cause of the problem. This may mean refunding your customer for the item, recalling our products back from your network, or going back to your sourcing company and exploring the testing procedures or manufacturing process.
In summary, merchandising can be extremely lucrative for franchisees and a franchisor that is willing to support and offer their franchisees wider platforms to sell, such as an e-commerce shop, with branded materials and products to heighten their own profile, is so worthwhile. For the franchisor it also helps to get your brand and message into many hundreds of households across he country with children, regardless of location, while increasing future opportunities to promote your business.
