Fall 2009

The Great Outdoors! By Sharon Anne Waldrop

Toland Home Garden

The sales team at Toland Home Garden a wholesaler of garden accessories based in Port Townsend, WA, recommends the following ideas to display and market gardening items in your store:

Solar lights don’t shine in daylight and customers can’t see the full effect. Make a collage with pictures of homes with solar lights shining at night and display them next to the item.

Encourage customers to start an indoor garden of flowers and herbs in winter by having a store display showing how to make the inside of your home look like spring all year long.

Display gardening supplies inside as well as outside. For instance, if you sell rain gauges, keep one outside and let customers see how it works. If you do things like placing a plant mister next to a plant, customers will then know what it is and how it works.

Moving products around in the store often keeps things looking “fresh” and gives the customer the feeling that he/she is walking into a new buying opportunity every time they visit the store. Sometimes shop owners move products several times before they find the sweet spot that makes it fly out the door.

Sharon Anne Waldrop

Sharon Anne Waldrop resides with her family on a horse farm in northern Georgia. She writes about business and finance for national and trade magazines, and has contributed to Good Housekeeping, Woman's Day, and Hotel & Motel Management.