The wooden windmills, giant daffs and over-sized clogs need to be brought out of storage and dusted down. The stands stripped, cleaned and readied for the first delivery... and don't forget the 'Bulbs Galore' banner!
Autumn bulb sales are such an important part of the garden centre season for many reasons; they help to kick start Autumn planting time, they add colour to your shop display, and most importantly, they are a great money maker and draw if done correctly.
Too many people forget this last point and have let their bulbs order dwindle to next to nothing, a pitiful display just before the checkout.
So here are a few tips to stimulate those bulbs sales:
Stock Up
Make sure you have enough lines to make a decent display. It's easy to get in to a downward spiral of less stock = less sales from one year to the next.
Make Room
Give over plenty of prominent space to your display, preferably close to your entrance from plant sales to the shop area. Don't forget that little bit of theatre too.
Colour Block
Apart from promotion ranges, it's better to colour block your core range than go with a boring A-Z. Apart from how it looks, colour blocking makes it much easier to merchandise and re-merchandise.
Link Sell
The above mentioned colour blocking makes it easy to tie coloured pots with bulb ranges, plus other added sales. Don't foget you need trowels and bulb planters with your bulbs as well as you tools. And don't forget the blood, fish and bonemeal!
Plan for Profit
Look at your profit and margin over the full bulb season. Take full margin, apart from a few offers, at the start of the season but don't be afraid to discount, and discount again towards the end of the season. You should still have a healthy margin when you check your final figures, and hopefully no stock if you get your timing right.
Oh, and use your EPOS system to weed out the slow sellers from the previous season and increase the winning lines.
Ok, so there's a lot more to it than these few points but at least start thinking about what you can do to improve your sales.
Enough preaching from me, go look at your bulb order again...
