Tip of the Week

Retail SMART	SMART Displays: E = MC²
	By: Dennis A. Conforto Chairman & CEO of A-Z Media Group, Inc.

This is the final article for the month on merchandise displays. This one is entitled SMART Displays: E=MC². Albert Einstein was unquestionably one of the SMARTest guys to have ever lived on the planet. His theories revolutionized the way people think about time and reality. Well, I am no Einstein that is for sure! But I do have strong feelings about time, about reality and about E=MC², especially when it comes to an independent retail store. One thing is for sure: there is never enough time for a retailer to do everything they would like to do. And at times even a retailer has to question, like Einstein did, what is real and what is not real. A retailer does have to look at the store in three ways, by Event, by Manufacturer and by Category. But in doing so you on occasion will have to display the same merchandise 2 times thus E=MC². So what did Einstein know that we didn’t know about a scrapbooking stores? Well, I would say that he knew all about the reality of time. Consumers are limited in the amount of time they spend trying to find what they want. This is directly related to your displays and the amount of your sales. SMART stores of the future know that you have to have 3 styles of Displays: 1. Event or Theme Displays are powerful because they help the consumers generate ideas for their own scrapbooks. It is this part of the store’s displays that have to change the most often. This area should change monthly, and in some months more often. This area of the store is really mostly for the beginners, who need the help in generating basic ideas of what the possibilities are when it comes to scrapbooking. 2. Displays by Manufacturers are needed to help create brand names that the consumers know and trust. SMART manufacturers of the future know they have to have an area of the store where they can push their products and create sales events in the store. Even Einstein knew the rules of space and one rule that Manufacturers need to learn is how to own retail space in their partnership with retailers. 3. Displays by Category are perfect for the expert scrapbooker who values shopping a store that wants to save them time; time was something that Einstein really understood. As we push forward with the SMART store concept, more retailers will understand merchandising and displays and they will understand how to maximize their sales efforts and increase the average transaction. Soon, independent retailers from all over the country will see, for the first time, The SMART Store. No longer will it be a concept but rather a live working model of the scrapbooking store of the future. This store will be version one of a SMART store, because as Einstein would have told you time does not stand still. And neither will the SMART store, because as time evolves so does everything around it, even the SMART store. Today, the scrapbooking industry’s annual retail sales hovers around $2.5 billion, but things have started to slow down. The margin for error on the part of anyone in this business is becoming less and less. As a result, it is time for all of us to get real about changes that need to take place within the industry. The entire “brain trust” of the industry should be focused on where customers buy to integrate the independent retail store into their hobby. This is why we are such strong supporters of The SMART Group. Finally, there is an organization within the industry that brings like-minded owners of business from all sectors of the industry to focus like a hot laser on the retail floor. We know if we do, the rewards will be great. The question is simple: By focusing most of our energy on the retail store will the industry grow? Einstein’s theory of relativity was, in part, based on what was real. One thing is for sure: if we don’t work on the retail store, the industry will not get to its $10 billion potential in the US market and $20 billion in the world wide market. Real change is needed quickly industry-wide. They say that doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results is the definition of insanity. For the last 12 months, the industry has been doing the same thing with no changes; however, things are slowing down and everyone can see it and feel it but few are willing to consider new approaches, reset the rules, and focus on the consumers’ wants, needs, and desires. Scrapbooking.com Magazine has spent years getting detailed input from the consumer on what is important to them. Translating that into meaningful industry-wide direction is what being Einstein SMART all about.