By Mr Retail
When the pandemic hit, most of us put our future business plans on hold and just tried to keep up. Add to that all the time spent finding inventory, and it was exhausting. But now that we are on the other side of the pandemic, it’s time to get back to focusing on our next quarter, next year, and several years down the road. Let’s talk through some ideas.
Did you stop selling certain categories that were labor intensive or lower margin? Or maybe you dropped a segment because of low parts availability. If so, I would rethink all of these categories and decide if you want to bring them back into your store. We are surely doing that on our end.
Did you have a list of categories you were planning on offering, but didn’t as there wasn’t enough hours in the day? Then now is the time to act on it to keep a wide variety of clients coming into your store.
Have you looked into adding new categories in a while? It is probably time to do it again. I am the kind of guy that begins by looking at the products my clients are already buying that I do not offer. Then I figure out if there is a business model for me. I consider this low hanging fruit, as I already know my target audience wants these items.
Some popular categories may be window tint, paint protection film, ceramic paint coatings, off-road lighting, truck accessories, WeatherTech products, and LED replacement bulbs. And let’s not forget selling add-on CarPlay and Android Auto modules. There may be some categories where you aren’t equipped to offer the services at the moment. Many retailers have found success with subcontractors to do the work. I am referring to tint, paint protection film, and ceramic paint coatings. As an FYI, if a guy gets all three of those done to his vehicle at the same time, it can be $4-9K in cost, so even if you are only making 25 percent, it can be healthy cash flow for you.
In closing, I look at these “extra” categories in two ways. First, they can be categories that bring clients to us so we can then offer them products out of our core business. So a tint client that has never been to my store, now gets exposed to audio, radar, remote start, etc. Second, they increase revenue for the store. If you find 5 categories that each do $25K per year in business, that is now $125k, which is fantastic.
I wish you well as you position your company for success not just in this next year, but for the next decade.
About Mr Retail
Mr Retail offers opinions and information on car audio retailing for CEoutlook. He wishes to remain anonymous. He has owned a retail store in this country for over 20 years now. Mr Retail loves what he does and loves the 12 volt industry and is happy to share his hard won expertise.
Photo credit: Roadmunk
