Showcase your outdoor products

Shooting Industry, Feb, 2004 by Mark Diss

"We've found that accessory items act as great add-on sales pieces in our displays," said Dean Moore, owner of Dean's Outfitters in Orchard Park, Kan. "We use as much natural light as possible for our displays, but if we can't, we use warm artificial lighting to continue the outdoor theme."

Moore creates small merchandising scenes that bring the outdoors inside. He may set up a mini-campsite, a treestand with hunting equipment on it, or a small fishing scene. This allows him to sell multiple products in the same space by adjusting light to highlight specific products.

"We do a lot of customizing of people's shotguns and bows," Moore said. "We always have one of our customized guns, bows or fly rods on display with other high-end items. The lighting we use on the display enhances the custom work we do."

Moore keeps his displays looking fresh and new by simply alternating merchandise and changing the lighting.

"It's a great way to sell more merchandise, particularly merchandise with greater margins, rather than simply having stuff spread all over the store," Moore said.

This technique is key for increased sales, according to Bronson, of Tommy Bronson Sporting Goods.

"We find that the creation of small scenes that accent particular products and present them to our customers is a highly effective way of selling more merchandise," he said. "Our customers are of three types, the 'money is no object' group, the mid-price-range 'we'll buy it at a fair price' crowd, and the new outdoors person who wants good equipment but wants to feel confidence in the merchandise.

"Creating strong visual displays helps us put all our merchandise in the best possible light, no pun intended, and that helps us sell more merchandise to all three of those market types."

The use of even basic visual merchandise techniques offers gun shops and other specialty outdoors retail centers an opportunity to increase sales by using the magic that the proper use of light, color, and even sound bring to displays. Good visual merchandising, including the use of effective lighting, is a system that works for thousands of retailers in other markets. It works for the gun dealers, as well.

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