Display Your Water Feature Products to Make Profits
This was an article I wrote to persuade hardware retailers to help customers make good buying decisions in terms of ponds and pumps.
As I write this article we are about halfway through the East Coast Radio Home and Garden Show taking place in the city centre of Durban.
For the very first time in 11 years we decided to exhibit our fiberglass water features, pond pumps, biofilters and UV lights to the general public. In fact we went one step further and decided to test the market we wanted to know categorically if the people of Natal were prepared to buy our products since over the years we have been told by the KZN trade in general our market is different.
This was generally the reason put forward for not wanting to buy and stock the products. No doubt this view contributed to the reason for poor sales in KZN since it is basic, to say the least, that a water feature product should be on working display to stand a chance of selling it.
Forgive me if this sounds a bit mischievous but is the KZN trade in general providing consumers with what they are looking for? This trade is not profiting from a real opportunity to make incremental profits to anything like the extent it should be.
You can now buy direct from the factory
Our Discovery Did Not Surprise Us .
We discovered something quite important after only 3 days The consumers in KZN are in fact just the same as consumers everywhere else.
We took an outdoors stand of about 100 sq metres and placed working water features throughout the stand in small islands of displays with walkways between the islands. The displays were landscaped in a very basic way using plants, fiberglass rocks, bark chippings and a few white pebbles and log edgings.
All the water features were kept working all the time . And we found out that people responded positively by opening their wallets. We provided them with
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Visions (working water features in a garden setting) of easily installed water features
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A wide variety of water features to choose from and that are simple to look after
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A reason for buying .water features that will add value to lifestyles and properties
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Benefits to themselves and families, and water features that add character to gardens in general
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Knowledge on what pond keeping and water gardening is all about to ensure that murky green ponds are banished forever
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Products that will keep their water features, ponds and waterfalls with clean clear water year in year out at low cost with few hassles.
At times we could not handle the sales despite having 7 people on the stand.
Next weekend sees the climax of the show and I will not be there but we have had to double our admin staff just to cater for the expected rush to buy.
All in all our time in Durban was a fantastically successful experiment that demonstrates to us once again the power of display and especially so when it comes to water features. Selling water features must be one of the most profitable uses of any outdoors gardening space in any retail store and all it needs is a little bit of trouble and knowledge.
At least in future we will be able to turn a deaf ear to the well known lament that consumers in KZN are different.
Any body looking to profit from water features?