Home improvement is one of the most highly competitive markets and any brand that has made its way into retailer giants such as Lowe’s and Home Depot knows that becoming a star in these stores is no small task. Successful brands in this market know that data is everything when it comes to optimizing their approach to these stores and, whether you’re selling tools, appliances, electronics, garden supplies, or cleaning products, it’s critical to build a strong relationship with retailers.
Let’s have a look at some of the key challenges brands face in the home improvement retailer environment and Repsly can help solve them.
Maintaining Picture-Perfect Merchandising:
Securing shelf space in major retail chains is a significant challenge. These giants require meticulous care to gain and maintain shelf space. If any given brand hopes to increase their share-of-floor, they must first ensure that the space they’ve been given is consistently fully stocked, built to perfection, and always in compliance with the planogram.
This, of course, is easier said than done. When your merchandising team goes into a store, they have a long list of tasks they need to complete, including reviewing SKUs, identifying execution gaps, complete surveys, review the planogram, gather data, and report on out-of-stocks. And for some, that’s not even half of it.
When equipped with Repsly’s application, your merchandisers can make the perfect shelf a reality. Repsly makes it easy to find and correct compliance errors and track merchandising performance over time. This makes their experience in-store seamless, with no need to complete any of their orders or data entry in a separate system, And it allows you to collect real-time data from the field, giving you better visibility into critical insights on performance, product mix, and sales.
Trainings, Demonstrations, and Events:
Educated store associates are crucial for product success. In-depth, hands-on training can turn individuals into champions for your brand. This is particularly important for the home improvement market brands where customers need to see the product in action. Especially in today’s world where it feels like the next big innovation is constantly coming down the pike, it’s particularly important for brands in the home improvement and hardware space to ensure they’re prioritizing training and demos.
Its key for brands in this space to have the ability to operationalize training and demos. It quite literally requires a hands on approach, especially when it comes to meeting the standards of stores like Home Depot and Lowe’s. For field representatives, Repsly’s application ensures they’re well-informed and capable of promoting the brand effectively. It also gives managers back at the office the ability to track trainings and touch points in real time.
Data and Insights:
In today’s world of constant change, data is king. The ability to effectively collect data from the field and turn that data into actionable insights is one of the most important facets of success – particularly in the home improvement market. Because of the very nature of home improvement, in particular that it is an extremely broad market with hundreds of types of products falling into this category, it’s even more important for brands in this space to obtain accurate and up-to-date data.
Accurately tracking things like conditions on the floor, competitor facings, and trainings requires quite a lot of work for field reps if done without the proper tools. Even tracking something as “simple” as time spent in stores vs. time spent on the road can add complexity to their days and takes away from the opportunity to perform higher-value operations.
Home improvement brands that work with Repsly have the ability to easily track all of the data they need, without adding complexity or manual work to their field team’s plates. Repsly can automatically track reps time spent on the road vs. in stores and reps can easily take photos of the shelves, fill out forms, and put in sales orders in the Repsly app which are immediately available for team leads to review on the web application. This real-time data has helped brands improve floor share against competitors and facilitates informed decision-making. They’ve also been able to track these variables over time, and adjust strategies as needed in order to maintain a competitive edge.
By implementing these strategies, tool, paint, and garden brands can thrive in the retail environment, ensuring their products stand out and drive sales. Ready to learn more about how you can too? Schedule a demo.