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Buying merchandise can be a trying task for a rookie retailer. One seasoned manufacturer’s rep came to my first shop, twirled around to eyeball the place and told me point blank that my job was to “romance” the high-end lines that she carried. If they did not sell, it would not be her fault, but mine. It was my job as a shop owner to ardently pursue my customer and woo them into falling for the products.
I resented being told what to do—but deep down I knew she was right.

The rep’s words came to haunt me when I made an unplanned and impulsive purchase at a giftshow. It was the end of the last day of the show and I came across a booth that carried high-end lacquer boxes boxes with reproductions of work by Klimt, Matisse, and Erte, among others.

People were swarming the booth and I fell hypnotically into the pack of buyers that were ooing and awwing over the pieces. I went ahead and purchased over a dozen pieces, even though I did not know were I’d display them . Nor did I know whether my customer would fall for the price point which was over $100 average. All I thought about was that I had to have them.

Once the high of shopping was over, I had to figure out how I’d sell them. All of them. It was time to romance the merchandise.

Now I knew that the boxes were beautiful. And others would find that to be true as well. But is beauty enough of a pull for the customer to buy? Many times customers need a reason to buy something, it must have a purpose or meaning for them. I called Anna, my shop manager, and told her to make up some artistic signage.
The signage would say “Memory Boxes” something to the effect that these special boxes were worthy of holding you most valued treasure or momentos. Great for those people who want to pass on some thing sentimental.

Well. Anna made up a center display with all dozen boxes and the sign. We all waited. It would be nice to sell all boxes at an average price of $110.

It was not a surprise then when we sold each box off of the display. The sign was a big pull that made the customer think twice about the boxes purpose and made them think of someone that they wanted to buy one for. We had romanced the merchandise to be special.

This served as a reminder that all merchandise should be romanced. The merchandise you sell should look taken care of and not forgotten. It reminded me of how important it is to use proper signage. Everyone is not as sophisticated as one would assume. Signage is a nice way of pulling the customer into your displays and gives meaning to the objects that are in
view. Many times people are at odds with asking a question for fear of being seen as asking a dumn question.

My next in shop task is to add signage to the groups of Buddhas that we sell. Something to the effect of “Who Was Buddha and Why is He Everywhere Now?”