August 5, 2025 • 35 mins
Today we look at merchandising and it's importance in your store, no matter the size. Joining us today is Bob Phipps of The Retail Doctor. With over 30 years of experience beginning in the trenches of retail and extending to senior management positions, Phibbs has been a corporate officer, franchisor, and entrepreneur. He shares some actionable tips to help you in merchandising your store to it's full potential.
WESA Retail Roundup August 4, 2025:
- Host: Glenn the Geek, Host of Horses in the Morning
- Facebook: Retail Roundup Facebook group
- Guest: Bob Phibbs, The Retail Doctor | Facebook | YouTube | The Retail Doctor's Podcast
- Presented By: Western English Sales Association
Chapters:
05:51 - The Evolution of Merchandising
06:42 - The Evolution of Retail Spaces
17:32 - The Importance of Visual Merchandising
21:41 - Understanding Effective Window Displays
23:17 - The Role of Scent in Retail Marketing
29:23 - Introduction to Retail Insights
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Foreign.
You are listening to the HorseRadio Network, part of the Equine
Network family.
Well, hey, everybody.
Glenn, back with you and it'sso good to be back, especially the
week before wesa, a weekbefore the trade show, of course.
I am founder of the HorseRadio Network and host of Horses
in the Morning, the dailypodcast for the last 15 years.
(00:23):
Welcome to the WESA Retail Roundup.
The Retail Roundup is your goto virtual hub for all things retail.
Join panel discussions, learnfrom webinars, share your thoughts,
ask questions and connect withthe community.
We host a virtual event orshare educational content every Monday
via the Retail RoundupFacebook group.
Today, we look atmerchandising and its importance
to your store, no matter the size.
(00:44):
And of course, there's goingto be a lot of merchants merchandising
next week in Dallas.
Joining us today is Bob Phippsof the retail doctor.
He's known as.
With over 30 years ofexperience in the trenches of retail
and extending to seniormanagement positions, Bob has been
a corporate officer,franchisor, and entrepreneur.
He has worked with over athousand retail executives and entrepreneurs
(01:06):
to grow margins, improvecustomer service, and train employees.
He had a little bit ofexperience and he's written a cool
book we're going to talk aboutlater, too.
And kind of what we're talkingabout today relates to the book.
It's called how to merchandiseyoue store.
12 Visual merchandising tipsthat Work.
Thanks for joining us.
Thank you.
Glad to be here.
You started in our world.
(01:27):
I did.
Tell us about it.
Well, I put myself throughcollege selling shoes and I graduated.
I was going to be a conductor.
I got my degree in music and.
Oh, really?
Wow.
I went into student teachingand there's 30 teenage boys trying
to play Stairway to Heaven onuntuned guitars.
(01:49):
I said, there's not enough ginon the planet for me to do this.
And they're like, well, yougot to graduate.
You better finish.
So I did, and I couldn't get a job.
And in the mall at GlendaleGalleria, which was a really happening
place in California, SouthernCalifornia, a Western store was opening
up and they were looking for someone.
So I walk in my little Italiansuit and I'm feeling pretty good.
(02:09):
I go, well, I'm a greatsalesman, but I'm not gonna wear
your stuff.
You're like, you're gonna work here.
You're gonna get your stuff.
Like, okay.
And that's how I ended upgetting in there.
And I was with that companyfor 14 years until a very important
meeting happened at theCorporate office in Canyon Country.
So if we get into this and youwanna know that story, I will tell
(02:32):
you about that.
I have a picture.
Is this the picture of yourstarting days?
Is this the store?
This was my first store, 1982.
I want to know which bootswere on sale for $16.
Oh, those are Levi's, 501s, 1688.
And it was great because in.
In Santa Monica, all thetourists came and overseas came to
(02:57):
get 501s.
So they would buy them at 8and 9 at a time, you know, and shopping
list almost.
And they're Stetson hats, apparently.
Stetson hats?
Yeah.
Hat steamer and steam hats there.
And that's the way.
A great way to encouragepeople to slow down is have anyone
steam a hat and you're goingto look amazing and not to just put
out your hats and, you know,right out of the box.
(03:20):
Give them some kind of apersonality first.
It always makes a big difference.
So that's your first tip hereon our conversation in only a couple
minutes.
So if you do nothing else,steam your damn hats.
Don't let it go.
Don't leave it in the back.
For when someone asks, it'sgreat drama.
So the Howard and Fit.
Howard and Phil's was it?
(03:40):
That's what it was, yeah.
So what did you do?
I'm looking at the picture ofthe store here.
And by the way, it's theclassic because it's in black and
white.
That even makes it more classic.
Right.
In 1981, you said was the year.
So what was it that waschanging as far as merchandising
back then?
What happened while you were there?
You know, becausemerchandising changes all the time.
(04:00):
Well, I think one of thethings that I did that was different
was when I took the store, theboots were all one style, and the
shelves went from about 24inches from the bottom, and then
they stopped at about 6ft.
And what I did inmerchandising is I said, we got to
(04:24):
get them all out.
I want someone to just go crazy.
And the hard thing was tomerchandise that way meant you had
to have markers where thesizes were.
There was nothing worse than.
Well, quick story.
So I get this call.
It's, I don't know, Friday morning.
And this guy calls.
He goes, do you have a fry boot?
2579.
(04:45):
I go, I look on the shelf.
I go, yeah, I got it.
And he goes, you sure?
I go, absolutely.
I trust my crew 100%.
So he goes, good, because I'mKris Kristofferson's manager.
He'll be in there in about 10minutes to pick it up.
I was like, awesome.
So I go up and I pick up theboots, and they're an eight and a
half.
I was livid.
So I know I shouldn't fit inan eight and a half.
(05:06):
No, I should have closed thestore and run upstairs because there
was a competitor and getbottom, but I didn't.
So he comes in.
Chris Christopherson.
It's A Star is Born.
I mean, he'd just come out inthis movie and I tell him, there's
a big mistake.
I'm sorry.
It's upstairs.
Although I know you have kids.
We got great kids boots.
I hope I see you back.
(05:27):
And he actually came back andbought the kids boots.
Oh, wow, that was great.
But another, you know, again,your goal would have been to remove
the friction from thecustomer, go up and get the boots
and pay for it and be donewith it, because that's what the
service was.
So your second one here on thepodcast at WISA Retail Roundup.
(05:47):
Very good.
So everybody knows whatmerchandising is.
Has it become more importantto merchandise properly over the
years as things have changedand the Internet's come about and
all of that, or has it alwaysjust been that important and it's
the same as it was?
It's always important.
But, you know, merchandisinghas gone through an awful lot of
(06:09):
changes.
In department stores, you sawit probably the clearest.
Suddenly they had pantsdepartments and then shirt departments
and in menswear, that'sterrible because a guy will go in
and get the jeans and thenhe's out.
And that didn't live too long.
Department stores startedputting movable walls in, which is
(06:30):
a brilliant idea, except thatthe original designers of it expected
people to understand that youmove the walls so the store looks
different, and most people didn't.
And so then they just builtthe walls again, which was kind of
a waste.
And.
But I think the challenge in2025, 2026 is, look, we are a rattled
consumer.
We have more choice than ever.
And the way I did those bootsback then, I probably wouldn't do
(06:54):
the same now because it leadsto overload.
And the problem with that iscustomers come in and they feel overwhelmed
and then they shut down.
So unless you have a greatselling system, which is what I taught
all my guys and gals who workfor me at H and P for 14 years, they
can get overwhelmed and pullback and say, oh, here's another.
(07:15):
Here's an example.
So back then People wereasking for black boots now.
Damn.
Post made a black boot.
I know, it's terrible.
I remember all these stocknumbers, 4940.
And it was a beautiful boot.
And.
But when I took over the storeat South Coast Plaza, which is the
one where I made the highestincrease of sales, over 300 stores
(07:35):
in that mall selling cowboy clothes.
I changed.
I flipped it on them.
So is this.
You have any more black boots?
No, that's only in half.
Okay, well, thanks.
No.
Come here and sit down and tryit on.
See if you like black.
And you know what?
9 out of 10 times, they didn'tlike a black boot.
So we were able to capturethose stores, capture those sales
(07:57):
in a new way.
And so I would say, you know,great salesmanship can really help
you do a great job because youcan help filter those choices down.
And having a pair of lizard orostrich boots, when somebody's looking
for a pair of, you know, TonyLlama 5084 is terrible.
(08:18):
Makes a big difference becauseyou're always looking to get the
two pair, not the one.
Right.
That hasn't gone out of style.
So when you're looking at.
I had.
I. I should have queued upsome, but I didn't know we were going
to do pictures day.
But I wanted our store to lookvery packed.
And if anything that youwanted western, we had it.
But we call that the old timetack shop, where you walk in and
(08:38):
it's to the ceiling and youcan barely walk through the aisles.
But you had to have the sensethat if you're going to be in South
Coast Plaza, you had to beelevated, right?
So it had to be classy.
And, you know, there's some beautiful.
I was in a.
Is it Toccovas Taconas storethe other day.
They have.
(08:58):
They had a boot store in.
In Scottsdale.
I walked in, five employees,and the guy's like, you look for
something special?
I was like, no.
And then they just left.
And it's just like, dude, seriously.
Because it's a real minimalmerchandising, right?
It's got lit shelves.
The whole store is pretty darkand lit shelves.
And then they have one of each one.
And that kind of feels likeyou're looking at art.
(09:20):
It didn't feel thatapproachable, right?
Like, I have to go and asksomebody to help me.
But the key thing in.
In retail is your goal is tobring a customer's vision down.
This is for you.
So if, I mean, you know, youlook at Blue Barn now has whatever
450 stores.
They started at Huntington Beach.
They were right up this.
(09:41):
They were right up the 405freeway from me.
I was competing with them whenit was just the original owner and
he had what, six stores and we had.
I think we had 12.
And ultimately got to 55before it crashed and burned.
But you want them to be ableto say, like, this is a work boot
section.
So it's going to be Carhartt,it's going to be the boots, it's
going to be the belts.
You're trying to make it smallenough that this guy.
(10:03):
This is for you or for a woman.
You know, square dancer wasreally big back then.
And so.
And swing dancing and those.
So make it.
The display is for that personrather than.
Yeah, we just got these andput them out on the shelf.
Oh, yeah.
And throw.
Throw a pair of jeans with it.
Because a guy especially.
You're basically saying, tella story.
(10:25):
Absolutely.
You get a guy in there and hesees it.
Oh, by the way, going back totraining your employees, merchandising
is great, but my goal, if youcome into my store is I want to see
your sock.
That's all I care about.
I'm going to find a way to getyour shoe off to try on a pair of
boots the other way.
If you're trying on, if you'recoming in for apparel, I want you
(10:45):
half naked in the fitting room.
Because if I have you there, Ican sell you anything.
Conversion is 70% if they usea fitting room.
It's 30% if it's just on the shelf.
So that's where your goal isto be thinking that, well, the merchandising
you do on your store is thesame thing your crew has to be able
to do in the fitting room.
Right.
(11:06):
So just try this on.
It's a belt.
I don't need any belt.
I know you don't just try iton, dude.
And guys are susceptible.
You've got them half naked inthe fitting room, like, okay.
And when they come out.
Right.
The jeans are a little tired.
We're not doing that unlesswe're intent on buying something.
Exactly.
Right.
Yeah.
We're not doing it.
Just browsing these days.
Right.
I mean, if I.
If I wanted to.
(11:27):
Perfect example, let's say Igot the Wrangler bootcut jeans and
I decide, oh, these are worn out.
I just need another pair.
I'm probably just going to goon and the web somebody's website
and buy them.
The danger is, you think that's.
If I walk into your store, youThink that's all I want.
So when I say, oh, where arethe Wranglers?
Over here.
Do you want to try them on?
No, I know that fits.
Okay.
Here you go.
(11:47):
You have just lost probably anextra hundred dollars or more because
you didn't show them they camein another color.
You didn't show them a belt.
You didn't look down at theirboots and say, you know, we've got
those look like, I was, like,playing that game because I knew
my boots pretty well.
Those Justin's like, no, theseare Nakona, of course, because sister
companies got it.
(12:08):
They build trust by youknowing what's going on.
And if they've got a big beltbuckle, it's Montana or whoever you
know, your.
Your vendor is, then you canassume that maybe they'd be open
to something else.
But the game is to get it asbig as.
As you want.
And that starts with your merchandising.
To make sure that, you know,you're looking at the three strongest
(12:29):
colors you can use in a.
Any display is red, white, and black.
If it's.
If you don't have the black,it's a Valentine's Day promotion.
If it's white and black,pretty severe.
Not many people want a white.
Just wear white and black.
Then it's waiter.
But when.
When you break that up, peopleare willing to consider.
And you don't need 18 thingsin there.
(12:50):
Show one killer outfit, andyou lead with what the premium items
are.
You know, so many westernstores that I've gone into lately,
everything is on sale, 20 off,and it's this weekend only.
Or join our loyalty program.
Get 20% off, and you got toget full price if you're gonna, you
(13:10):
know, got the highest increaseof South Coast Plaza, you got to
get full, full price if you'regoing to make those numbers.
And so if you're listening tothat and you're saying, well, we're
not really doing it, one thingto check is how many people walked
in your door that day.
That doesn't take anythingmore than putting little hash marks.
You can also use trafficcounter, door dor.
(13:31):
They.
They do it automatically.
And compare that to the numberof rings on your registers.
And while you might think, oh, 90%.
Yeah, 90% conversion.
Yeah, it's probably like 11 to 18.
And that means a lot of peoplewalked into your store and didn't
buy.
So I always start with, is it clean?
That's part of merchandising, too.
(13:51):
And then is there a point of view?
Have you helped that customerlook and Say that's for me.
Right.
What about.
I know one of the things thatyou recommend is changing your displays
often monthly or even forsmaller stores.
Absolutely.
Because, well, the problem is,or the opportunity is there are not
(14:16):
many people like your storesout there.
Right.
People love to say that, like,oh, our customers are loyal.
Oh, we see them all the time.
Yeah, well, they don't want tosee the same thing each time they
walk in.
And more importantly, youdon't want your crew to get so bored
that they.
Nothing is new.
Right.
So when I took over that firsttook over that store at Santa Monica
(14:38):
and at South Coast Plaza, Imoved everything around and you know,
sales went up 20, 25%.
Same merch.
You just had to understand howto merchandise it and not just, just
find a place, just put that out.
You know, if you're going toget tan wranglers in, you don't just
mix them in with the blue andthe black and the gray because it's
(14:58):
not going to be seen.
If it's a brand new colorromance a little bit.
The, the, the thing thatretailers often miss is you're there
to answer a customer'squestion, which is, what's new?
So if everything looks thesame each time they come in, they're
going to say, well, this is boring.
I've been there, I've seen it.
I've done that.
(15:18):
And when you move thingsaround, you instruct your crew to
say when someone says, wow,that's really pretty or I really
love that blouse.
Oh, we, we had that a lot.
We did.
We got that a long time ago.
We just move things around.
You've got to train them like,oh yes, isn't it great when we move
(15:38):
things around, everything getsto shine or something.
That doesn't sound like.
Yes, this is leftovers from,you know, nobody didn't.
Orphans of Western world and English.
Sorry, don't mean to ignorethe dressage folks out there.
They have less choice than thewestern world does.
(16:00):
So, you know, as far asmerchandising is concerned, we always
used to hear put the mostexpensive stuff in the front of the
store.
Is that you, you agree withthat or I.
It depends on where you are.
I couldn't do that at mostmalls because the hit and run aspect
was a little bit.
But you certainly want yourbest and brightest.
(16:22):
So instead of a thousanddollar ostrich boots, you wouldn't
have them at the front.
You might have.
Well, I had Lucas up front, soI might have had, you know, right
or left boot and then broughtthe match out every other week.
So the boots didn't get, youknow, funky.
But I do believe, you know, ifit was my store, I believe in a red
(16:43):
carpet right from thatentrance to the door.
And it's going to lead me tosome cool display that's probably
32 inches off the floor towhatever my eyesight is.
So five, six, and it's goingto be lit from above.
Like it's a 57 Chevy.
To get the chrome.
(17:04):
It's going to look beautiful.
It's gonna have a beautifulbelt buckle and maybe have a matching
men's and women's.
I don't know if they domatching anymore, but at least two.
They're complementary.
Because I want people to walkin and go, like, I want to look like
her.
I don't want the sail rack inthe front.
Or God forbid, like, I saw onethe other day that he's had those
racks out front with, again,leftovers and 50% off on a sign that
(17:28):
was, like, handwritten by achild that's kind of falling off.
Your brand is everything you do.
And when you don't take careto do the signs right, and you don't
think about it, you are prettymuch putting a garage sale out in
front of your store and going,this is.
This is the deals we have.
Instead of, how would you looklike to look cool when you go on
that next date?
(17:49):
I mean, that was my thing.
We had.
We had a lot of bars back thenand a lot of guys from the marines
and in the services.
And invariably, they wouldcome out of the dressing room, and
we'd work it between the tagteam with the women and the guys.
Like, dude, you're not goingto get laid if you dress like that.
That looks terrible.
Those are like your dad's pants.
(18:11):
So they go from like a 36 downto a 33, and they get them a new
wrangler shirt.
And the guy's like, 5 inchestaller when he walks out, comes back
the next week, I need a new shirt.
She's going to see me at thesame thing.
Exactly.
But that takes a matter ofsaying, look what this.
What an outfit can look like.
(18:31):
And more importantly, beingthe one that's going to give them
the fashion advice.
And you only do that bybuilding the relationship and having
some humor around it.
Right.
So if you were in the fittingroom, I'd say, just try it on.
No, I don't.
Just try it on.
And you will do it, because wehad a laugh sometime before.
And more importantly, when youwalk out, you're Going to tell people
(18:51):
I went to Bob's store.
That's the key.
So I know one of the thingsthat you talk about is using unexpected
props to catch people's attention.
Do you have an example of that?
Oh, well, since we're live,give me one second.
Okay.
He's running to the back,going to get an unexpected prop,
(19:14):
I think.
And I know we're not live.
I know we're not live.
But one of my favorite, when I.
Do we are on video, I do this.
That's right.
I do this as a keynote.
As a matter of fact, in case,I don't know if fear anyone wants
to, you know, explore that option.
But when I do a keynote, I.
Love talking about salesman.
I love that about you.
Pig in the window.
Pig in the window is myfavorite prop to put in a window.
(19:35):
Why?
Because I don't care whatdisplay I put it in.
Just put the darn pig in the window.
People walk in, what's the pigin the window made you look?
And they come in the store to ask.
Just because it's so unexpected.
So unexpected.
And pig in the window, you canalways tell someone's read my book
because there's a pig in thewindow somewhere.
(19:55):
Doesn't necessarily be a pig,but it's totally unrelated, Right?
So will a horse work?
No.
Will the dog work?
No, not the same thing.
Really unexpected.
And this guy, his batteriesaren't working, but he actually flies
when you hold them.
But your goal is, you know, somany people write to me and on my
Facebook lives, how do Iattract more customers?
(20:16):
You've got to thinking, ifit's a jaded customer that's out
there, we've seen it all,we've done it all.
You've got so much stuffcrammed into your windows to try
to show us everything youcarry that none of it makes sense.
Here's another tip you can dowhen you're doing your windows is
go outside and I want you toplace a like a post it note right
(20:42):
at eye level when you'relooking at the window.
Put it right there.
And I want you to go backinside and realize that's the main
part of your window.
That's where the best.
And in a front window, I'd puta pair of ostrich boots.
That would be awesome.
And might use the box that youknew it was whoever, Justin or Llama,
(21:03):
whoever.
And make that from the topwhere the post it note is.
And then about 32 inches below.
I guess you could have put oneon the outside, but that's the sweet
spot.
Nobody's gonna look below thebelly button, and they're not gonna
look higher than your eyes.
That's all you have to work with.
So when you put all this otherjunk into the windows, you're making
(21:25):
it confusing, and it's hardfor them to get an idea.
And just like in the store,you got to put enough power from
the lights, and it's easy.
Now with LEDs, you can get aheck of a lot more light out of them.
And they're not taxing yourair conditioning like they used to.
And they're not so big either.
They're not clunky.
That's right.
That's a great point.
So your windows, their old jobis to get.
(21:45):
You just walk in the door.
Think of it as, like the headline.
Well, and I think you're right.
I mean, we've all seen thewindows where they try and cram everything
in there.
And the problem with that isyou end up looking at nothing.
Right.
So more focused windows arewhat you're.
You're saying.
Because otherwise you're.
You don't.
You can't focus on anythingwhen there's a thousand things in
the window.
No.
And yet, you know, someonewill tell me, oh, we gave it to Jamie.
(22:08):
He really loves doing windows.
I don't care.
It looks like crap.
I don't care if he loves doing it.
Windows are hard.
Windows take some.
Take some thinking.
And the other thing is, go outand look at competitors.
You know, look at a Macy's whoactually has a merchandising budget.
Look at a Nordstrom.
Look at Target.
Used to do some really great stuff.
I mean, everybody realizes it,but it doesn't have to come from
(22:32):
Western wear.
Notice you're.
You know, people hate shoppingwith me because I'm always at work.
You know, everything is.
I'm noticing everything.
But when I do do store tours,I'm so.
So do you notice that?
Did you notice why that isnext to that?
Do you see how your eyetravels and where we end up?
And a lot of people have neverhad anyone explain that to them.
So unless you're planning tohave me do a store tour with you
(22:54):
all, do it yourself.
But go and pick the big ones.
Don't go in an Apple Store.
That's not merchandising.
Pretty much go in people.
Von Martin exception.
Because they don't have to.
Exactly.
Right.
Don't go to the dollar store.
That's not going to give youthe idea.
So, you know, one of the.
(23:14):
We're talking a Lot of timesabout all the senses too.
And one of my things that'sforgotten about in the store is smell.
Now, if you have really goodleather in your store, that smell
is there, right?
But if you're an Eng store andthe leather is not prominent, smell
is so important and peopleover store owners overlook that too.
Disney spends a lot of moneyon smell.
You know, those smells you getgoing down the street aren't necessarily
(23:36):
coming from the kitchen.
They're piping that in.
Right.
So do you agree?
Well, that's where it allstarted was Disneyland 1955, when
Walt hired this guy to makethat for the cookies and that company
became Scent Air.
They're still around.
I've used them in clients.
I would do that in a heartbeatin an English store if it didn't
(23:56):
smell leathery enough.
Because you go into TonyBahama boutiques now and it smells
like coconut.
And I can't think of the other coconut.
And Villa, they've got aspecial scent, but you instantly
feel you're at the beach in Hawaii.
Scent is a huge marketer.
Huge.
You take out your boots, youknow, I would absolutely say smell
(24:18):
the quality of this leather.
People, we don't use that whenwe sell.
And then we say, oh, well,they didn't want it.
Well, to get a connections, Idon't think there's anything more
strong.
I guess you could taste itwould be stronger, but that'd be
a little weird.
Right?
Here's your boot.
Well, then you'd have a wholebunch of boots with bites out of
them and.
Yeah, just not going to work.
All right.
Good signage is another one.
(24:38):
That's a pet peeve of mine,especially the bigger.
You know, I've been to some ofthe stores in Texas, right.
Some of the stores down thereare huge.
They're the size of Walmarts.
And you know, when you go inone thing, one thing, it's hard to
find stuff at Home Depot, butthe one thing they do is they have
enough big signage that kindof gives you an idea where that item's
(24:59):
going to be.
And I, I do like going instores, even smaller tack shops that
there's some signage thatpoints me in a direction.
You know, I, I don't know ifyou think it's important or is it
better not to have signage andhave them wandering around?
I don't know.
I went into a Scotch and soda.
Is that what it's called?
(25:19):
Scotch and soda?
It's a brand Soda and Scotch.
I never quite remember it.
Anyway, I went to the mall andI started looking on this one rack
and I just stopped and there'sa young girl over there sizing things.
I go, which one is the men'sand which is the women's?
She goes, oh, the men's over there.
Like, great, thanks for that.
I shouldn't have to guess at that.
Like, you could have given mesome clothes especially, you know,
(25:40):
they could have told me, like,oh, that's it.
No, I. I do believe in bigstores, like a grocery store having
those headers is very helpful.
Wayfair signage, what that's called.
But also, we've kind ofdefaulted to 20% off this weekend.
30% off this 20 and 30.
(26:00):
When everything is on sale,then you've lost the full price customer.
And that's how you ride abusiness down.
I mean, Howard and Phil's wentout of business.
I left it in 94.
They were gone by 96.
And they were having trouble.
And they did an awful lot ofsales and just didn't.
Wasn't able to really keep going.
(26:21):
And then Garth Brook, ofcourse, decided to wear tennis shoes
and the ball cap.
And that kind of changedthings a little bit for West.
Then Yellowstone came out, andthen we were back to boots and jeans
and buckles.
Right.
So, yeah, Yellowstone changedit all again for our industry.
Dallas changed it from the 80s.
That was the thing I wanted tobe, J.R. and that's true.
(26:42):
Yeah, that's true, too.
Yeah.
We've gone cycles that way,haven't we?
And it's all driven by media, right?
Yeah.
So your article concludes thatcreativity is the most important
element in today's world witheverything we have out there.
You know, we used to talk inmarketing that you had to hit.
You had.
Somebody had to see yourmarketing message three times.
(27:03):
That's in the old days, beforeInternet and all of that.
That's not true anymore.
They got to see your marketingmessage 12 times for it to sink in
anymore, because they're soflooded with a million marketing
messages every day.
So what?
How can you be creative intoday's world?
Well, I think you can alwaysbe creative.
You just got to think likeyour customer.
(27:24):
That's.
That's the key.
You know, if I'm in Dubuque,Iowa, and there was some kind of
a, I don't know, horse eventof some kind or some kind of a parade
that's going on in that town,everything should fly back to that,
(27:46):
that it's a great, you know,there's a great outfit to wear at
the opening party or it's agreat this is a great option for
those of you want to, want totake, want to polish their boots.
You might do a whole thing on that.
But the key is you don't get forgotten.
So that's why everybody shouldhave their own lists arm.
(28:06):
I know people who bragged tome, like, oh, we've got all these
followers on Instagram.
It's like, who cares?
They're not yours.
Yeah, that's true.
That sucks.
He could go through and turnthat off on you tomorrow.
So your goal is to bring themthrough a landing page into your
CRM so you can talk to them ina great way.
And then I'd be the first toadmit it.
I'm speaking a lot on retailand AI.
I would have all my ideas andI would put them into chat and I
(28:30):
would, I would go through andtake pictures, have IT analyze them.
There's a lot of differentthings you can do, but you've also
got to know what to ask.
And so if you're listeningthis, like, oh, that's stupid.
I'd never do it.
Well, you know, they said thatabout the Internet, they said that
about email, they said thatabout a lot of things.
I don't think this is going togo away.
And even though I believe it'sthe start of Skynet, I truly do from
(28:53):
Terminator, we are all able tobe in it right now.
And it is hundreds of vendors,it is tens of thousands of dollars
of service you could neverhave had two years ago without paying
through the nose that you cannow get.
(29:13):
And that's what's going to bea game changer.
So you were trying to figureout what should I, you know, you
have your sort of back inDubuque, Iowa, right?
So you have your eventscalendar, you go to your chamber
of commerce, you do something,put that whole thing in chat and
say, okay, outline 12 monthlywindows I could do.
(29:35):
Here's what I want to feature.
Tony Llama, 5084, ostrichboots, the Swing Dance, whatever,
and see what it, see what it suggests.
Because it can help you.
If you have the idea, it canhelp you kind of solidify that and
then you can go out and playwith it.
And that's how we use it onthe, on our shows, is we use it more
(29:56):
as a research tool or an idea generator.
It doesn't mean we don't lookdeeper to get the, you know, the
true story of whatever we'retalking about.
But it gets us started.
And it, you know, and I wouldtake hours to come up with those
ideas.
That it gave me in two minutes.
Right?
It's.
And you're right.
It is all about asking theright questions.
I need to get somebody on justto talk AI as relation to retail.
(30:19):
What the hell are we doinghere, dude?
I can do that.
We need it.
We need to do that for a whole session.
I know.
Maybe I'll do it at a session sometime.
Anyway, I'm gonna get a third one.
I feel that's two we can.
I'm gonna get.
So Bob, you have a book.
How to merchandise youe store.
12 Visual merchandising tipsthat Work.
(30:40):
Take everything we've talkedabout here today and multiply it
times 10.
And that's why you need toread the book.
It's still out there, right?
Still there.
Actually what you're referringto is a chapter of my book.
My book is the Retail Doctor'sGuide to Growing youg Business.
So that's the.
That was my third book.
But nowadays all of my.
And that one's available on Amazon.
(31:03):
Yeah, it is.
All my Training is online.
SalesRx is my online retailsales training program.
So it's basically what I havedeveloped over 35 years that I can
take anybody's product and Ican make you a superstar.
And increase conversions.
83% of our users report adouble digit increase in six months.
Because I'm more like acollege of retail.
(31:23):
If you really want to do it,you really want to increase your
conversions.
If you're really trying tofigure out like these people are
all coming in, why aren't theyall buying?
It usually comes down to yourpeople and worse, it comes down to
your managers or the ownerswho haven't invested any time in
training them.
We see they've worked for someother tax shop and like, oh, bring
them in.
They know everything.
I don't care if they know everything.
What I care about is can youtalk to me?
(31:45):
Can you make me feel I matter?
Because people who feel theymatter buy and people who don't walk
out.
That simple.
And the website where they canfind either your consulting or books
or.
And your podcast, you promotethat quick.
So.
Well, before we get to that, yes.
My website is retaildoc.com re t a I l d o c.com and my podcast
(32:10):
is Tell me Something Goodabout Retail.
So we have, I don't know, fiveor six hundred episodes been going
for a long time.
Congratulations, that's a lotfor a podcaster.
And every, every model isdifferent, every episode is different.
And we've had people on therefrom Martin Lindsberg talking about
Lindstrom, talking about thefuture, Paco Underhill, as well as
(32:33):
retailers who are just tellingtheir stories.
Like the woman in Julie who'sin London.
She decides to open a boutiquewith her and her three daughters.
And it's 2019 and no one'scoming in the dollar, no one's coming
in the door.
So she's, she's trying.
And finally she's so upsetwith her daughters, she's like, why
do we get in this business?
(32:53):
Like, no one's here.
And she just decides to pickout her phone and she does a live
video.
And she has built that nowinto six chain, six store chain in
the UK because she's willingto try something.
And I think that's the sametrue for all of your listeners here
today is whether it's AI ormerchandising, get smarter about
(33:16):
it, learn what you can do.
And don't just fly by the seatof your pants because there's plenty
of businesses that are goingto go out left and right.
And crime.
It was all on Amazon.
No, they're the ones that putme out of business.
20% of sales is throughonline, 80% is still in a store.
So I don't care who you'regoing up against.
I can tell you I've gone upagainst an awful lot of them myself.
(33:37):
You're about as successful asyou make your mind up to be, whether
that's merchandising orselling or talking to your customers.
So it isn't brain surgery, butit is a matter of being really focused
on what you want and howyou're going to do it and finding
people to help you.
And what's the name of thepodcast again, where they can find
any podcast player?
Tell me something good about retail.
(33:59):
Tell me something good about retail.
There you go.
And it's retaildoc.com thanks,Retail Doc.
Appreciate you being here.
Thank you, sir.
Appreciate it.
All right, everybody, we'll beback at the end of the month.
We're going to have a coupleof weeks that we will not be doing
these Monday sessions, partlybecause I'll be down at WESA as well.
So, Jennifer, my wife and I,who my wife hosts the Wisdom by Wesa
(34:22):
podcast, and we'll both bethere Wednesday and Thursday of next
week.
You'll see us wandering around.
We do special episodes ofthese shows for new products that
are out there that are comingto the market.
Listeners love to hear aboutnew products, so.
And they like to hear about it first.
So we'll be wandering aroundwith our microphones.
If you see us there, call us aside.
If you have a new product,we'll do an interview right there
(34:42):
in your booth.
We've been doing, this is our36th trade show.
I think it's been a long timedoing this.
So we're looking forward toseeing everybody there.
Look for us on Facebook,Retail Roundup, and of course, wesatradeshow.com
and the WESA Trade ShowYouTube channels where you can, where
you can find all of thesevideos that we're doing here.
(35:05):
Bob Retaildoc.
Com.
Thanks for joining us.
Thank you.
Foreign.
You are listening to the HorseRadio Network, part of the Equine
Network family.
Well, hey, everybody.
Glenn, back with you and it'sso good to be back, especially the
week before wesa, a weekbefore the trade show, of course.
I am founder of the HorseRadio Network and host of Horses
in the Morning, the dailypodcast for the last 15 years.
(00:23):
Welcome to the WESA Retail Roundup.
The Retail Roundup is your goto virtual hub for all things retail.
Join panel discussions, learnfrom webinars, share your thoughts,
ask questions and connect withthe community.
We host a virtual event orshare educational content every Monday
via the Retail RoundupFacebook group.
Today, we look atmerchandising and its importance
to your store, no matter the size.
(00:44):
And of course, there's goingto be a lot of merchants merchandising
next week in Dallas.
Joining us today is Bob Phippsof the retail doctor.
He's known as.
With over 30 years ofexperience in the trenches of retail
and extending to seniormanagement positions, Bob has been
a corporate officer,franchisor, and entrepreneur.
He has worked with over athousand retail executives and entrepreneurs
(01:06):
to grow margins, improvecustomer service, and train employees.
He had a little bit ofexperience and he's written a cool
book we're going to talk aboutlater, too.
And kind of what we're talkingabout today relates to the book.
It's called how to merchandiseyoue store.
12 Visual merchandising tipsthat Work.
Thanks for joining us.
Thank you.
Glad to be here.
You started in our world.
(01:27):
I did.
Tell us about it.
Well, I put myself throughcollege selling shoes and I graduated.
I was going to be a conductor.
I got my degree in music and.
Oh, really?
Wow.
I went into student teachingand there's 30 teenage boys trying
to play Stairway to Heaven onuntuned guitars.
(01:49):
I said, there's not enough ginon the planet for me to do this.
And they're like, well, yougot to graduate.
You better finish.
So I did, and I couldn't get a job.
And in the mall at GlendaleGalleria, which was a really happening
place in California, SouthernCalifornia, a Western store was opening
up and they were looking for someone.
So I walk in my little Italiansuit and I'm feeling pretty good.
(02:09):
I go, well, I'm a greatsalesman, but I'm not gonna wear
your stuff.
You're like, you're gonna work here.
You're gonna get your stuff.
Like, okay.
And that's how I ended upgetting in there.
And I was with that companyfor 14 years until a very important
meeting happened at theCorporate office in Canyon Country.
So if we get into this and youwanna know that story, I will tell
(02:32):
you about that.
I have a picture.
Is this the picture of yourstarting days?
Is this the store?
This was my first store, 1982.
I want to know which bootswere on sale for $16.
Oh, those are Levi's, 501s, 1688.
And it was great because in.
In Santa Monica, all thetourists came and overseas came to
(02:57):
get 501s.
So they would buy them at 8and 9 at a time, you know, and shopping
list almost.
And they're Stetson hats, apparently.
Stetson hats?
Yeah.
Hat steamer and steam hats there.
And that's the way.
A great way to encouragepeople to slow down is have anyone
steam a hat and you're goingto look amazing and not to just put
out your hats and, you know,right out of the box.
(03:20):
Give them some kind of apersonality first.
It always makes a big difference.
So that's your first tip hereon our conversation in only a couple
minutes.
So if you do nothing else,steam your damn hats.
Don't let it go.
Don't leave it in the back.
For when someone asks, it'sgreat drama.
So the Howard and Fit.
Howard and Phil's was it?
(03:40):
That's what it was, yeah.
So what did you do?
I'm looking at the picture ofthe store here.
And by the way, it's theclassic because it's in black and
white.
That even makes it more classic.
Right.
In 1981, you said was the year.
So what was it that waschanging as far as merchandising
back then?
What happened while you were there?
You know, becausemerchandising changes all the time.
(04:00):
Well, I think one of thethings that I did that was different
was when I took the store, theboots were all one style, and the
shelves went from about 24inches from the bottom, and then
they stopped at about 6ft.
And what I did inmerchandising is I said, we got to
(04:24):
get them all out.
I want someone to just go crazy.
And the hard thing was tomerchandise that way meant you had
to have markers where thesizes were.
There was nothing worse than.
Well, quick story.
So I get this call.
It's, I don't know, Friday morning.
And this guy calls.
He goes, do you have a fry boot?
2579.
(04:45):
I go, I look on the shelf.
I go, yeah, I got it.
And he goes, you sure?
I go, absolutely.
I trust my crew 100%.
So he goes, good, because I'mKris Kristofferson's manager.
He'll be in there in about 10minutes to pick it up.
I was like, awesome.
So I go up and I pick up theboots, and they're an eight and a
half.
I was livid.
So I know I shouldn't fit inan eight and a half.
(05:06):
No, I should have closed thestore and run upstairs because there
was a competitor and getbottom, but I didn't.
So he comes in.
Chris Christopherson.
It's A Star is Born.
I mean, he'd just come out inthis movie and I tell him, there's
a big mistake.
I'm sorry.
It's upstairs.
Although I know you have kids.
We got great kids boots.
I hope I see you back.
(05:27):
And he actually came back andbought the kids boots.
Oh, wow, that was great.
But another, you know, again,your goal would have been to remove
the friction from thecustomer, go up and get the boots
and pay for it and be donewith it, because that's what the
service was.
So your second one here on thepodcast at WISA Retail Roundup.
(05:47):
Very good.
So everybody knows whatmerchandising is.
Has it become more importantto merchandise properly over the
years as things have changedand the Internet's come about and
all of that, or has it alwaysjust been that important and it's
the same as it was?
It's always important.
But, you know, merchandisinghas gone through an awful lot of
(06:09):
changes.
In department stores, you sawit probably the clearest.
Suddenly they had pantsdepartments and then shirt departments
and in menswear, that'sterrible because a guy will go in
and get the jeans and thenhe's out.
And that didn't live too long.
Department stores startedputting movable walls in, which is
(06:30):
a brilliant idea, except thatthe original designers of it expected
people to understand that youmove the walls so the store looks
different, and most people didn't.
And so then they just builtthe walls again, which was kind of
a waste.
And.
But I think the challenge in2025, 2026 is, look, we are a rattled
consumer.
We have more choice than ever.
And the way I did those bootsback then, I probably wouldn't do
(06:54):
the same now because it leadsto overload.
And the problem with that iscustomers come in and they feel overwhelmed
and then they shut down.
So unless you have a greatselling system, which is what I taught
all my guys and gals who workfor me at H and P for 14 years, they
can get overwhelmed and pullback and say, oh, here's another.
(07:15):
Here's an example.
So back then People wereasking for black boots now.
Damn.
Post made a black boot.
I know, it's terrible.
I remember all these stocknumbers, 4940.
And it was a beautiful boot.
And.
But when I took over the storeat South Coast Plaza, which is the
one where I made the highestincrease of sales, over 300 stores
(07:35):
in that mall selling cowboy clothes.
I changed.
I flipped it on them.
So is this.
You have any more black boots?
No, that's only in half.
Okay, well, thanks.
No.
Come here and sit down and tryit on.
See if you like black.
And you know what?
9 out of 10 times, they didn'tlike a black boot.
So we were able to capturethose stores, capture those sales
(07:57):
in a new way.
And so I would say, you know,great salesmanship can really help
you do a great job because youcan help filter those choices down.
And having a pair of lizard orostrich boots, when somebody's looking
for a pair of, you know, TonyLlama 5084 is terrible.
(08:18):
Makes a big difference becauseyou're always looking to get the
two pair, not the one.
Right.
That hasn't gone out of style.
So when you're looking at.
I had.
I. I should have queued upsome, but I didn't know we were going
to do pictures day.
But I wanted our store to lookvery packed.
And if anything that youwanted western, we had it.
But we call that the old timetack shop, where you walk in and
(08:38):
it's to the ceiling and youcan barely walk through the aisles.
But you had to have the sensethat if you're going to be in South
Coast Plaza, you had to beelevated, right?
So it had to be classy.
And, you know, there's some beautiful.
I was in a.
Is it Toccovas Taconas storethe other day.
They have.
(08:58):
They had a boot store in.
In Scottsdale.
I walked in, five employees,and the guy's like, you look for
something special?
I was like, no.
And then they just left.
And it's just like, dude, seriously.
Because it's a real minimalmerchandising, right?
It's got lit shelves.
The whole store is pretty darkand lit shelves.
And then they have one of each one.
And that kind of feels likeyou're looking at art.
(09:20):
It didn't feel thatapproachable, right?
Like, I have to go and asksomebody to help me.
But the key thing in.
In retail is your goal is tobring a customer's vision down.
This is for you.
So if, I mean, you know, youlook at Blue Barn now has whatever
450 stores.
They started at Huntington Beach.
They were right up this.
(09:41):
They were right up the 405freeway from me.
I was competing with them whenit was just the original owner and
he had what, six stores and we had.
I think we had 12.
And ultimately got to 55before it crashed and burned.
But you want them to be ableto say, like, this is a work boot
section.
So it's going to be Carhartt,it's going to be the boots, it's
going to be the belts.
You're trying to make it smallenough that this guy.
(10:03):
This is for you or for a woman.
You know, square dancer wasreally big back then.
And so.
And swing dancing and those.
So make it.
The display is for that personrather than.
Yeah, we just got these andput them out on the shelf.
Oh, yeah.
And throw.
Throw a pair of jeans with it.
Because a guy especially.
You're basically saying, tella story.
(10:25):
Absolutely.
You get a guy in there and hesees it.
Oh, by the way, going back totraining your employees, merchandising
is great, but my goal, if youcome into my store is I want to see
your sock.
That's all I care about.
I'm going to find a way to getyour shoe off to try on a pair of
boots the other way.
If you're trying on, if you'recoming in for apparel, I want you
(10:45):
half naked in the fitting room.
Because if I have you there, Ican sell you anything.
Conversion is 70% if they usea fitting room.
It's 30% if it's just on the shelf.
So that's where your goal isto be thinking that, well, the merchandising
you do on your store is thesame thing your crew has to be able
to do in the fitting room.
Right.
(11:06):
So just try this on.
It's a belt.
I don't need any belt.
I know you don't just try iton, dude.
And guys are susceptible.
You've got them half naked inthe fitting room, like, okay.
And when they come out.
Right.
The jeans are a little tired.
We're not doing that unlesswe're intent on buying something.
Exactly.
Right.
Yeah.
We're not doing it.
Just browsing these days.
Right.
I mean, if I.
If I wanted to.
(11:27):
Perfect example, let's say Igot the Wrangler bootcut jeans and
I decide, oh, these are worn out.
I just need another pair.
I'm probably just going to goon and the web somebody's website
and buy them.
The danger is, you think that's.
If I walk into your store, youThink that's all I want.
So when I say, oh, where arethe Wranglers?
Over here.
Do you want to try them on?
No, I know that fits.
Okay.
Here you go.
(11:47):
You have just lost probably anextra hundred dollars or more because
you didn't show them they camein another color.
You didn't show them a belt.
You didn't look down at theirboots and say, you know, we've got
those look like, I was, like,playing that game because I knew
my boots pretty well.
Those Justin's like, no, theseare Nakona, of course, because sister
companies got it.
(12:08):
They build trust by youknowing what's going on.
And if they've got a big beltbuckle, it's Montana or whoever you
know, your.
Your vendor is, then you canassume that maybe they'd be open
to something else.
But the game is to get it asbig as.
As you want.
And that starts with your merchandising.
To make sure that, you know,you're looking at the three strongest
(12:29):
colors you can use in a.
Any display is red, white, and black.
If it's.
If you don't have the black,it's a Valentine's Day promotion.
If it's white and black,pretty severe.
Not many people want a white.
Just wear white and black.
Then it's waiter.
But when.
When you break that up, peopleare willing to consider.
And you don't need 18 thingsin there.
(12:50):
Show one killer outfit, andyou lead with what the premium items
are.
You know, so many westernstores that I've gone into lately,
everything is on sale, 20 off,and it's this weekend only.
Or join our loyalty program.
Get 20% off, and you got toget full price if you're gonna, you
(13:10):
know, got the highest increaseof South Coast Plaza, you got to
get full, full price if you'regoing to make those numbers.
And so if you're listening tothat and you're saying, well, we're
not really doing it, one thingto check is how many people walked
in your door that day.
That doesn't take anythingmore than putting little hash marks.
You can also use trafficcounter, door dor.
(13:31):
They.
They do it automatically.
And compare that to the numberof rings on your registers.
And while you might think, oh, 90%.
Yeah, 90% conversion.
Yeah, it's probably like 11 to 18.
And that means a lot of peoplewalked into your store and didn't
buy.
So I always start with, is it clean?
That's part of merchandising, too.
(13:51):
And then is there a point of view?
Have you helped that customerlook and Say that's for me.
Right.
What about.
I know one of the things thatyou recommend is changing your displays
often monthly or even forsmaller stores.
Absolutely.
Because, well, the problem is,or the opportunity is there are not
(14:16):
many people like your storesout there.
Right.
People love to say that, like,oh, our customers are loyal.
Oh, we see them all the time.
Yeah, well, they don't want tosee the same thing each time they
walk in.
And more importantly, youdon't want your crew to get so bored
that they.
Nothing is new.
Right.
So when I took over that firsttook over that store at Santa Monica
(14:38):
and at South Coast Plaza, Imoved everything around and you know,
sales went up 20, 25%.
Same merch.
You just had to understand howto merchandise it and not just, just
find a place, just put that out.
You know, if you're going toget tan wranglers in, you don't just
mix them in with the blue andthe black and the gray because it's
(14:58):
not going to be seen.
If it's a brand new colorromance a little bit.
The, the, the thing thatretailers often miss is you're there
to answer a customer'squestion, which is, what's new?
So if everything looks thesame each time they come in, they're
going to say, well, this is boring.
I've been there, I've seen it.
I've done that.
(15:18):
And when you move thingsaround, you instruct your crew to
say when someone says, wow,that's really pretty or I really
love that blouse.
Oh, we, we had that a lot.
We did.
We got that a long time ago.
We just move things around.
You've got to train them like,oh yes, isn't it great when we move
(15:38):
things around, everything getsto shine or something.
That doesn't sound like.
Yes, this is leftovers from,you know, nobody didn't.
Orphans of Western world and English.
Sorry, don't mean to ignorethe dressage folks out there.
They have less choice than thewestern world does.
(16:00):
So, you know, as far asmerchandising is concerned, we always
used to hear put the mostexpensive stuff in the front of the
store.
Is that you, you agree withthat or I.
It depends on where you are.
I couldn't do that at mostmalls because the hit and run aspect
was a little bit.
But you certainly want yourbest and brightest.
(16:22):
So instead of a thousanddollar ostrich boots, you wouldn't
have them at the front.
You might have.
Well, I had Lucas up front, soI might have had, you know, right
or left boot and then broughtthe match out every other week.
So the boots didn't get, youknow, funky.
But I do believe, you know, ifit was my store, I believe in a red
(16:43):
carpet right from thatentrance to the door.
And it's going to lead me tosome cool display that's probably
32 inches off the floor towhatever my eyesight is.
So five, six, and it's goingto be lit from above.
Like it's a 57 Chevy.
To get the chrome.
(17:04):
It's going to look beautiful.
It's gonna have a beautifulbelt buckle and maybe have a matching
men's and women's.
I don't know if they domatching anymore, but at least two.
They're complementary.
Because I want people to walkin and go, like, I want to look like
her.
I don't want the sail rack inthe front.
Or God forbid, like, I saw onethe other day that he's had those
racks out front with, again,leftovers and 50% off on a sign that
(17:28):
was, like, handwritten by achild that's kind of falling off.
Your brand is everything you do.
And when you don't take careto do the signs right, and you don't
think about it, you are prettymuch putting a garage sale out in
front of your store and going,this is.
This is the deals we have.
Instead of, how would you looklike to look cool when you go on
that next date?
(17:49):
I mean, that was my thing.
We had.
We had a lot of bars back thenand a lot of guys from the marines
and in the services.
And invariably, they wouldcome out of the dressing room, and
we'd work it between the tagteam with the women and the guys.
Like, dude, you're not goingto get laid if you dress like that.
That looks terrible.
Those are like your dad's pants.
(18:11):
So they go from like a 36 downto a 33, and they get them a new
wrangler shirt.
And the guy's like, 5 inchestaller when he walks out, comes back
the next week, I need a new shirt.
She's going to see me at thesame thing.
Exactly.
But that takes a matter ofsaying, look what this.
What an outfit can look like.
(18:31):
And more importantly, beingthe one that's going to give them
the fashion advice.
And you only do that bybuilding the relationship and having
some humor around it.
Right.
So if you were in the fittingroom, I'd say, just try it on.
No, I don't.
Just try it on.
And you will do it, because wehad a laugh sometime before.
And more importantly, when youwalk out, you're Going to tell people
(18:51):
I went to Bob's store.
That's the key.
So I know one of the thingsthat you talk about is using unexpected
props to catch people's attention.
Do you have an example of that?
Oh, well, since we're live,give me one second.
Okay.
He's running to the back,going to get an unexpected prop,
(19:14):
I think.
And I know we're not live.
I know we're not live.
But one of my favorite, when I.
Do we are on video, I do this.
That's right.
I do this as a keynote.
As a matter of fact, in case,I don't know if fear anyone wants
to, you know, explore that option.
But when I do a keynote, I.
Love talking about salesman.
I love that about you.
Pig in the window.
Pig in the window is myfavorite prop to put in a window.
(19:35):
Why?
Because I don't care whatdisplay I put it in.
Just put the darn pig in the window.
People walk in, what's the pigin the window made you look?
And they come in the store to ask.
Just because it's so unexpected.
So unexpected.
And pig in the window, you canalways tell someone's read my book
because there's a pig in thewindow somewhere.
(19:55):
Doesn't necessarily be a pig,but it's totally unrelated, Right?
So will a horse work?
No.
Will the dog work?
No, not the same thing.
Really unexpected.
And this guy, his batteriesaren't working, but he actually flies
when you hold them.
But your goal is, you know, somany people write to me and on my
Facebook lives, how do Iattract more customers?
(20:16):
You've got to thinking, ifit's a jaded customer that's out
there, we've seen it all,we've done it all.
You've got so much stuffcrammed into your windows to try
to show us everything youcarry that none of it makes sense.
Here's another tip you can dowhen you're doing your windows is
go outside and I want you toplace a like a post it note right
(20:42):
at eye level when you'relooking at the window.
Put it right there.
And I want you to go backinside and realize that's the main
part of your window.
That's where the best.
And in a front window, I'd puta pair of ostrich boots.
That would be awesome.
And might use the box that youknew it was whoever, Justin or Llama,
(21:03):
whoever.
And make that from the topwhere the post it note is.
And then about 32 inches below.
I guess you could have put oneon the outside, but that's the sweet
spot.
Nobody's gonna look below thebelly button, and they're not gonna
look higher than your eyes.
That's all you have to work with.
So when you put all this otherjunk into the windows, you're making
(21:25):
it confusing, and it's hardfor them to get an idea.
And just like in the store,you got to put enough power from
the lights, and it's easy.
Now with LEDs, you can get aheck of a lot more light out of them.
And they're not taxing yourair conditioning like they used to.
And they're not so big either.
They're not clunky.
That's right.
That's a great point.
So your windows, their old jobis to get.
(21:45):
You just walk in the door.
Think of it as, like the headline.
Well, and I think you're right.
I mean, we've all seen thewindows where they try and cram everything
in there.
And the problem with that isyou end up looking at nothing.
Right.
So more focused windows arewhat you're.
You're saying.
Because otherwise you're.
You don't.
You can't focus on anythingwhen there's a thousand things in
the window.
No.
And yet, you know, someonewill tell me, oh, we gave it to Jamie.
(22:08):
He really loves doing windows.
I don't care.
It looks like crap.
I don't care if he loves doing it.
Windows are hard.
Windows take some.
Take some thinking.
And the other thing is, go outand look at competitors.
You know, look at a Macy's whoactually has a merchandising budget.
Look at a Nordstrom.
Look at Target.
Used to do some really great stuff.
I mean, everybody realizes it,but it doesn't have to come from
(22:32):
Western wear.
Notice you're.
You know, people hate shoppingwith me because I'm always at work.
You know, everything is.
I'm noticing everything.
But when I do do store tours,I'm so.
So do you notice that?
Did you notice why that isnext to that?
Do you see how your eyetravels and where we end up?
And a lot of people have neverhad anyone explain that to them.
So unless you're planning tohave me do a store tour with you
(22:54):
all, do it yourself.
But go and pick the big ones.
Don't go in an Apple Store.
That's not merchandising.
Pretty much go in people.
Von Martin exception.
Because they don't have to.
Exactly.
Right.
Don't go to the dollar store.
That's not going to give youthe idea.
So, you know, one of the.
(23:14):
We're talking a Lot of timesabout all the senses too.
And one of my things that'sforgotten about in the store is smell.
Now, if you have really goodleather in your store, that smell
is there, right?
But if you're an Eng store andthe leather is not prominent, smell
is so important and peopleover store owners overlook that too.
Disney spends a lot of moneyon smell.
You know, those smells you getgoing down the street aren't necessarily
(23:36):
coming from the kitchen.
They're piping that in.
Right.
So do you agree?
Well, that's where it allstarted was Disneyland 1955, when
Walt hired this guy to makethat for the cookies and that company
became Scent Air.
They're still around.
I've used them in clients.
I would do that in a heartbeatin an English store if it didn't
(23:56):
smell leathery enough.
Because you go into TonyBahama boutiques now and it smells
like coconut.
And I can't think of the other coconut.
And Villa, they've got aspecial scent, but you instantly
feel you're at the beach in Hawaii.
Scent is a huge marketer.
Huge.
You take out your boots, youknow, I would absolutely say smell
(24:18):
the quality of this leather.
People, we don't use that whenwe sell.
And then we say, oh, well,they didn't want it.
Well, to get a connections, Idon't think there's anything more
strong.
I guess you could taste itwould be stronger, but that'd be
a little weird.
Right?
Here's your boot.
Well, then you'd have a wholebunch of boots with bites out of
them and.
Yeah, just not going to work.
All right.
Good signage is another one.
(24:38):
That's a pet peeve of mine,especially the bigger.
You know, I've been to some ofthe stores in Texas, right.
Some of the stores down thereare huge.
They're the size of Walmarts.
And you know, when you go inone thing, one thing, it's hard to
find stuff at Home Depot, butthe one thing they do is they have
enough big signage that kindof gives you an idea where that item's
(24:59):
going to be.
And I, I do like going instores, even smaller tack shops that
there's some signage thatpoints me in a direction.
You know, I, I don't know ifyou think it's important or is it
better not to have signage andhave them wandering around?
I don't know.
I went into a Scotch and soda.
Is that what it's called?
(25:19):
Scotch and soda?
It's a brand Soda and Scotch.
I never quite remember it.
Anyway, I went to the mall andI started looking on this one rack
and I just stopped and there'sa young girl over there sizing things.
I go, which one is the men'sand which is the women's?
She goes, oh, the men's over there.
Like, great, thanks for that.
I shouldn't have to guess at that.
Like, you could have given mesome clothes especially, you know,
(25:40):
they could have told me, like,oh, that's it.
No, I. I do believe in bigstores, like a grocery store having
those headers is very helpful.
Wayfair signage, what that's called.
But also, we've kind ofdefaulted to 20% off this weekend.
30% off this 20 and 30.
(26:00):
When everything is on sale,then you've lost the full price customer.
And that's how you ride abusiness down.
I mean, Howard and Phil's wentout of business.
I left it in 94.
They were gone by 96.
And they were having trouble.
And they did an awful lot ofsales and just didn't.
Wasn't able to really keep going.
(26:21):
And then Garth Brook, ofcourse, decided to wear tennis shoes
and the ball cap.
And that kind of changedthings a little bit for West.
Then Yellowstone came out, andthen we were back to boots and jeans
and buckles.
Right.
So, yeah, Yellowstone changedit all again for our industry.
Dallas changed it from the 80s.
That was the thing I wanted tobe, J.R. and that's true.
(26:42):
Yeah, that's true, too.
Yeah.
We've gone cycles that way,haven't we?
And it's all driven by media, right?
Yeah.
So your article concludes thatcreativity is the most important
element in today's world witheverything we have out there.
You know, we used to talk inmarketing that you had to hit.
You had.
Somebody had to see yourmarketing message three times.
(27:03):
That's in the old days, beforeInternet and all of that.
That's not true anymore.
They got to see your marketingmessage 12 times for it to sink in
anymore, because they're soflooded with a million marketing
messages every day.
So what?
How can you be creative intoday's world?
Well, I think you can alwaysbe creative.
You just got to think likeyour customer.
(27:24):
That's.
That's the key.
You know, if I'm in Dubuque,Iowa, and there was some kind of
a, I don't know, horse eventof some kind or some kind of a parade
that's going on in that town,everything should fly back to that,
(27:46):
that it's a great, you know,there's a great outfit to wear at
the opening party or it's agreat this is a great option for
those of you want to, want totake, want to polish their boots.
You might do a whole thing on that.
But the key is you don't get forgotten.
So that's why everybody shouldhave their own lists arm.
(28:06):
I know people who bragged tome, like, oh, we've got all these
followers on Instagram.
It's like, who cares?
They're not yours.
Yeah, that's true.
That sucks.
He could go through and turnthat off on you tomorrow.
So your goal is to bring themthrough a landing page into your
CRM so you can talk to them ina great way.
And then I'd be the first toadmit it.
I'm speaking a lot on retailand AI.
I would have all my ideas andI would put them into chat and I
(28:30):
would, I would go through andtake pictures, have IT analyze them.
There's a lot of differentthings you can do, but you've also
got to know what to ask.
And so if you're listeningthis, like, oh, that's stupid.
I'd never do it.
Well, you know, they said thatabout the Internet, they said that
about email, they said thatabout a lot of things.
I don't think this is going togo away.
And even though I believe it'sthe start of Skynet, I truly do from
(28:53):
Terminator, we are all able tobe in it right now.
And it is hundreds of vendors,it is tens of thousands of dollars
of service you could neverhave had two years ago without paying
through the nose that you cannow get.
(29:13):
And that's what's going to bea game changer.
So you were trying to figureout what should I, you know, you
have your sort of back inDubuque, Iowa, right?
So you have your eventscalendar, you go to your chamber
of commerce, you do something,put that whole thing in chat and
say, okay, outline 12 monthlywindows I could do.
(29:35):
Here's what I want to feature.
Tony Llama, 5084, ostrichboots, the Swing Dance, whatever,
and see what it, see what it suggests.
Because it can help you.
If you have the idea, it canhelp you kind of solidify that and
then you can go out and playwith it.
And that's how we use it onthe, on our shows, is we use it more
(29:56):
as a research tool or an idea generator.
It doesn't mean we don't lookdeeper to get the, you know, the
true story of whatever we'retalking about.
But it gets us started.
And it, you know, and I wouldtake hours to come up with those
ideas.
That it gave me in two minutes.
Right?
It's.
And you're right.
It is all about asking theright questions.
I need to get somebody on justto talk AI as relation to retail.
(30:19):
What the hell are we doinghere, dude?
I can do that.
We need it.
We need to do that for a whole session.
I know.
Maybe I'll do it at a session sometime.
Anyway, I'm gonna get a third one.
I feel that's two we can.
I'm gonna get.
So Bob, you have a book.
How to merchandise youe store.
12 Visual merchandising tipsthat Work.
(30:40):
Take everything we've talkedabout here today and multiply it
times 10.
And that's why you need toread the book.
It's still out there, right?
Still there.
Actually what you're referringto is a chapter of my book.
My book is the Retail Doctor'sGuide to Growing youg Business.
So that's the.
That was my third book.
But nowadays all of my.
And that one's available on Amazon.
(31:03):
Yeah, it is.
All my Training is online.
SalesRx is my online retailsales training program.
So it's basically what I havedeveloped over 35 years that I can
take anybody's product and Ican make you a superstar.
And increase conversions.
83% of our users report adouble digit increase in six months.
Because I'm more like acollege of retail.
(31:23):
If you really want to do it,you really want to increase your
conversions.
If you're really trying tofigure out like these people are
all coming in, why aren't theyall buying?
It usually comes down to yourpeople and worse, it comes down to
your managers or the ownerswho haven't invested any time in
training them.
We see they've worked for someother tax shop and like, oh, bring
them in.
They know everything.
I don't care if they know everything.
What I care about is can youtalk to me?
(31:45):
Can you make me feel I matter?
Because people who feel theymatter buy and people who don't walk
out.
That simple.
And the website where they canfind either your consulting or books
or.
And your podcast, you promotethat quick.
So.
Well, before we get to that, yes.
My website is retaildoc.com re t a I l d o c.com and my podcast
(32:10):
is Tell me Something Goodabout Retail.
So we have, I don't know, fiveor six hundred episodes been going
for a long time.
Congratulations, that's a lotfor a podcaster.
And every, every model isdifferent, every episode is different.
And we've had people on therefrom Martin Lindsberg talking about
Lindstrom, talking about thefuture, Paco Underhill, as well as
(32:33):
retailers who are just tellingtheir stories.
Like the woman in Julie who'sin London.
She decides to open a boutiquewith her and her three daughters.
And it's 2019 and no one'scoming in the dollar, no one's coming
in the door.
So she's, she's trying.
And finally she's so upsetwith her daughters, she's like, why
do we get in this business?
(32:53):
Like, no one's here.
And she just decides to pickout her phone and she does a live
video.
And she has built that nowinto six chain, six store chain in
the UK because she's willingto try something.
And I think that's the sametrue for all of your listeners here
today is whether it's AI ormerchandising, get smarter about
(33:16):
it, learn what you can do.
And don't just fly by the seatof your pants because there's plenty
of businesses that are goingto go out left and right.
And crime.
It was all on Amazon.
No, they're the ones that putme out of business.
20% of sales is throughonline, 80% is still in a store.
So I don't care who you'regoing up against.
I can tell you I've gone upagainst an awful lot of them myself.
(33:37):
You're about as successful asyou make your mind up to be, whether
that's merchandising orselling or talking to your customers.
So it isn't brain surgery, butit is a matter of being really focused
on what you want and howyou're going to do it and finding
people to help you.
And what's the name of thepodcast again, where they can find
any podcast player?
Tell me something good about retail.
(33:59):
Tell me something good about retail.
There you go.
And it's retaildoc.com thanks,Retail Doc.
Appreciate you being here.
Thank you, sir.
Appreciate it.
All right, everybody, we'll beback at the end of the month.
We're going to have a coupleof weeks that we will not be doing
these Monday sessions, partlybecause I'll be down at WESA as well.
So, Jennifer, my wife and I,who my wife hosts the Wisdom by Wesa
(34:22):
podcast, and we'll both bethere Wednesday and Thursday of next
week.
You'll see us wandering around.
We do special episodes ofthese shows for new products that
are out there that are comingto the market.
Listeners love to hear aboutnew products, so.
And they like to hear about it first.
So we'll be wandering aroundwith our microphones.
If you see us there, call us aside.
If you have a new product,we'll do an interview right there
(34:42):
in your booth.
We've been doing, this is our36th trade show.
I think it's been a long timedoing this.
So we're looking forward toseeing everybody there.
Look for us on Facebook,Retail Roundup, and of course, wesatradeshow.com
and the WESA Trade ShowYouTube channels where you can, where
you can find all of thesevideos that we're doing here.
(35:05):
Bob Retaildoc.
Com.
Thanks for joining us.
Thank you.
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