Attracting the Female Shopper

Published: 09 Oct, 2009

It is a well documented fact that the majority of garden retail customers are women. Yet strangely, when it comes to the design and layout of a garden centre or plant store, it seems to be the men who are calling the shots

On a recent tour of garden retail outlets in Victoria and New South Wales I was struck by how ‘blokey’ all the stores were. What do I mean by this? Why is this an issue?

The male approach seems to be all about functionality and utility, often a touch of “she’ll be right” or, what we call back in NZ, “the No. 8 wire syndrome”. This often results in a hard, sterile , logical but somewhat boring environment, albeit easy to work and maintain.

The symptoms of this condition include gravel or uneven paving, beds and paths set out in a grid pattern, steel benches and tables, industrial racking for mixes and pots, concrete blocks and planks, pallets covered in weed mat and artificial grass – sometimes even the old wooden power cable reels we used back in the 70’s!

This suits the male no-nonsense approach to shopping –walk in, find what you’ve come for, if it fits or does the job buy it and get out. We’re not browsers or mullers; we shop on a practical, not emotional, level. We like hardware stores and timber yards, computer shops and auto retailers. We shop out of necessity, not by choice.

Women on the other hand love to shop. They like to spend hours and hours doing it. For them it is therapy. They shop as much with their hearts as with their heads. They have an emotional response to products. They are excited by colour, texture, shape, and look.

Where do women shop when they are not in a garden centre? In clothes shops and shoe shops, homeware shops, gift shops and book shops. And where do we mostly find these sorts of shops these days? In shopping malls and precincts.

If we look at a typical shopping mall what would we say were its main features? - Warm, dry, clean, bright, colourful, attractive, tempting. They set high standards for their retail tenants. The retailers themselves have to compete for shopper’s attention. As a result they too are bright, clean, well merchandised, colourful and attractive. How does your store look by comparison?

If we want to compete or measure up against our retail competition then we too have to start providing similar shopping environments. It is not quite so easy for us because of the types of product we sell and the open, exposed locations we so often find ourselves in.

However, there are some simple steps we can take to provide the right shopping environment for our prospective customers.

• A sealed car park. I once saw a lady drive into a potholed, gravel carpark at a garden centre. She opened the car door, saw mud and potholes, slammed the door shut and drove off!
• An attractive building. Paint it a modern colour, dress up the entrance with a façade, have plenty of light inside (roof light).
• A showroom that is warm in winter, cool in summer.
• Pleasant background music.
• A high standard of tidiness and cleanliness.
• Covered outdoor shopping areas – protection from wind and rain.
• Total paved or concrete surface – no gravel. A main curved pathway leading around the garden centre.
• Smaller benches arranged in clusters of 3-4 at different heights.
• Round fixtures 1.2m diameter arranged in clusters at different heights for all major traffic areas and first impressions.
• Plants merchandised in round or curving blocks.
• Plants merchandised by colour, theme, style, situation, or concept
• Clean toilet facilities.
• A café or refreshment centre.
• Category signs that make it easy to locate products.
• Point of Sale benefit signs that have 3 short bullet point benefits, arousing interest and giving reasons to buy.

Remember also that 85% of plants are purchased on impulse based on what the customer ‘sees’ and what ‘appeals’.  In other words most customers don’t know what they want until they see it.

We must make garden centres easy, exciting, pleasant places to shop for the female customer who buys on emotion, who responds to colour, smell, shape and form, rather than practicality and utility.

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