Grand Opening Ideas for Hardware Stores
For most retailers, the best way to announce a new venture is with a grand opening. If you're the owner of a new hardware store, this inaugural event is a time to create a celebratory buzz among potential customers who are eager to check out your goods and services. A grand opening is more than balloons and ribbon-cutting. To make your event a success, create an atmosphere of superior service with value-added benefits to help build a loyal customer base.
Free Knife and Scissor Sharpening
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Carve out your niche of providing exceptional value by offering a service that can make homeowners' lives a little easier. Everyone has a dull knife or pair of scissors that could benefit from sharpening. By offering to sharpen up to two knives or a pair of scissors for free, you can drive customers to your hardware store and stimulate sales. As an added gesture of goodwill, invite your new customers to donate $1 or more to your favorite charity in return for the sharpening.
Vendor Presentations
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Product sales are the backbone of your hardware store. People appreciate the opportunity to get inspired and they become less intimidated with the notion of do-it-yourself when they can visualize how a product is used. If you initiate a cooperative marketing effort with several suppliers to demonstrate their products on opening day, it becomes a prime opportunity to increase revenue and reinforce the value-added concept to your customers. The supplier also gets the opportunity to see that its products are receiving the best possible placement in your store.
Store Giveaways
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A basket or tool box filled with handy tools and gadgets is a way of telling your customers that you're a partner in all their home improvement projects. Because your customers are likely to be contractors and do-it-yourselfers, give away custom baskets. One basket can contain industrial-use gadgets for the contractor crowd while the other basket can contain products more suitable for the more casual user. The items don't need to be high-end products, but they should be something that both types of customer will find useful. If you have a budget for personalizing promotional giveaways, such as a branded tape measure or a case of drill bits, your customer can think of you each time he uses the item.
Opening Day Pricing Strategies
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Low prices and special discounts are always a big draw at any retail establishment. Set a discounted price for a certain time of the day on items that your customers will use regularly, such as glue, light bulbs or screwdrivers. Create discounts for multiple product purchases on opening day. Offer a day where you pay the customers' share of the sales tax on purchases or provide free delivery on large ticket items.
References
- Start Your Own Retail Business and More; Entrepreneur Press and Gwen Moran
- Home Improvement Research Institute: Media
Resources
Writer Bio
Elle Smith has been an advertising professional for more than 25 years. Her work for ABC, CBS and Sony Pictures Television has appeared on radio, on air, in print and outdoors. In addition, Smith has more than 20 years experience in marketing, graphic arts, commercial photography and print production, and is a licensed real estate agent with property management certification in California.