A booth transition is a bit more involved than just sprucing up or bringing in a few new items. A transition is an over-haul! After a transition, anyone who comes to the store regularly will KNOW you've been there. Even things that have been in your booth for ages will seem different.
A full-out transition takes some time! If you don't have enough time allotted, you may not have time to go about it thoughtfully. There are times when you have to make changes fast and skip steps. The steps in this post may not help you with every booth change you make, but hopefully, you'll find time to go thru ALL these steps a couple of times a year.
Pick low-traffic days to work because, while you are busy in your booth, customers will be reluctant to come into your booth. As you work, to keep from losing too many sales opportunities, be prepared to either leave your booth when a customer comes close -OR- to engage the customer in a friendly conversation. If you have the gift of gab, working in your booth could even get you some bonus sales.
You can spread these steps out over several days or you can go all out and plan to get it done in one day.
The first thing to do is purge and clean. If you want to transition your booth over more than one day, these steps are perfect to do on the first day. In fact, you can do these two steps anytime whether you are transitioning or not.
Purging and cleaning
are not exactly exciting,
HOWEVER
you may be surprised
at how much better your booth
looks after they are done.
PURGE
Look around your booth and see what needs to go. You'll need boxes and labels and markers. As you pack up, think about how you can make it easy on yourself to find everything when it's time to bring these things back in next year. Group everything you pack and label the boxes - WINTER, VALENTINES, BLACK, whatever....
Remove all the old holiday items. If you still have things for Valentine's Day still in your booth, pack them away. They've got to go! (Hopefully all other holiday things are long gone, but you may be amazed to find a few overlooked items.) As you pack, think about why the items didn't sell. It will help you make better buying and/pricing/displaying decisions in the future.
Also pack up anything that feels dark and wintry. Are there snowflakes in your booth? Please! Get them out. I don't care if there's still 4 feet of snow outside. Folks are tired of it. Our minds are moving into Spring mode. Your booth needs to give them what they are yearning for.
Take another good look around your booth. What do you have in your booth that has been there waaay too long? Why hasn't it sold? Is it marked too high? If so, mark it down. Has it not been displayed well? If so, plan to display it differently as soon a s possible. Does it need a makeover? If so, take it home to re-do. Was it a mistake purchase? If so, either mark it way down or call it a day and get it out of your booth.
CLEAN
A mall may have someone to clean the aisles and bathrooms, but they generally don't touch anything in booths. Keeping your booth clean is up to YOU.
When is the last time your booth was vacuumed or dusted? If it's been a while, then get busy. You know what needs to be done. Make sure that anything you use for cleaning has a mild scent. You don't want to blow a sensitive customer out of your booth with strong fumes.
As you clean, think about how a shopper feels when purchasing something used. If your booth looks dirty, then, what I call the "ick-factor" kicks in. Just thinking about it makes me make the icky face look. Ponder this - Do you really think someone would buy a pillow from a booth that looks nasty?
The next post in this series is ... SPRING Booth Transition - Part 2
It's a bit more FUN than this post. :-D