Accessories ADD UP
How small-ticket sales can translate to big business
By Alicia Hoglund
La LOOP style 867P The Clifton Rose Gold with Silver Loop
With the growing popularity of online eyewear retailers threatening to take away a portion of the overall optical marketplace, ECPs are looking for other profit centers to boost overall sales and increase patient retention.
Enter accessories. Be it readers, cases, or cords, these add-on sales can add up quickly. And, creating an all-inclusive, one-stop shop can help keep your patients from looking elsewhere for eyewear and eyecare supplies.
So, whether you’re thinking about entering the accessories game or increasing your stake in it, here are need-to-know facts about the benefits of offering accessories and how to market them to get the most bang for your buck.
BIG BENEFITS
There are some obvious and not-so-obvious advantages to offering an assortment of accessories to your patients.
TOTAL CARE. Providing comprehensive care goes beyond the chair. Once a prescription has been filled and eyewear has been dispensed, it’s important to go one step further and provide patients with the know-how to properly care for their investment.
“It’s a great idea for ECPs to offer a full-scale look at the accessories needed to not only take care of their purchases, but to protect them as well,” says Cathy Karlen, consumer accessories product manager at Hilco in Plainville, MA. “ECPs I’ve talked with over the years will show a case, a chain, and a cleaning kit, and have it all on a tray. So as they’re dispensing the new pair of eyeglasses, they’re giving [patients] a whole presentation—all of the items that are needed to keep their eyeglasses close, keep them safe, and keep them properly cared for.”
CONVENIENCE. Carrying accessories not only saves your customers time, it puts extra cash in your pocket.
Says Karlen, “ECPs are saying, ‘[Patients] can just walk down to Walmart or CVS and buy them a lot less expensively than I can sell them,’ but why not take advantage of the patient purchasing from you conveniently instead of going somewhere else to buy them?”
The Fall Foliage case collection by Corinne McCormack
Elizabeth Faraut, owner of La LOOP in Santa Monica, CA, started her business 14 years ago specifically because she saw the need for fashionable eyewear accessories in the dispensary.
“When a customer walks in and they see hundreds upon hundreds of frames displayed, and then they see fashionable accessories, it’s like a breath of fresh air,” she says. “It adds to [the store’s] depth of assortment, which makes the consumer more interested and keeps them in the store longer.”
SALES BOOST. Arguably, the biggest benefit to carrying accessories is to increase profits.
“Retailers need to capture every dollar they can when that customer walks through the door,” says Faraut. “And having other products and having ways to sell two or three items as opposed to one or two, it can change a business.”
Though most eyewear accessories, especially in comparison with Rx eyewear, are modestly priced, these small sales can make a big impact, notes Karlen.
“If you’re buying a sport cord for $1.95 and selling it for $3.99, you’re not making a lot of money per sale; it’s just incremental business—chump change. But by the end of the year, you’ll be surprised by your total sales with relatively no additional overhead expense.”
Faraut’s La LOOP offers training to help its clients sell product, and the results have been rewarding—and successful.
“What we’ve seen from our clients is that when they get that this incremental business is important to them, they can easily sell 10 units a week,” says Faraut, whose merchandise ranges from $25 to $500 per necklace. And that number, she says, is conservative.
NOW TRENDING
Demand may vary depending on location and target market, but there is a significant uptick in sales of certain accessories that shouldn’t be ignored.
CHAINS/CORDS. “We’re seeing a real spike in sales of eyeglass chains and holders, not only from a sports side, but also from a fashion perspective,” says Karlen. “The old way of wearing your glasses on a chain made you look like Grandma. Today’s consumers want something more on trend, and holders are moving in that direction with their dual functionality, converting from a holder to a necklace in seconds.”
| Selling Accessories |
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Marketing accessories can be tricky. Here, we offer tried-and-true methods for capturing those add-on sales. BUNDLES. “You’ve got holiday time coming up, a perfect opportunity to put together gift packages,” says Cathy Karlen, consumer accessories products manager at Hilco in Plainville, MA. “You always need a small gift for a teacher or neighbor down the street. [Eyewear accessories] are all items that recipients will use; they won’t go to waste. It’s a true sale for the ECP.” BE A STYLIST. “If I were to walk into Bloomingdale’s and try on a purple dress, a really great salesperson would say, ‘Let me show you the great shoes that go with that,’” says Elizabeth Faraut, owner of La LOOP in Santa Monica, CA. “So, becoming a stylist is a way of bringing [accessories] into the conversation and not waiting for it to be a last-minute purchase at cash wrap.” EMPLOYEE INCENTIVES. “A lot of ECPs will offer an incentive program for their employees,” says Karlen, “so they get commission on accessories sales. That works very well. It’s very simple, but effective.” COUPONS. “I’ve seen coupons going out that when a consumer has purchased a new pair of glasses, they can get a discount on accessories, anywhere from 10 to 25 percent off,” says Karlen. “And vice versa, they will put a coupon in say, a box of wet wipes, that in turn will give them a discount on their next eyewear or sunwear purchase. So they’re crossing all of the categories and trying to grab from one category to another.” BE AN EXAMPLE. ECPs wear on-trend frames, so why not accessories? “If a customer walks in and sees the product in use, then it’s almost like they don’t have to say anything,” says Faraut. “It almost does the selling for them.” |
CASES. Another big seller? Eyeglass cases. The idea of personalization through accessories for smartphones and electronic devices is beginning to trickle into eyewear accessories as well.
“We’re seeing cases with great graphics and textures, and people are taking notice of that,” says Karlen. “And not only are people using them to carry their eyewear, they are popping in their cell phone or other items into the case as well. So, it becomes sort of like a clutch, a more multi-purpose accessory.”
CLEANING CLOTHS. Speaking of multi-purpose, Karlen notes a rise in cleaning cloth sales as well.
“We think of cleaning cloths as just a way to clean your eyeglasses,” she adds. “But we’re starting to see so many people using their cloths to clean their cell phones, iPads, Kindles, etc. So we’re seeing an increase in sales of larger sizes of cleaning cloths to be used for small electronics. It’s a great selling point.”
| Read All About It |
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| The numbers are in, and regardless of your stance on readers, it’s impossible to deny that these over-the-counter items are money makers. Consider these findings from The Vision Council’s VisionWatch June 2013 OTC Readers Sales report. |
BOTTOM LINE
Though accessories aren’t big-ticket items, they do add up.
“Don’t look today, but rather in a year’s time,” says Karlen. “On a day-to-day basis they may not look like a lot, but when you evaluate everything at the end of the year, it’s really amazing to see how they help your bottom line.” EB
$812 million 10% 45+ 1/3 89.8% |
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