A little friendly advice

Regardless of how long you've been in business or how large your store is, everyone could use a fresh perspective from time to time.

OneCoast, a national sales representative group, recognizes the challenges independents face and in January it celebrated a massive expansion and remodeling of its Atlanta showroom with a drawing for an all-day in-store consultation with its vice president of visual merchandising and trends, Paul Thompson. The drawing was targeted, as are most of its programs and giveaways, at independent retailers.

Thompson's career spans styling work for the television show The View, merchandising for The Metropolitan Opera Shops, Christmas decorations and designs for the Algonquin Hotel in New York, showroom displays for Kurt S. Adler and Department 56, a director's position in visual merchandising and trend at The Pfaltzgraff Co., as well as an independent merchandising design business.

He now heads visual merchandising and trends for OneCoast and works on product development, displays and sales strategies.

"I was very excited to work with Whatever! A Unique Boutique, the winner of the drawing," Thompson said. "Our goal with the consultation is not to go in and make drastic changes and translate our vision into stores, but rather to find out their strengths and weaknesses and show them ways to change their displays or merchandising so they can move on to the next level of business."

Whatever! A Unique Boutique in Evans, Ga., just outside Augusta, won the drawing and recently had its consultation with Thompson. This 1,200-sq.-ft. store is located in a small strip center between a chiropractor and a bagel shop. The community has seen a lot of residential and commercial growth in the last few years and in 2007 a Target will move in across the street.

Owner Jody Mobley bought the store about four years ago, and while she didn't play a big role in the store at first, in the last two years she's taken early retirement from her 30-year career at a local bank to run her store full time. Joanna Neumeister had been running the store when Jody bought it, and has remained as the lone full-time employee.

"I was surprised when OneCoast called because I never win anything," Mobley said. "I didn't really know what to expect, but it was a lot of fun. Paul was great. He had some good ideas for my store; it's always good to get a fresh perspective on things."

Whatever! gets a lot of foot traffic, both from its location between the bagel shop and chiropractor and from the local residential area and high school. Teachers' gifts are a big part of the business and Mobley offers gift-wrapping as an added bonus.

She's also very connected with the community through charity donations and more. The store carries everything from decorative plates to picture frames and jewelry, as well as licensed items, garden decor and juvenile products.

Thompson suggested a few guerrilla marketing ideas to offset Mobley's advertising efforts like a frequent buyer program, a revolving charity list and teaming with her neighbors for collective marketing and events.

Though Thompson said the store was very clean and well lit, it was cluttered and he had a few suggestions on organizing and merchandising.

"Paul said we should group categories together and paint the walls to separate the areas," Mobley said. "We're going to do that and get rid of our sale closet that he hated."

Thompson's idea to create boutique areas for juvenile, children's, garden and home accents and designate them with different color treatments on the wall will help organize the store and give it a more efficient flow. He said also this will help Mobley visualize what categories are selling and streamline the buying process at markets.

Overall, both OneCoast and Whatever! were pleased with the outcome; Mobley has workable ideas for her store, and OneCoast is gearing up for more giveaways.

The company is hosting seminars at various markets this summer and in conjunction with those it will hold a raffle for more consultations with Thompson and his team.

"This is a great idea for all of us," Thompson said. "It gives stores ideas they can implement to improve their business, it lets them know that even though we're a large company we're very responsive and concerned about independents and it builds the relationships between the retailer and their sales reps."

Contact Retail Editor Lisa Casinger at lcasinger@reedbusiness.com

Lisa Casinger, Retail Editor

Joanna Neumeister, left, and Jody Mobley of Whatever! A Unique Boutique in Evans, Ga., with Paul Thompson, OneCoast. Thompson visited the store for a design consultation as part of a promotional drawing by the sales representative group.