SALLY IS YOUR long-time frame rep and has a brand that does well for your optical. You sit down as she sets up tray after tray of the latest summer releases. You have already done the numbers and you let her know what you are reordering, and that you want to bring on five additional new styles. You peruse the colorful new pieces and make your selections. Almost as an afterthought, you tell Sally, “Oh, we have those four sunglasses over there too. Let’s add two more sunglasses from the summer collection.”
Your optical has unintentionally fallen into the Sunglass Trap! This was not a trap set by anyone, certainly not the rep, and it’s probably been like this for some time. Lucky for you, this is simple to get out of.
As we head into summer, most of us are at peak sunglasses season in our opticals. This means your sunglass display is in full force, right?
I encourage you to go take a quick look at your sunglass offerings. Make a note of the quantities of each of your brands represented. Then reflect upon your sunglass sales.
Many opticals have rep visits like the one above, where the focus is rightfully on the ophthalmic frames and sunglasses are an afterthought. So much so that frame buyers often invest in having 20, 30, 40 pieces representing the ophthalmic side of a brand but just a handful of sunglasses thrown in with the intention of complementing the ophthalmics. Before you know it though, you have 15 different brands with a handful of ophthalmic-complementing-sunglasses each. This leaves your sunglass selection with an under-represented, hodge-podge vibe of 15 different brands and no real, or beautiful, representation of any of them.
Let’s go one step further, most have one of the “popular” sunglass brands in their office. You know, the brands that come with a display case and require a full representation of those sunglasses. I would bet that this brand has sold the highest quantity of sunglasses in your office. This is because it is your only sunglass brand that is properly represented.
Don’t feel discouraged. Nearly 90% of Spexy members that start using FrameTurn have fallen into the Sunglass Trap too. Great news, you can fix it! Often without increasing the number of sunglasses in your optical. Keep this in mind:
It is better to have a proper representation of a handful of sunglass brands rather than have a dozen sunglass brands with only a handful of styles to show for each one.
We have seen dramatic results for Spexy members that adopt this mentality around sunglass ordering. Let’s, for example, look at all the sunglasses that are not the brand with the display case. Maybe these sunglasses make up a total of 50 frames: 10 brands with approximately five sunglasses per brand. If you selected only four brands and showcased each of those brands with 12 styles, you would sell more sunglasses. In this scenario, you would have 48 spaces for sunglasses and be able to sell more because the four brands are showcased thoroughly enough for the sunglasses to sell.
Decide to get out of the Sunglass Trap. Choose the sunglass brands you are going to really invest in showcasing. Then next time you are sitting down with Sally, you will be happy to say, “Sally, I am excited you are here because we have not given your sunglasses a chance to shine. We have only had five or six in the past, but I’ve made some room and today I would like to go about adding six more to our inventory to really showcase the line.”
Watch video on merchandising for better sunglass sales.