Frosts Garden Centres
''Frosts introduced the new carousel pocket money stands for Autumn 2020 and Keycraft sales increased more than double YOY. '' - Claire Jenner, Senior Buyer, Frosts.
The background
Frosts is a family-owned group of 4 award-winning centres offering inspirational plant nurseries, calendar events, and dining experiences. With sites at Woburn Sands, Brampton, Willington, and Millets Farm in the South of England, Frosts has grown to be a highly respected brand with a loyal customer base over the past 75 years.
The Frosts retail model focuses predominately on impulse purchases, and with the main demographics of their footfall being parents and grandparents, often visiting with their children. The buying team was keen to maximise the impulse purchase potential in their toy department, outlined by our tried and tested approach to impulse buying; the Science of Impulse.
Claire Jenner, Senior Buyer, was passionate about the growth potential she could envisage for their toy department and set out at investigating the best course of action to revitalise the department and in turn, boost sales and profit.
“Their buyer was really passionate about driving forward impulse sales and immediately understood the Science of Impulse. She was the perfect partner.” - Simon Whiteside, Sales Manager, Keycraft.
Our approach was the perfect fit for Frosts and we were quickly able to identify ways to maximise impulse sales in-store.
Our analysis
Following a visit by the Keycraft retail consulting team, we were able to build an evaluation of the current situation and outline the problems the retailer was facing;
Better product organisation/inspiration was needed
Older model display stands in need of TLC
Lack of inspiration for shoppers to buy
Products out of sight, out of mind
The solution
Accessibility
Taking each shop floor plan into consideration, Keycraft mapped out the best display solutions to create a centre of attraction for each of the four toy departments, for maximum impact. With two stores being allocated the large carousel display and the other two, which had more limited shop floor space; the tower display stand.
“The carousel display stands are a great vehicle to sell pocket money toys from, taking up minimal floor space, yet adding fun and theatre to our toy department.” – Claire Jenner, Senior Buyer, Frosts.
Each of the display solutions were filled with a mix of top sellers, new and on-trend impulse toys and placed in good view of the main walkways within each store. This allows for the wow-factor display solutions to work their magic and attract potential customers to view the pocket money delights inside each basket – boosting footfall through each toy department.
“The impressive large Carousel is a high volume and high impact floor standing display with LED lights and 6 poles which hold 5 baskets per pole, and a whopping maximum of 60 product lines. You really cannot miss it when you walk into a store, it’s a real show-stopper.” - Greg Cowie, Sales Director, Keycraft.
By curating the right ranges, and placing them in the right place to maximise accessibility and attract attention – you can have significant impact on your bottom line.
People
We identified the main demographic of the garden centre to be parents and grandparents. Usually, Grandparents will visit garden centres through the week, whereas parents tend to visit at the weekends, often with their children/grandchildren.
Identifying this audience allows us to be crystal clear on providing the things they want, at a price which makes them say yes to impulse purchases. Through this customer profiling, we brought a fresh perspective to the pocket money range and curated a selection of our best-selling pocket money toys, including new and on-trend items to suit these profiles. In turn, this increased the average price-point of their pocket money ranges, leading to a steady increase in their average transactional values.
Environment
Understanding the shopping experience was key when we began working to enhance Frosts offering. Facing the challenge of poor toy sales, they needed to encourage browsing. We helped them identify that children, shopping with their parents and grandparents, were becoming bored resulting in shorter shopping visits and reduced spend.
“Our aim was to create an environment where families wanted to stay and shop for longer. If you get your space working hard, customers will find it easier to shop.” – Simon Whiteside, Sales Manager, Keycraft.
By enabling easy impulse purchases in-store, children are more engaged and less inclined to pressure parents to leave. In fact, families are more inclined to stay longer. The range of toys we curated was selected to enhance the environment and was at the right price point for the store’s demographic. Branded display stands were also implemented alongside the carousels to maximise impulse purchases.
Choice
Don’t fill gaps; create opportunities. Carefully curated ranges with genuine appeal maximise impulse profit.
We came up with a curation of pocket money products that were the right for the typical Frosts customer and their retail environment. We curated a beautifully packaged collection to be displayed on both the carousel stands and branded POS to capitalise on pester power.
As children come in to visit with their parents and grandparents, they are naturally drawn to the wow-factor of the carousel display solutions, leading them and their parents/grandparents to browse for longer, and more likely to make a purchase.
Value
Our products are designed to appeal to children, parents/grandparents and retailers. They are value engineered to ensure maximum profit for the retailer, and to give parents the feel-good factor. Well-thought-out, quality products make it easier for parents to say a guilt-free ‘yes’ to their children.
"Keycraft’s toys look great with bespoke graphics and branding, which helps to enhance the in-store experience.” - Greg Cowie, Sales Director, Keycraft.
We worked hand in hand with Frosts to understand their brand and audience and curated a collection that would rebuild their faith in pocket money as a profitable category, and be a desirable impulse buy for their customers.
The results
Frosts saw the results they were looking for: a considerable increase in impulse purchases within one week of implementation of Keycraft’s Science of Impulse retail strategy. Thanks to team cohesion across all 4 garden centre locations, they were able to see results quickly.
"Frosts introduced the new carousel pocket money stands for Autumn 2020 and Keycraft sales increased more than double YOY. They are a great vehicle to sell pocket money toys from." – Claire Jenner, Senior Buyer, Frosts.
On the run-up to Christmas, Keycraft featured as the garden centres no.1 supplier of toys, which was predominantly driven by pocket money/stocking fillers.
"We totally got the new stand into stores in time!” – Claire Jenner, Senior Buyer, Frosts.
Six months later, the garden centre chain has over 100 different Keycraft pocket money lines on display using a combination of wow factor carousel display solutions, product curation advice and POS branding to help make the toy department bubble with excitement.
We are now working with Frosts to expand their range further with Living Nature soft toys having been recently added to the range across all 4 sites and performing strongly.
Both the teams at Keycraft and Frosts are eager to see what dividends the future of the partnership will bring.