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In our September column, we discussed driving sales via effective merchandising tactics. By cross-merchandising, you can stimulate interest in items which may have otherwise remained on the shelf, thereby increasing incremental profit levels.

In your neck of the woods, we hope your favorite college and professional football teams are off to a fast start. In our October column, we hope to move you off of the starting blocks quickly with a tip on caring for the front check-out experience. In many ways, the front check-out is a selling department, and its appearance, organization, and level of interpersonal care is a significant reflection of your organization and attention to detail.

It is imperative that the check-out area of your store is kept very clean. Customers often drop money or coupons at check-out. When they do, they note your store’s cleanliness standards because this is the area in which they spend most of their time standing and observing, and it is also the last place in which you leave an impression on them.

From an interpersonal relationships perspective, we encourage the use of name-tags as a conversation piece. Sweeetbay’s name-tag “Ask Me About . . .” allows employees to fill in the blank with something of interest to them. By having your employees engage in this activity, you are exposing your exciting products and services to your customer (similar to sampling), increasing the probability that one may engage your employees in a conversation (increasing the amount of interactions between your customers and store employees), and making the store a more exciting and involving place in which to work and shop.

In addition, we think that making certain your cashiers engage the customers via commenting on one or two of their items is important. “Your cherry pie here looks absolutely scrumptious,” or “These steaks have solved the mystery of what is for dinner tonight at our house,” or “Ma’am, I placed your greeting cards in a separate bag to ensure they would not be soiled by your food items” are all ways to add excitement to the shopping experience, demonstrate your level of concern and care for the customer, and to reinforce that what they have purchased is attractive.

We also like the use of a “suggested item” at check-out. We think these items should be high-profit impulse items which are smaller in size due to space constraints at the register. Altoid Mints and batteries are outstanding examples. Perhaps you offer the cashier an incentive to sell the item (e.g., 25 cents per unit). The “suggested item” would be sold for one week before moving to another product the next week.

At the end of the trip, after the customer checks out of the store, we endorse a “movie-like marquee” stating clearly in big, bold letters the “Special” for the next week, special services available within the store, an exciting private-label item to which you want to expose your shoppers, and/or upcoming special events. With this marquee, you have hopefully left the customer excited about coming back to take advantage of what your store will offer the next time. Be sure to take the necessary steps to be ready at check-out when you ask customers, “Are you ready to check-out?”

Our shopper traffic research will unveil some quick and manageable tactics which could have a profound impact on your top line as well as customer satisfaction and loyalty. For more information on how we can cater our research to meet your specific needs, please e-mail me at Kenny.Herbst@mba.wfu.edu. Alternatively, feel free to visit my Wake Forest University profile page at www.mba.wfu.edu/herbst (on this site, click “website” under my photo to visit my personal Webspace). I can also be reached via phone at 336-758-4215. I look forward to speaking with you about potential research that will fit your needs.

Dr. Kenneth C. Herbst is an Assistant Professor of Marketing in the Babcock Graduate School of Management at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He earned a Masters and Ph.D. from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In addition, Dr. Herbst earned a B.A. from Wake Forest University.

Dr. Herbst has been interviewed about his food research and industry expertise by popular media publications such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, the Ottawa Citizen, the Montreal Gazette, the San Francisco Chronicle, USA Today, and Woman’s Day. In July 2007, he gave a keynote presentation on his in-store food shopper research at Shopper Insights in Action.

Harold Lloyd was the President and CEO of a 14-unit retail organization for 10 years. His practical, exciting ideas and dynamic presentation style have combined to earn him a highly regarded reputation reflected in his top ratings at numerous appearances at such prestigious events as the annual FMI and IDDBA conventions.

For almost two decades, Harold has worked very closely with small and large businesses to provide a “powerful push in the right direction!” His mission is to provide qualified, executive-level assistance to companies on a “temporary basis,” eliminating the need to add permanent top management overhead. To further assist his clients, Harold authored the book It’s About Time, focusing on time management.