But how and where can you achieve this? Every pet store has a power position within its store.

Some retailers know power of this position and develop their own strategies to manage this location and do not need help of suppliers or retail consultants.

The majority of retailers do not realise potential and need help of suppliers to make it happen.

They need a positive partnership rather than a supplier just delivering product.

So Where are These Magical Positions?

The power spot is position in a pet store where you can guarantee 100% of consumers will see 100% of product.

Those suppliers and retailers who have stores in countries where they drive on left hand side of road will have consumers who generally prefer to circulate stores in a clockwise direction. If your market is based on right hand sided driving, then customers generally prefer to circulate store in a counter clockwise direction.

Prior to building a power spot, you need to know natural customer flow in store you are working with ….. for Australians it’s clockwise.

Once that has been agreed on, you can then position power spot location. Generally consumers take 4 to 6 steps into store, transition zone, before they will focus on a display. The position after those few steps is power spot location.

Once you decide on power spot, you have then got to make it work.

Ideally, keep display circular to create a traffic island, radius being no more than an arm’s length to enable you to maximise sales space.

Shoppers buy from belly button to chin height and this means you may need to dummy up base of display to maximise sales.

Researchers tell us that 70% of buying decisions are made with eyes and therefore first priority in setting up a retail pet store is to ensure you expose customer to products you have on offer.

In one store I visited, they were determined I would see their total offer, whilst in another store I was exposed to less than 20% of their offer.

It’s Not Product; It’s Flow

Remember, first priority is not product; it’s customer flow. Researchers such as Paco Underhill, in United States, had carried out a lot of research on how we shop; theories apply to all types of retail outlets and pet industry is no different to a hardware store or fashion shop.

The first priority is to understand how subconsciously consumers who like to shop shop. This all depends on what side of road you drive on.

Those of you reading this article in countries where people drive on left-hand side of road will find consumers will prefer to shop in a clockwise arrangement. Those who drive on right-hand side will prefer to flow around your store in a counter-clockwise arrangement.

This means position of your checkout is critical to your success.

As a general rule, in left-hand drive countries counter goes on right and on left in right-hand drive countries.

The worst layout I have experienced is what is commonly called “pig trough” retailing. This is where counter is placed in centre of store, about one third in. This encourages first third of store to be shopped and not behind counter.

We recently worked with a retailer where he had a “pig trough” system. We physically moved counter on day and client phoned me at end of week to inform me that sales, since counter move, had increased by 20%.

It’s Not Product; It’s Personal Space