• Identify your store’s demographic.
  • Create low cost or no cost changes to your store layout and displays.
  • Recognize seasonal trends and where to find them.
  • Have a working knowledge of retail  terminology.
  • Determine an appropriate pricing structure.

   



Demographics

Where do your campers come from?

  • Local area
  • Other states
  • Churches
  • Your own organization

 Who are your campers? 

- Consider:

  • Their age range
  • If they live in the city or country
  • If they pay to come to camp or if they’re on scholarship

- Are these demographics different for some weeks? 

  • Example: Some weeks tend to have campers from rural areas, while other weeks have campers from cities.

- Do your campers come back year after year?

How much can they spend?

- What is the average dollar amount spent per camper?

- Who is spending money in the store, and what are their ages?


Store Layout & Merchandizing

Store Flow

- What can you change to have better flow in your space?

- Where are your cash register and store entrance located?

Visibility & Displays

- What is the first thing you see when you walk in your store entrance?

- Do you display key items at eye level, and are you using the space above and below eye level?

- Have you created “departments” within the store by grouping like items together?

- Is there uniformity in your hangers and folded apparel?


Trending Merchandise

Where are you looking for inspiration?

  • From your campers!
  • What kids who come to your camp are wearing
  • At the mall
  • On social media
  • What your vendors are seeing as trends

Develop a Purchasing Plan

How much merchandise can fit in your store?

  • What is your store’s square footage?
  • What is your budget?
  • Have you done a physical inventory?

 

How to Markup the Product

What is your net cost?

 - The cost to you of the merchandise. 

What is the perceived value?

 - When pricing, consider the perceived value of the item.

  • If you purchase a product on sale, consider if you want to pass along the sale or use the regular cost to calculate your retail price.
  • Example: A camp purchases a water bottle that costs $0.85 and sells it for $3.99. 

What are different pricing methods?

 - Initial Markup (IMU)

  • This is the calculation used to determine the selling price. 

 - Keystone 

  • Double the cost.
  • Example: If you buy for $5.00, you sell for $10.00.

Pricing 101

Basic Retailing Formulas

 - Retail price = Cost of Goods + Markup 

 - Markup = Retail Price - Cost of Goods

 - Cost of Goods = Retail Price - Markup

Definitions

 - Markup

  • The amount added to the cost of an item to get the retail selling price
  • Markup $ = Retail Price – Cost
  • Markup % = Markup Amount ÷ Cost

 - Cost of Goods (COG)

  • The costs related to the selling of the product 

Stock to Sale Ratio

How much inventory should you buy?

 - Things to consider:

  • How many campers you have
  • How many weeks you are in operation
  • If you should order once or plan for reorders

When should you reorder?

 - Watch inventory and sales records to place reorders 2 weeks out. 

How do you keep from having a high volume of leftover stock?

 - Consider going with a reorder method.

 - Review the physical inventory from the previous season.

  •  Check what and how much was leftover.

 - Markdown any slow selling product within a season. 

  • Move a product 3 times before marking it down.  

What are some important things to know about stocking and running a camp store?

Know your sell history so you do not over buy, we never want our camps to have left over inventory at the end of the year, we would rather them sell out and have to reorder. We encourage ordering lower quantities and then reordering so at the end of the summer you have very little inventory left and you do not have to roll it into next year. And know that your staff is the best way to market your camp store merchandise; campers want to be like the cool counselors, so seeing the swag on the counselors gives the campers a great visual of your products.

 

What should camps consider when ordering t-shirts?

Know your slots before starting the ordering process. What shirts are out of stock and have open to buy new. Look at your wall and see what is open. and example could be

  • 2 guy design shirts
  • 1 girl design shirt
  • 1 tank top
  • a youth tee
  • 1 water bottle
  • 2 toys
  • 1 backpack
  • 1 journal

 

Anything Camp Store Directors should know or think about?

Changing up the store layout; if you have a two week session, through the middle of the session move the merchandise around; it will look like you have new merchandise which might not have been noticed the first time campers came into the store. It gives you a second chance to move products.

 

 

Why should camps choose to work with 413 instead of other similar companies?

Customer service and design.....

- Customer service... We take pride in providing excellent customer service for our camps. We have on many occasions been told that our camps feel like they are the only camp we take care. Relationships are so important in our industry; the camps we serve are more than a client they are part of the 413 family.

- 413's job is to know camp store merchandise, it is who we are, camps are our number one focus. We research every year to make sure we produce catalogs with the current trending products and designs that are on the market to make sure campers go home with swag they will love and wear, and not put in the back of their closet.

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