Tips for More Effective Merchandising

• Ask your suppliers for their help. Remember, their success is dependent on your success; the more products you're selling, the more products you're buying from them.
• Fail forward. Be willing to test new products and ideas. Failing just means learning, Oliver said. There are no 100 percent certainties in our business, he added.
• Leverage technology transfer. Find what works or is obvious in another industry or product category and apply it to your business. For example, Oliver saw push-top milk containers and applied it to Gardener's Supply's business for its fertilizer spray containers.
• Use observation to drive product innovation. While touring one of Gardener's Supply's supplier's warehouses in the U.K., Oliver noted that pallet covers were being thrown out. What was considered waste to the supplier was recognized as a product opportunity by Oliver. When turned inside out, the pallet covers become perfect grow beds for plants. Gardener's Supply now sells the former pallet covers as merchandise.
• Network with your customers. Oliver cited a conversation he had with one of his customers — he called her "Mary" — in which she said couldn't find a product that would keep her melons and vegetables off the ground so they wouldn't rot. After an exhaustive search, Oliver couldn't find the type of product Mary was looking for, so he designed it himself. The cradle kit, which consists of a plastic spear that goes into the ground and a basket to place the vegetable or fruit, has become one of Gardener's Supply's best-sellers. All of which came as a result of a conversation with a customer.
• Any retail merchandiser needs to read these two books to improve at their job, Oliver said: "The Innovator's DNA," by Jeff Dyer, Hal Gregersen and Clayton Christensen; and "Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge From Small Discoveries," by Peter Sims. In addition to those two books, Oliver cited a quote from famous innovator Enzo Ferrari, he of the Italian sports car fame, that merchandisers should keep in mind: "When you're in the lead, what's in the mirror is of no consequence to you."

2. CEO near-sighted disease. Oliver explained this as constant worry about the present without focusing on what's going to make you successful in the future. "Have you seen the numbers from the last hour?" he deadpanned, mimicking what's often heard from those suffering from CEO near-sighted disease. The numbers in the last hour shouldn't matter if you know that you've correctly prioritized what's most important to your business.