Do you turn a customer away?

Exclusive is a buzz word among retailers and vendors. Webster defines it as “accepting or soliciting only a socially restricted patronage.” This describes the attendance policy at this month’s ABC Expo, which is limited to independent, brick and mortar stores.

Coming from the furniture/home accents industry, I am surprised by an attendance policy that excludes any retailer. I realize the premise is independent retailers want product that’s not available to mass merchants or online retailers, but if you break it down to the most basic level it comes back to restricting patronage.

Lots of retailers distinguish themselves with custom lines, which is great for them and the consumer. Magic Moon, a retailer in our Dallas Metro report, manufactures its own furniture and lighting and offers custom bedding. Our cover story, The Wooden Swing, is unique because of its categories: outdoor play equipment and youth furniture.

Being different isn’t just about the product though because the store down the street might have the same thing or something fairly similar. Being different is about  you, the owner; it’s about how customers feel in your store; it’s about how you display the merchandise and more importantly it’s about customer service.

As a consumer I shop a mix of independent and mass retailers. Like most people, I know if I’m looking for customer service and a well-informed staff, I’m probably not going to find it at a mass retailer. It’s not their forte. Price may be or location may be but typically individuality is not.

This brings me back to restricting patronage. Whether you’re a vendor or a retailer I don’t understand turning a potential customer away. When I buy something, I know it’s not the only one in the world; my friend might have the same lamp, stroller or crib. Individuality, which is what we’re all truly striving for, comes from how we incorporate that product into our home or store; how we blend it with the other elements; how we stamp it with our own style.

As a retailer, do you turn a customer away because her neighbor bought the same thing? Why should trade shows be any different?

Comments

[Elizabeth]

I am happy to have read your article on here today. I am a fairly new (3 years) online retailer that specializes in baby products and have never attended trade shows yet. I continued to hear from many of my vendors about the ABC Expo so I looked into it only to find I was excluded from registering. I was disappointed to read about this. I have ran into a few manufacturers that have turned me down but about 95% of them have not when requesting to open accounts. One of them did saying they had an "agreement" with the company's products they are making to only sell to the brick and mortar stores. Yet, I could easily go to the mass retailers and buy the products and still re-sell them and make money. So, in reality it makes no sense to me. I don't think that we online retailers should be turned away because after all we are willing to pay just like your brick and mortar stores are.
I think that when these manufacturers that won't sell to us online only retailers that they really need to look more into each individual request rather than just answering it with a "no". I have had one company that turned me down a couple years ago that just recently let me open a new account so maybe more are coming around.
Thanks again for the article.

[Danielle]

I am so glad that someone finally wrote an article about this problem! So many of us online kids retailers have been frustrated with this policy and no one has cared to talk about it. We aren't allowed through the door of ABC, but they are allowing people that write blogs online about such things as celebrity babies attend. They consider them "press" and they have been allowed in and are able to see all of our vendors and their new products. If any of us retailers wrote a few lines on an online blog we would be let in, but if we tell them we are online retailers we are turned away, even though we generate thousands of dollars for the vendors that are exhibiting. They have nothing to do with our retail industry directly and they don't generate income for the vendors, yet they are included. Does this make any sense? A large amount of the brick and mortar stores have online stores now also. Why aren't they excluded also?
As for the vendors turning away online retailers, makes no sense to me either. Why are they excluding what could be a huge revenue source for themselves? Many of the manufacturers not only turn us down when we want to carry their products, but they are downright rude when the tell us no. One manufacturer told me "we don't allow online retailers to sell our products, it's not fair to our real stores". How are we any less "real" than physcal store fronts? Many time we generate more revenue than brick and mortars.
Thanks for recognizing this problem and writing about it.