Climbing Frame Slides – a recession success

We do an amazing amount of number crunching and analysis of figures here, probably an unhealthy amount. But sometimes in all this incredible amount of reports and data, we see interesting things, that may be indicative of wider trends.

So today we see an upturn and a dramatic one in the sales of Climbing Frame Slides. Not as a complete climbing frame, but as a stand alone item. Previously sales were pretty slow, and often as replacements for damaged ones. Now, they are sold as independent units, where Dad is designing and building his own climbing frame, but needs a slide to finish it off.

Our conclusions that the recession has done a number of things that all contribute to the upturn in slide sales:

1. Some Dads are taking enforced ‘Career Breaks’ and a spot of decorating or a build your own christmas present Climbing Frame is a superb way of using the time between job chasing

2. The constant bad news and feeling of austerity means that parents want to do home things, and making a climbing frame for the kids is a superb way of generating a feeling of caring and giving, not just money, but time and effort

3. The recession has made money tighter, and if you have the time, it can be cheaper to build your own.

So, interesting trend! Are there similar things going on in your market?

TP New Products for Spring 2010

TP have announced two new products, the TP Whacky Wigwam and the TP Pow Wow.

They were both in 2009, but exclusive to Tesco, and now have been announced as new products for the TP Centres of Excellence for 2010.

Interesting new products, they are both what we call the ‘Play Equipment’ Sector. Not quite Climbing Frames, but much more than a simple swing, they are priced to sell quickly and be suitable for even the smallest garden.

Both products are expected to be sold by the TP Centres of Excellence from January onwards.

Scottish Independence and the banks.

We spend quite a lot of time planning next season, and a big issue is interest rates and currency rates. Over the years we have proven to ourselves that we are not currency forecasters or good currency traders, but we have also learnt that neither are the so-called experts.

Still we engage in what if scenarios and games of forecasting the future.

After the SNP made their pitch for Scottish Independence, we wondered if it would be good or bad for the pound, and good or bad for the English economy? We have no idea, what do you think?

Would we be able to give them RBS and HBOS back? Would that sort out the English national debt problem?

Bankers Bonus Payments – Why the fuss?

We pay bonus payments here, when we do well. They are a mixture of personal performance and company performance. Everyone understands their role in the team, and everyone is clear that a massive personal achievement but a disastrous year for the team as a whole means no or limited bonuses.

Why are banks not the same? It’s easy to put in a bonus agreement, that the personal payment is linked in with the total company’s ability to pay.

Do that and there is not issue. I can understand both sides of this current row,  but seems easy to fix to me.

And also for those employees dealing with riskier assets that could turn sour, then delay the bonus too. Seems easy to me. No need for legislation, not need for too much complexity, just common sense business management.

We have argued before that bankers deserve a bonus if they are the best, see http://trampolineman.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/bankers-bonuses/, so not against bonuses at all, but I am sure there are not 5000 city boys worth over £1m, as the papers say is due.

So, bosses at the big banks, ask some small company bosses for advice on bonus payments, they will tell you how to structure them.

13ft Trampolines size missed

After our post about ‘trading customers up’, the Etoyszone  web manager contacted us to say that on reading the post, he realized that they had missed out a size of trampoline, the 13ft.

Consequently, they have added the 13ft Trampolines to the list of products that are included in the offer of buying a Safety Enclosure together with a new set of Trampoline Pads, see

http://www.gardengames.co.uk/acatalog/13ft_Trampoline_Pads_and_Safety_Enclosure_Package.html

Glad we could help, and it gives me great pleasure to know that someone is actually reading the items we publish.

Watch the weather to predict sales. Will it work?

Trampolines and the weather

We have known for a long while that the key sales weeks are the hot ones, boosting not only pool sales but anything for the outdoors. A poor Spring is never really made up for by a reasonable Summer, but the hot weeks are always the hot ones for sales.

We started this year to try and watch the weather forecast better. We wanted to see if we could predict closer the key weekends, and make sure we had enough staff on, and the correct offers for the week.

We seemed to get a spot on with above ground pools this year, boosting sales on pools 66% vs last year. We caught a wave of demand in the last week of June and the first week of July. they were the only two weeks where we got to 30 degrees and sales were superb. By watching the forecast we were able to staff up for a monster weekend, and put extra people on processing orders so we could get stock out quickly. That was a part of the promise that created the sales.

Now we are also looking at the negative weather effects. When the rain and cold weather comes, so too, do orders for Trampoline Covers and Trampoline Pads. We are now have a study of demand for these protective trampoline pads and spares to see if we can match the weather to the little peaks we get for these items too. It’s not quite the same, in that we certainly dont have to staff up at this time of year, but its interesting anyway.

If we can see some correlations, the next interesting thing is what can we do about it? How can we use this new knowledge to take and advantage?

Getting Customers to Trade Up

Like every other business on the planet, we are always looking for new customers. We have a whole new business team, and in the winter spend an enormous amount on training and product knowledge development during the winter months.

Trampoline Pads and Cover Offer

One of the team has come back from the training obsessed with ‘trading up’, and selling more items to current purchasers.

Consequently he is on a mission to ‘help’ customers buy more.

He has analysed as best he can by talking to customers who buys what products, and why they buy. Using this knowledge he has come up with packages that consumers may want to buy as pairs or groups and made them easy to buy.

For example, he has grouped Trampoline Pads and Trampoline Covers together, for example see :

http://www.gardengames.co.uk/acatalog/14ft_Trampoline_Pads_and_Cover_Package.html

Here he has calculated that consumers who need to buy replacement pads may also want to keep their new pads looking good and will be open to buying a protective cover at the same time.

He has also discovered a secondhand trampoline market, which is buoyant but also in need of spares. Many times, when someone buys a second-hand trampoline the pads are worn but otherwise the trampoline is perfect. Easy solution is to buy a set of replacement trampoline pads, and the trampoline is as good as new.

The insight though is that many of these secondhand trampolines are fairly old and were bought in an era of a few years ago before trampoline enclosures were commonplace. In fact, now, selling a trampoline without a safety enclosure is a rare occurrence.

So, he now believes that as well as needing a set of replacement pads, these customers are also likely to be in the market for a new safety enclosure. Hence he has developed 4 new packages:

http://www.gardengames.co.uk/acatalog/14ft_Trampoline_Pads_and_Safety_Enclosure_Package.html

http://www.gardengames.co.uk/acatalog/12ft_Trampoline_Pads_and_Safety_Enclosure_Package.html

http://www.gardengames.co.uk/acatalog/10ft_Trampoline_Pads_and_Safety_Enclosure_Package.html

http://www.gardengames.co.uk/acatalog/8ft_Trampoline_Pads_and_Safety_Enclosure_Package.html

These pages offer consumers the chance to buy both the pads and the safety net as a deal, at one time.

The trick, as so often, is not in being intuitive, it is in listening to customers. His insight has come from engaging with people on the telephone and asking them about their purchase. He then kept an open mind, and an inventive attitude. After enough conversations, he began to see common threads. It was not that most people already bought the two items together, but that he could see that they might. When he began to ask more questions he did find that people were in the market for the other item, and began to offer the pair.

WIll it be successful? Lets wait and see when the season arrives, but we are hopeful.

 

Thoughts turn to the Above Ground Pool Season

Christmas is not even here yet, in fact it barely seems as if the season has started yet, with retailers still waiting for the big sales to happen, but evidence is all around about retailers making plans for the summer season.

A bit like the fashion business, retailers have to plan a season in advance. Christmas Pudding manufacturers start again on January the 2nd.

So our outdoor toy retailers are thinking hard now about the summer season, despite the winter not yet even turning harsh. If they don’t then the summer won’t happen for them.

So, with that in mind, there are many new websites being launched and existing catalogues and sites being extended ready for the season.

One new one is www.above-ground-pools.co.uk , a site all about the pool business, offering advice and help on how to buy above ground pools and what to do if you have problems.

One question always asked here is:

‘What do I do if my pool water turns green?

Well here, they have the answer, and a very simple guide as to how to fix it. Many beginners get this totally wrong and make the wrong decisions and purchases, and with simple reasearch and very simple steps it can all be put right very quickly.

One feature we especially like on this site, is ‘Ask us a Question’. Ask them anything about Above Ground Pools, and they will answer you. Better than that, they will then turn the answer in to a new page, and in time, this will become a fabulous resource for all above ground pool users.

It will be interesting to see how it develops, as people use it. We will keep you informed.

New Advice on Trampoline Pads

Trampoline Pads Advice

Big Game Hunters have developed a new advice site for trampoline users giving them advice on their trampoline pads. It is at www.trampoline-pad.co.uk

It includes help and guidance on:

Trampoline Pads Safety Advice
How to protect your Trampoline Pads
How to clean your Trampoline Pads

and of course advice on where to buy those all important Trampoline Spares.

A spokesman for Big Game Hunters said: ‘We get asked for advice all the time about how to look after Trampolines, and especially the Trampoline Pads. If we put the information on our main web site it can get lost amongst everything we do, so we have built a specialist area that gives advice on how to look after your trampoline. We see it developing further in the future as a resource for Trampoline users.’

Good work!

Argos Sports – The latest retail casualty?

We have heard that Argos Sports UK Ltd, trading from argos-sports.co.uk is in some trouble and their website is currently closed.

A massive retailer of Trampolines, Climbing Frames and Outdoor Play Equipment, they will leave a huge dent in the market, which will be eagerly filled by remaining retailers.

A spokesman from Trampoline Retailer EToyszone said: ‘We have not heard that they have ceased trading, but it is true that their website is down and they are not answering the telephone. We have had some calls from consumers. If they do disappear there are still many excellent retailers out there who will be able to fill the gaps. Have no fear, we have enough trampolines for next summer.’

Do you know anything about Argos Sports?