Make more of paint

The paint department has long been one of the foundations for hardware stores and home centers in the U. S. According to the North American Retail Hardware Association (NRHA), the paint department represents between eight and twelve per cent of total sales, so the ability to improve that percentage is most important.
In a recent study, Hardware Retailing magazine, published by NRHA, presented an in-depth report of how a small chain in the states of Oregon and Washington revitalized this key department and achieved double-digit sales and margin gains. It modeled its changes on the concept of a "store-within-a-store" program developed earlier by the Aubuchon Co., a 107-store chain in New England. What those two chains did could be the blueprint for every retailer hoping to become the dominant paint outlet in the local marketplace.
Total paint department sales for that chain increased 16.82 per cent, while liquid paint sales jumped more than 20 per cent. Gross margin dollars for the department increased 18.36 per cent, while paint margins increased 34.8 per cent because the company added a high quality line of paint to supplement the lower priced brand it had already been stocking

The first step is to thoroughly evaluate one's paint competition. Paint stores primarily focus on contractor business and most do not court consumer business or handle consumers very effectively. Big-boxes like Home Depot, Lowe's, Walmart and others, certainly are formidable but, according to industry observers, they generally do not have qualified, trained sales people on hand to offer advice to consumers with questions.
What Aubuchon and Wilco, the other company did, was redesign their paint departments so that they emphasize customer service and look "different" from the rest of the stores. The space allocated to Wilco's paint department remained the same, but the department was relocated closer to the stores' entrances, given a new flooring that set it apart from the rest of the store, and included a table and chairs so customers could sit down and comfortably review paint chips to make color and paint decisions. Providing a table and at least one chair is perhaps the most important element in revamping one's paint department.
The other important element to…