For independent paint retailers, selling products for an entire paint project from start to finish is an essential practice. Bringing your customers’ projects to life involves more than just paint, and stocking sponges, rags and cleaning products helps them see any project through from beginning to end and can bring in additional cash flow to your operation.
At Mt. Prospect Paint in Mt. Prospect, Illinois, the cleaning product category is a well-thought-out section serving both professional contractors and homeowners. Vicki Ortega, Mt. Prospect Paint co-manager, and her knowledgeable staff have found ways to keep this category profitable by listening to their customers.
Made-to-Order
From 4-pound bags of rags to various types of eraser sponges to professional-grade cleaning powders, Mt. Prospect is well-stocked with a full cleaning section. Rags are the top sellers for the store, mainly sold in bulk. The store also sells a variety of sponges including natural sea salt sponges, soil sponges and abrasive cleaning pads.
Cleaning products at Mt. Prospect fall under both core and impulse sales, making this category a versatile and worthwhile category to invest in. This category presents a prime opportunity to win repeat customers, as many cleaning items need to be replaced frequently. The store stocks a robust number of products in this category, but also special-order items to fill specific customers’ needs.
“We have ordered some of our more professional cleaning products specifically for customers,” Ortega says. “We also carry a couple specific products that really only one type of customer uses, but they use these products frequently. For example, we sold a bleach cleaner that got rid of mold and mildew, and a local apartment complex would order that constantly.”
Merchandise With Intent
By grouping related items strategically, retailers can ensure cleanup products remain highly visible. At Mt. Prospect Paints, cleaning products have their own sections based on use but the sections are near each other so customers can easily find what they need.
“The main cleaning product section, items like spray cleaners and similar products, are all on one 4-foot endcap,” Ortega says. “Paint thinner and lacquer thinner are displayed in a different, smaller section and the rags and sponges are on a shelf right next to that. Everything is highly visible so customers can see it all.”
Setup for Success
Intentional visual merchandising draws customers to shelves, ultimately leading them to purchase a product or consider a future purchase. Consider these visual merchandising techniques when setting up your cleaning product section:
- Eco-friendly:
- With many cleaning product manufacturers turning to more sustainably made products, capitalize on this trend by creating a themed endcap or shelf display featuring recyclable materials and items that connect the customer to nature, like plants, to display your sustainable cleaning items.
- Interactive displays:
- Construct a hands-on display with a few tester products to let customers try an item before they purchase. Interactive displays also provide time for employees to explain a product to a customer in more detail.
- Room-centric:
- Organizing your cleaning products and tools by the task they are used for or the type of room they can be used in simplifies the shopping process for customers, allowing them to grab multiple items they need for their project in one area of the store.
Know Your Customer
While many cleaning products are universal across various uses and types, professional and DIY customers shop this section differently at Mt. Prospect Paints. Ortega says contractors have a more specific list or need when shopping for cleaning supplies while homeowners often don’t know exactly what they’re looking for, needing employees to provide assistance.
“Our DIY customers will often give us pieces of what they’ve found their project needs from ChatGPT or something like that and ask us what products they’re supposed to use,” Ortega says. “Our job then is to back up and say, ’What are you trying to accomplish?’”
New products at Mt. Prospect Paints are typically sourced from the customers themselves.
“Usually, one of the main ways we’ll source anything new is by listening to customers,” Ortega says. “We then research if that product is going to fit our general population to see if it is something that will work for us.”
Selling a smaller category like cleaning tools sometimes requires getting creative. At Columbia Paint & Wallcovering in Columbia, Tennessee, co-owner Zach Maddux and his team have perfected best practices to boost rag and applicator sales and keep new products coming in in this category.
- Target Cabinet Shops to Increase Rag Sales.
The applicators, sponges and rags category presents numerous opportunities for cross-merchandising, which leads to add-on sales. Maddux has increased the number of stain and lacquer products the store carries by bringing in more business from cabinet shops and furniture manufacturers, which grew lacquer sales and in turn, rag sales.
“Cabinet refinishing and painting has also become trendy with DIYers in the last few years, boosting rag and applicator sales even more,” Maddux says. “We make sure to stock the products needed for those projects and steer DIYers in the right direction when we can.”
- Find New Products Through Contractors, Vendor Reps and Other Friends In the Industry.
Columbia Paint & Wallcovering’s building used to be a grocery store, so it is larger than the average paint store and can merchandise a wider variety of products. Thanks to this selection, it has become a destination for applicators for some customers, Maddux says.
“Any time a painter comes in and asks for a specific brush we don’t have, we add it to our mix,” Maddux says. “We have painters come from out of town to browse this category because it is so extensive and offers the largest selection for miles.”
Using contacts in the industry can also keep you up to date on the newest product trends.
“Our vendor representatives always recommend new products and let us know how similar retailers are doing with specific products,” Maddux says. “Having good relationships with vendors can lead to free samples of products you can give to painters to increase loyalty. We’re also friends with other paint store owners throughout the country and get recommendations from them.”
- Counter Displays Can Make a Difference.
Maddux says he was against counter displays at first because he thought they made the area cluttered.
“I have a vendor that recently sent me a counter display for one-pound bags of rags,” Maddux says. “I decided to give it a shot and put the display box on the counter. It’s done surprisingly well, and now we’re constantly restocking it.”
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