Pippin McGee strives to anticipate customers’ needs
Louisiana retailer keeps kids busy with games, play area
Lisa Casinger -- Kids Today, 6/22/2007 12:35:00 PM
Kim Crouchet, owner of Pippin McGee in Lafayette, La., got into the juvenile industry the same way many retailers did — when she and her husband, Robert, had children, she realized there was a void in her local market.
“When we had our first child, we walked into Babies ‘R’ Us and had no concept of anything,” Crouchet said. “We were still in the mind set that having kids wouldn’t change our lifestyle. So when they handed us the scanner, we had to guess. We picked a car seat that best matched out car. There was nobody in town that would spend time with us to find out what kind of stroller we might need or car seat or crib.”
Crouchet said their lack of knowledge led them to research the market and see if it was growing and if there was a need. There was, and in 2005 Crouchet opened Pippin McGee.
Because of her shopping experience, Crouchet was determined to make her store one where customers could not only get product information and guidance but also help with any questions they might have. Pippin McGee’s registry, for example, is a huge part of the business.
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Pippin McGee floors gear from a variety of manufacturers including Bugaboo, Peg Perego and Phil & Teds. |
The store also has an on-staff designer who works with customers in the store and in their homes for free. When she goes into the home she does everything from help pick out paint to showing the customer how to hang pictures, what to put where and whatever else they might need.
“She drives around in a minivan,” Crouchet said. “She’ll load it up with product, take it to the home and help however she can. It’s a great relationship builder as well. We’re already working on furnishing customers’ second nurseries.”
The store carries products for baby, kids and teens and runs the gamut from accessories, baby care and bedding to furniture, gifts, safety, gear and more. Right now the store is stronger in the toddler through teen area rather than baby, which represents about 40% of the business. Crouchet attributes this to the 15 years she worked in her family’s five full-line furniture stores.
Pippin McGee also does a large accessory business, another throwback to Crouchet’s roots.
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This feminine green and pink display features a crib and armoire from Young America's myHaven collection. |
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Young America's cottage myHaven group is shown in a tween-themed and accessorized vignette with a nightstand display that shows the different color options for the collection. |
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Owner Kim Crouchet said she often switches around the furniture and bedding in the store to keep the looks fresh. Here, a Berg loft is paired with sport-themed bedding and drawer pulls. |
Crouchet carries a “bunch of different styles” in bedding and textiles and also has a strong special-order business because of the design service. The store is constantly being merchandised by changing the bedding and moving the furniture around, partly because product is sold off the floor and partly to keep things looking fresh and inviting.
“We make our bedding look different,” she said. “It keeps people from being able to shop us and it sets us apart.”
The styles range from cute and sweet to a funkier look but Crouchet says in her market, contemporary or modern looks aren’t huge sellers. Cherry and darker woods seem to sell better and when dealing with slow-moving merchandise, Crouchet moves it around the store and then marks it down.
The 9,400-square-foot store is totally kid friendly, Crouchet said.
“You have to make your store a place where kids want to come,” she said. “It makes it easier on the moms. Plus, you have to let the parents see how the product is going to hold up and be used.”
Kids aren’t kept off the beds or bunks and there’s plenty in the store to keep them occupied while the parents shop. There’s a free-throw basketball court, an Xbox hooked up to a big-screen TV, 10 TVs throughout the store (seven play kid-friendly movies and three show product information), a Thomas the Train table play area, fresh-baked cookies and more.
Crouchet put on her mom hat to anticipate a few things some retailers might not think of.
“The kids like the store so much we had to get a helium machine to make balloons to give them as an enticement when they leave,” she said. “One problem area is always the front counter. The kids are distracting Mom as she’s trying to write a check or make a purchase, so our counter is a chalkboard with a cutout for a TV at kid level. These keep the kids occupied.”
Crouchet spends about 5-7% of her budget on advertising and admits she’s still trying to figure out the best mix of media. One outreach she feels very strongly about is working with charities.
“I wanted to do something that matters,” she said. “We coordinate a lot with charity events. Over Memorial Day weekend, for example, instead of having a sale we worked with Acadiana Outreach Center (a women and children’s shelter) for a clean out your closet event. We asked people to bring in their gently used baby and children’s items and they got a store gift card in exchange. It not only helped them get rid of things they didn’t need but also enabled them to make a difference.”
The store also fixes up damaged or returned items and donates them to local needy families.
When it comes to issues with vendors and shipping, Crouchet said “they all seem to take turns getting hot and going through different stages.” Shipping issues come and go with each vendor, but Crouchet says if they acknowledge there’s a problem and are willing to fix it, the issues don’t usually escalate. It’s when vendors don’t take care of it that it becomes a problem and Crouchet has dropped vendors for that very reason.
“Our goal is to stay in touch with the customers and let them know what’s going on if there’s a problem,” she said. “The customer doesn’t care if it’s the vendor’s fault; they just want to know we’re going to take care of it.”
The store also has an online presence; something Crouchet considers one of her best ideas.
“People check us out before they even come into the store,” she said. “We have Internet shoppers from all over the place. One of our local customers actually heard about us from a family member in Chicago who bought off of our Web site.”
The store fields about three to five phone calls a day from people wanting to get their product on the Pippin McGee Web site. Crouchet gets up at 4 a.m. to write all the information and product copy, the biggest challenge she says she’s ever taken on.
“You have to sell the product through the copy and that’s harder than you might think,” she said.
On the flip side, her worst idea was her location. Coming from a family furniture business where the stores were 15,000 square feet, Crouchet thought a 10,000-square-foot store of her own would be a good place to start.
“I bit off a larger store than I needed,” she said. “I thought I needed 10,000 square feet and this was one of the places available. It’s a dead shopping center so now we’re trying to move into a higher trafficked area. I thought we could overcome the location but I was used to having brand awareness and even here that’s been diminished because the landlord renovated and took signs down. People thought we were closed during the renovation.”
Crouchet is trying to overcome her mistake and says one of the secrets to her success is that she’s persistent and willing to “not be so pig headed” and change things that don’t work.
While her strong retail background has been a great asset to the success of her business, Crouchet said there are major difference in full-line furniture stores and juvenile shops, some of which surprised her.
“The customers are completely different even though they’re still mostly women,” she said. “Nurseries are very personal and everyone wants something different so it’s harder to stock items. I came from a high turn stocked warehouse environment and you just can’t run a juvenile store the same way.”
Because there are more special orders, juvenile stores typically are tracking three or four different orders per customer and keeping in touch with them about all of the orders, which is another difference. And, while most furniture is an emotional purchase, that is heightened considerably when the customer is pregnant and/or shopping for their children.
Crouchet said another major difference is the questions customers ask.
“In furniture stores they don’t ask as many questions about the fabric or wood or safety,” she said.
“Product knowledge in our industry is so much more important. Your customers are putting their confidence in you to help them design and outfit the most important room in their homes, their children’s rooms.”
