1. Habitat Truro Visual Merchandising Space Proposal
At our mini Habitat in Truro, we have been having some trouble selling one particular room set,
which despite our efforts has not been easy to sell the product. In fact, we have sold none since
we’ve had the display. No matter how it’s merchandised or talked about with customers, it’s not
getting the attention from your Cornwall demographic. So we have come up with a solution that
may boost sales in our region.
At our store, we’ve got on display a Vince table as a room set - we can back up with figures the
fact that since we’ve had it, we’ve sold 0 - of the entire room set. No one in the South West (Truro
area) want the Vince table. Despite the fact I have not wanted to start this proposal on a negative
note, the facts I have explained are what have prompted me to get in touch - not just with
problems, but with a solution.
Our manager Veronica, who is very sales orientated (quite rightly) and is amazing at managing
people, has appointed me as Truro mini visual merchandiser - so it’s my job to go beyond my
contract of sales and store presentation to go ahead and work out what looks good, and what sells.
I’ve worked hard on room set ideas, going by the appointed planograms. My background in art,
design and fashion, my genuine interest in interior design, all put with my adoration for the Habitat
brand have inspired me to come up with a really exciting solution.
The way we see it: if the Vince isn’t selling at all, we could sell that for clearance and use the space
to set up and office room set. We feel this would be hugely successful, for many reasons:
• The Truro area has a college, Falmouth University near by, and student housing at the medical
school held at the Treliske Hospital (right next-door to our shop!)
• The “Kick-start the New Term” campaign caters to this amazingly well.
• The Cato desk we have in store sells really well, so people obviously like office furniture from
Habitat.
• There are so many additional sales we can attach to an office space, so not only will the
furniture sell, but the accessories and dec will too.

2. • The website has an office section, surely to sell this, we should have an office space in store to
enhance sales, for here if not just for the company.
• We’d rather have a space that has potential to make sales than a space that’s making nothing.
So in my own time, I have gone to the extent of designing my own planograms that have all Habitat
furniture and products. I have kept a colour scheme in mind and really thought about placement.

3. Our upstairs room sets already have the signature Habitat bright colours and exciting products, but
I feel that this would really boost sales. I’ve worked out which pieces of furniture and paint colours
we would want, and even if it’s not that cheap to set off, I feel like it’s an investment - not just for
our stand alone but for the company too.
DULUX Marine Splash Paint - (Tester £1)
Pears Print - £45
Yellow Kura Lampshade - £30
Geometric Alphabet Print - £45
Low Oak/White Antonn Shelving Unit - £395
Fleur Bedside Unit - £150 (we already have one in store, put together and has no bed to go with it)
Naoko Grey/Yellow Armchair - £550
Agnes Yellow/Blue Rug or Runner - £95/£65
Albion Desk & Yellow/Grey Filing Cabinet - £325/£250
Ginnie Chair (white) - £70
Yellow Tommy Lamp - £18
Macula Yellow Metal Bin - £20
Esterban Small Vase - £8
Floreo Decoration - £5
Altogether this comes to £2007 - going on retail prices given from the website (I don’t know if
they’d cost the company less to have as display items, so this is what I’ve gone from).
Based on the sales of the Cato Desk in the last 2 months from our store, we’ve sold 13 - we then
re-merchandised, and placed the desk nearer the front of our shop floor space. In the 27 months
prior to re-merchandising it, we sold 6. This proves we sold more than twice of what we did before.
Essentially, this says to us that when people know we have office furniture, it’s easier to elaborate
our further stock, but a lot of people (especially when buying furniture) like to see it in the flesh
rather than buy it from a website photo.
But for the company to essentially spend £2007 (or less, depending on your own opinions on
merchandising and what it would actually cost the company to allocate for display) just once, this
would have no problem making a profit. It opens up conversation in sales about other office
furniture available from Habitat; in addition to the fact that every single year there are back-to-
school campaigns in the summer holidays and people going to college and university. As an
example, the other day I had a customer with her daughter who was going into new student digs
and wanted to brighten the place up, and Habitat is the perfect brand to apply this concept. Student
digs are always dark and plain, mine were, so there’s potential for a huge marketing campaign.
Furthermore, adding a student discount for a limited time could also boost sales of office furniture.
We all feel really strongly about this idea and we hope that you can see the benefit of our solution
as much as we do. Our store’s ongoing ambition is to boost furniture and upholstery sales, as we
know the Habitat brand and product sells itself, and since moving into mini stores in Homebase
has had a huge impact on the audience. People are always saying ‘I didn’t know there was a
Habitat here!’ and soon become loyal customers. Furthermore, we’ve had so much feedback from
the Homebase ‘Paint us a Picture’ service saying how we are a ‘credit to the company’ as we go
out of our way to make sales and boost the Habitat brand with great service as well as great
products. We don’t just want to moan at you about how badly something is doing, we have
provided you with a great solution that we have great faith will sell and be a high potential for a
boost in sales and company reputation.
Furthermore we already have 3 dining table room sets which sell really well down in Cornwall,
however the Vince hasn’t gone anywhere - so to replace this with an office room set, I feel we’d
make far more money, especially with the add-on sales regarding the decoration and accessories.
Below I have the report on sales for the Vince table in our area. I believe that in the South West

4. area, people really want to embrace the beach-side, light, airy vibe, rather than the city-sleek, dark
atmosphere. This is proven by the volume of sales in the oak options of furniture rather than the
Walnut, and I think to sell furniture in Cornwall, it’s got to go with what people want rather than
what Londoner’s in Head Office have applied to all the mini stores (with all due respect!)
I hope you can agree with our ideas and we can go into further detail and discussion. There is
potential for sales conversation, customer loyalty, company reputation, furniture demand, add-on
sales, and hot spots with office accessories that no one knows about unless they search deep on
the website. We don’t want to sound like we’re moaning or wasting our time, I haven’t been doing a
lot of merchandising work in company time, this is all from my own time and perspective as a
customer and an employee.
Thank you for giving this idea the time of day, and I hope that you can agree with our proposal.
Regards,
Florence, Veronica and the Truro Mini Habitat Store Team!
ROOM SET 2
Name SKU Display since Unit sold Price * Total £
Vince chair walnut 273841 07/05/2015 0 140 0
Talia black chair 164444 01/04/2015 0 95 0
Clerkenwell extension 279278 28/03/2015 0 350 0
Clerkenwell 279277 14/03/2015 0 595 0
Pole oak walnut 241296 07/04/2015 4 120 480
Drum silk black 22516 18/06/2015 4 50 200
TOTAL 680