Do it Best Corp Market preview, a Q&A

Do it Best's executive team weighed in on some pre-market story lines heading into the co-op's May Market in Indianapolis, including a major anniversary, buy-one-get-ones and e-commerce initiatives.

The market kicks off Friday with merchandising updates and a deep-discount Sneak Peek sales event at the Indiana Convention Center. The event runs through Monday.

Here is the interview, conducted via email, with the co-op's Rich Lynch, VP marketing and Steve Markley, VP merchandise.

Do it Best's executive team weighed in on some pre-market story lines heading into the co-op's May Market in Indianapolis, including a major anniversary, buy-one-get-ones and e-commerce initiatives.

The market kicks off Friday with merchandising updates and a deep-discount Sneak Peek sales event at the Indiana Convention Center. The event runs through Monday.

Here is the interview, conducted via email, with the co-op's Rich Lynch, VP marketing and Steve Markley, VP merchandise.

HBSDealer: Are you trying to break another Sneak Peek record? What's the strategy?

Rich Lynch, VP marketing: The Sneak Peek has always been about providing outstanding deals on products at a market exclusive event. The specials we line up help our members drive greater traffic to their stores with excellent prices on high margin, in-demand products that they can use for sales events, store specials and Black Friday promotions.

In conjunction with our 70th anniversary, our team has worked with our vendor partners to offer 70 Buy One Get One specials. We expect the savings our members realize will set new records and more than cover their cost to attend the market. Plus, they’ll be well-stocked with quality, brand name products to drive traffic and present a competitive price image in their stores.

HBSDealer: What’s your theme for the market?

Lynch: As we celebrate our 70th anniversary, we see an ideal opportunity to focus on new store growth. With our outstanding product assortments, Signature Store Design, new sales-oriented program launches and the expertise of our Retail Performance team, there’s never been a better time for our members to add new locations and expand their customer base.

 HBSDealer: What's going to be the biggest new program discussed at the market?

Lynch: Members will learn about the tremendous incentives and opportunities to open new locations, helping them grow their businesses and achieve their dreams.

HBSDealer: What's the reaction to the new potential of e-commerce at Do it Best?

Lynch: Overall, members have been extremely pleased with the improvements made to the new doitbest.com e-commerce platform. We are currently partnering with a number of them on their own beta websites that use the power of doitbest.com but are customized to reflect their individual stores’ brand. The market will be a busy time for our e-commerce division, as we anticipate members who have not yet had an e-commerce presence will want to launch their own website once they see how flexible and affordable the new doitbest.com e-commerce platform is.

[Click here for an interview with Do it Best's e-commerce manager Brandon Wolf.]

HBSDealer: "Smart home" was a big emphasis earlier this year. Are products and offerings getting even "smarter"?

Steve Markley, VP merchandise: Home automation is an exciting and evolving product category. We’re now seeing the debut of the next generation of products that highlight greater integration of components into a comprehensive home management system, rather than individual parts. The industry as a whole is still working through the decisions about what platform will best serve customers’ needs, whether it be an open wireless system or a proprietary platform. Regardless, our focus is on providing our members a mix of products that satisfies the needs of the average DIYer all the way through to the home builder who wants a complete home management system. At the May market, we’ll be introducing over 150 new home automation products available to our members.

HBSDealer: Any new vendors to look for?

Markley: The trend has really moved away from focusing on specific vendor product launches and more on providing a best-in-class mix of quality products across several vendors covering an entire category. Our members have demonstrated that they rely on our merchandising expertise to package these in-demand products into attractive planograms that they can easily implement in their stores. This has been especially true with farm and ranch, where our 5,000-sq.-ft. market displays in 2014 showed members the many opportunities available. We’ve seen tremendous growth in work clothing and footwear, trailer parts, barn door hardware and knives as a direct outcome of this approach.

And our industry leading Category Solutions program offers the best mix of products across a number of popular product categories all with tremendous savings. These planograms are all set up for review at the market.