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Latest Consumer
Reports Shows Key
Spending Trends
“Reserved optimism” seems to be the overall sentiment
among frequent tennis players regarding their tennis
spending last year and their projections for 2012.
According to the recently released 2011 Tennis
Consumer Reports, which measures consumer trends
among frequent players (who play 21 or more times a year), three-quarters say they’ve become more
strategic in how they buy, thinking more about how their purchases will fit into their lives.
For example, the percentage of frequent tennis players who said they put off buying a new racquet
went from 32% in 2010 to 38% in 2011. “Ongoing economic concerns and changing consumer buying
habits continue to have an impact on our industry,” says TIA Executive Director Jolyn de Boer.
However, the research also shows that frequent tennis players expect 2012 to be fairly similar to or
slightly better than 2011, leaving room for positive results for the industry this year. For instance, 32%
of frequent players expected an increase in household expenditures in the six months following the
survey period, which is up 6 percentage points compared to the 2010 survey period.
Frequent tennis players also are embracing mobile digital information consumption—65% say
they use a mobile phone web browser and nearly 60% use their phone to download applications. As far
as tennis activities on their mobile phones, nearly 50% say they’d like to check pro tennis scores and
45% indicate they would like to find a tennis partner to play with.
“As an industry, it’s important to recognize the growing consumer demand for digital information
and develop new technology platforms that can help channel these opportunities,” says de Boer. “When
PlayTennis.com is re-launched this spring, it will provide a new social connection for players and
features to attract usage—and ultimately more play.”
Frequent Player Trend Highlights
The Tennis Consumer Reports, available at the TIA Supporting Member
level, also measure frequent player trends with respect to racquets,
tennis shoes, balls, strings, and tennis apparel. Top-level highlights
from the 2011 report include:
• The “feel” of a new racquet is the • Frequent players marginally
most important factor influencing prefer buying tennis balls in an
8-pack format over a case
a frequent player's buying
(24 cans) or a single-can format.
decision.
Their lowest preference is for a
• Frequent players still prefer
buying new frames from specialty 4-can format.
• Mass merchants and chain
sporting goods stores are the
• When buying tennis shoes,
frequent players cite “comfort” as outlets of choice for ball
purchases among frequent
the most important factor.
players.
• Frequent players purchase two to
• Frequent players restring their
three new pairs of shoes each
frames on average about 5.3
year, with 31% preferring to buy
times a year.
tennis shoes from the internet,
• For frequent players, pro shops
followed by 26% who buy from
are the preferred outlet for
chain sporting goods stores.
purchasing tennis strings.
stores vs. other outlets.
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RACQUET SPORTS INDUSTRY April 2012
It’s a very simple message—“Play
tennis!”—yet its impact throughout
this industry can be huge. The new
PlayTennis.com launches in May as a
site where everyone in the industry
can send consumers and players to
encourage them to get in the game
and to play more tennis.
The USTA and TIA, working
closely with industry partners, have
made a major commitment to
PlayTennis.com, which will remain
brand-neutral and convey a simple
unified industry message designed to
get more people out on the courts,
more frequently.
Importantly, tennis
manufacturers are on-board to help
with the messaging—the
PlayTennis.com logo will appear on
more than 30 million ball cans, 1.5
million racquets, and on footwear
boxes and other product packaging.
PlayTennis.com also will be promoted
through web banners, social media
and in newspapers and magazines.
Tennis providers, such as
coaches, teaching pros, facilities,
retailers and tennis organizations, are
getting involved, too—by updating or
creating their free “profiles” that will
fuel consumer searches for finding
instruction, programs, partners,
stores, equipment, etc. You can help
this industry-wide effort, and help
your business, too. Visit
PlayTennis.com now to update or
create your profile.
PlayTennis.com
‘Kiosk’ Debuts at
PTR Symposium
The TIA unveiled a new interactive
PlayTennis.com kiosk at the PTR
International Tennis Symposium in
February in Orlando, Fla. Dozens of
PTR pros used the kiosk to quickly create their free
PlayTennis.com “Find-A-Pro” profiles so they could be included in
consumer searches when the PlayTennis.com site is re-launched
this spring. The kiosk will be at other industry events, but all
tennis providers—teaching pros, coaches, club owners, facility
managers, retailers or other industry contacts—can visit
PlayTennis.com now to easily update or create their free listings.
Join the TIA . . . Increase Your Profits . . . Grow the Game . . . www.TennisIndustry.org
Retailing 109
What Do Women Want?
Answering this age-old question—as it
applies to tennis retailing, of course—can
bring more love to your business.
W
hile recent statistics show that
men are beginning to do more
retail shopping than in the
past, women still buy the majority of
goods at retail. As a tennis specialty
retailer, are you addressing the needs of
women when it comes to shopping? Do
you and your staff know the different
shopping habits between men and
women? Do you know how to attract
more women as customers to your retail
store?
To start to understand this, we first
need to realize that retail shopping follows social change. According to Paco
Underhill, the author of “Why We Buy:
The Science of Shopping” and a pre-eminent retail anthropologist: “Retail must
pay attention to how women wish to
live, what they want and need, or it will
be left behind.”
Understand, too, that there are fundamental differences in how men shop vs.
how women shop. “Males just want a
place that allows them to find what they
need with a minimum of looking and
then get out fast,” says Underhill. “If
made to wander and seek—in other
words, to shop—he’s likely to give up in
frustration and exit. Men take less pleasure in the journey.”
Women, on the other hand, demand
more from the shopping experience—or
journey—and hence from the retail environment itself. Women need to feel
comfortable in retail environments and
be able to move about comfortably.
So the challenge for specialty tennis
retailers begins with making their retail
environments appealing to female
shoppers.
A Complete Experience
Increasing sales to women is all about
the complete retail shopping environment and the total shopping experience!
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RACQUET SPORTS INDUSTRY April 2012
No matter what size your store is, think
about a redesign built around a friendly,
fun tennis lifestyle shopping experience
that will make shoppers comfortable.
You should evaluate your customer service and develop a store culture based on
education. Create an operations manual
that focuses totally on the consumer. Start
by getting together a group of women who
you know play tennis, and ask them to
“mystery” shop your store and evaluate
their shopping experience for you. If you
are a one-man operation, ask them to
shop your store just like they would any
other specialty tennis store, and provide
the same evaluation. Then, walk through
your store yourself and do your own evaluation. Here is a checklist to consider:
w Clean and Neat: Keep your parking lot
and the outside of your store clean. The
same goes for the interior—do “recovery” every day, which means vacuum,
sweep, dust, fold and fix the displays
and signs.
w Windows: Make sure they are clean,
inside and out, and merchandised if
appropriate to your traffic. If there are
any stickers on your windows or doors,
take them off.
w Entryway: Easy access to your store is
important.
w Intercept and Greeting: Here is where
differentiating between men and women
shoppers becomes a retail skill:
• Women will seek out you and your
staff to ask questions and ask for help;
men, for the most part, will avoid contact. If left on their own, men will seek
the product they are interested in, gather as much information as they can
and leave as quickly as they can.
• Once you intercept and greet male
shoppers, you may need to give some
of them space, but be available to
answer questions. Research shows that
men will visit as many as three stores
before purchasing. You need to manage the intercept and greeting skillfully
so they’ll purchase from you.
w Shopping Bags: Provide carts, baskets or
nylon shopping bags—whatever is
appropriate for your retail space. These
will invite customers to actually shop.
w Make Your Store Sticky! Research
shows that the amount of time a shopper spends in a store is perhaps the single most important factor in determining
how much he or she will buy.
w Seating Shows You Care: According to
Underhill, “In the majority of stores,
sales would instantly be increased by the
addition of one chair.”
w Kids Go Everywhere: Including your
store! Make sure your store is kid-friendly; include a play area if necessary.
w Clean Restroom and Changing Rooms:
These are essential if you want to attract
and hold onto more women as customers.
w Flowers and Plants Are Good: Add flowers and green growing things throughout
your store.
w Open It Up: If your aisles are so tight
that two people can’t pass without
touching, you’ll lose shoppers. And
remember that many women shop with
children, so your aisles need to accommodate strollers.
Addressing the needs of all shoppers,
and in particular the needs of women, will
help bring in more customers, and create
more loyalty among your current clients.
Coming Up:
Direct response marketing. w
This is part of a series of
retail tips presented by
the Tennis Industry
Association and written
by the Gluskin Townley
Group (www.gluskintownleygroup.com).
www.racquetsportsindustry.com