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Join the Industry at 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. 18 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! 20 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