Page 94 - Lighting Magazine June 2018

Retail Strategy
HOW TO SUCCEED ONLINE & IN STORE
Lighting retailers share winning strategies for growing their business in an omni-channel world. BY MARY JO MARTIN
92 enLIGHTenment Magazine | June 2018
www.enlightenmentmag.com
First it was the big boxes. Next came Amazon. A er years of worry that light- ing showrooms could be headed for extinction, there seems to be a pendu- lum swing.
Yes, consumers are savvier than ever when it comes to product research and making purchases, but opportunities abound for showrooms that successfully bridge the online and o ine world of sales, understand the value they bring to the table, and know how to communicate that.
The righT sTuff
Two companies that have successfully built strong “bricks and clicks” business models are Shades of Light in Virginia and Lightology in Chicago. Both started with physical locations serving traditional
local markets, and later expanded by developing websites that have become key drivers of their sales.
Steven Schranz, VP/Sales & Marketing at Light- ology, echoes the retail advice shared by many industry analysts: Build a strong online identity to support and complement the bricks-and-mortar lo- cation. “Having an ecommerce presence is critical and should be a core component of a retail opera- tion,” says Schranz, who has has spent 14 years in the ecommerce sector, the last few of those with Lightology where he manages national sales, mar- keting, and vendor relations.
As retailers build the right strategies for their target markets, it’s important to rst recognize that typical lighting consumers can comparison shop instantaneously on their mobile devices. The only