By James Chevrette
We asked retailers what changes they made during the past year to increase profitability. Of the five retailers interviewed, not one talked about changing brands. Instead, they are looking at billable hours, moving into commercial van upfitting, or returning to holding regular sales events.
We started off on the East Coast with Atlantic Car Stereo, Nova Scotia, Canada, owned by Sarah and Darryl Russell. Darryl spoke about auditing their billable hours. “With over 40 years in business, it was easy to overlook our hours into each project. For example, leather interiors. We noticed we were still charging the same per job rate as five years ago.” He also went on to talk about unprofitable jobs, and one of his biggest words of advice was to learn to say, “no to non-profitable jobs.”
At Sudbury Car Audio in Val Caron, Ontario, just north of Detroit, Conrad Leduc spoke about higher ticket car audio and commercial automotive channels. “Commercial shelving for plumbers, HVAC and other mobile technicians has really added to our bottom line. This month we added over FIVE THOUSAND dollars in labor with this channel,” said Leduc.
Next call was to Sandford Sound, Maine. Jack Bogard, with over 30 years in business, talked about being back to 2019 numbers, and was happy with that, but said it was time to get back to selling in car audio. “Get the customer in the door by having a good old yard sale. ‘Come down, have a hotdog and pop on us while you can peruse our yard sale of various products on deep discounts.’” You could hear the smile in Bogard’s voice. He went on to talk about back-to-basics car audio, shows, sales and social media to keep moving forward.
Our next call was to Stereo Warehouse in Kamloops, British Columbia. With 45 years in car audio between the owners Mindy Sadhu and her sister Nina, their focus is having inventory in stock. “If a customer comes into our store for an amplified subwoofer box, then we make sure we have a selection of amplified subwoofers on the floor. If you don’t have it in stock, the customer will look on the internet for products or elsewhere. By having inventory, we can really maximize every customer that comes through the door,” said Nina.
Emran Alborno of Car Tunes of Atlanta, GA is sharpening the “focus on the customer in the store.” Around the pandemic, you could afford to miss a few sales “but not in 2024.” Every customer counts. Car Tunes also pays attention to the small things: cleanliness of the store and the washrooms. “How can we expect a customer to trust us with their $50,000+ car, if we cannot even keep our washroom clean?”
All these retailers had one thing in common, they pivoted their business to the changing times of post-covid selling.
James Chevrette
James Chevrette has been a territory manager for over 8 years with Trends Electronics, a Canadian electronics distributor, but he never forgets his roots. He has worked in an installation bay, in R&D in manufacturing, and personally trained thousands of people across Canada. Through his dealing with national accounts, regional chain stores, and relationships with brick and mortar independent retailers, he offers a unique perspective about business growth opportunities. He started a non-profit blog in 2015 to educate people within and outside his industry. It has since reached across North America and into Europe with over a million posts read.