Features
Getting the Goods on Retail
If you want to learn how to do retail, go to Wal-Mart. No, don't laugh. It's good advice for home medical equipment providers, industry players say. The giant retailer has perfected the art of displaying, marketing and moving its wares, and a trip down its wide aisles can reveal much about successful retailing.
In an environment that hasn't looked kindly on the HME provider for some years, successful retailing could make the difference in whether your bottom line is black or red. Indeed, a successful retail operation can jump start your cash flow and reduce your dependency on third-party payers, according to industry consultants who, along with HME retailers, shared with HomeCare insights into how to beef up retail sales.
“If you want to learn the business, you've got to walk the Wal-Marts,” says Louis Feuer of Dynamic Seminars & Consulting, Pembroke Pines, Fla. “They are appealing to the over-50 population, and the learning curve would be so much shorter if [HME retailers] would just look at what some of these gurus are doing. Look at the wide aisles — there's room for a wheelchair — and the big black-and-white signs that you can see from a distance. The sales people wear blue vests or jackets and [thus] are easier to see.” The whole idea at Wal-Mart is to make it easy for a person to shop there, marketing experts say. But making it easy for the customer isn't always so easy for the retailer. According to providers and consultants, it takes capitalization, communication, education and evaluation to make HME retailing work.
The Capitalization Realization
“Everybody has misconceptions about retail,” says Jim Binson, owner of Center Line, Mich.-based Binson's Home Health Care Centers, now in its 50th year. “Inventory costs you, floor space costs you … there are all these hidden costs that people don't see.”
Feuer agrees. “You have to do it big or don't do it,” he says. “Retail is costly. You have rent, phone calls, advertising.”
You also have staffing costs, which can be considerable, says Roger Miller, president of Broadview, Ill.-based Dependicare.
