How the web boosts store sales for some retailers

For retailers selling complex products, having a web site can make their customers better informed, which makes their salespeople more efficient and increases sales without a corresponding growth in staff. That’s the experience at Pardini Appliances, a two-store retailer based in Ukiah, CA, where sales have grown 35% in the last three years with virtually no increase in sales personnel. “60% of our customers have gathered some information on the web,” owner Mark Pardini says. “It’s a huge benefit to our salespeople because they’re not starting out from scratch with those customers. The turns are faster because the customer is informed.”

An added benefit, he says, is that the web site exposes Pardini’s stores to more clientele. “The California economy is flat and there have been mill closures in our market, so we attribute a lot of the increase to people finding us on the web,” Pardini says. Few sales, however, are initiated and consummated on the web, he says.

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Pardini operates a web site under a co-op web agreement with the major appliance manufacturers. Sites for manufacturers, retailers and buying co-operatives are built and maintained by JGSullivan Interactive Inc. of Chicago.

Pardini says he benefits in another way by being able to direct callers to the web site for routine information. So a customer who has questions about dimensions, color, etc., can look up the information on the web site and get clear color pictures of the products. Similarly, Pardini directs contractors who call seeking specs of products for which they are building kitchens or cabinets to the web site. “It’s made our job tremendously easier,” he says.

Both of Pardini’s stores are have browser-equipped terminals on the sales floor so sales personnel can access the web to aid in selling, Pardini says. That is particularly helpful, he says, when customers come in to price shop against information they have found on the web. “We can look at the Sears site and see exactly what the customer was looking at,” he says.