• During the winter, you should promote indoor projects that customers may put off during the warmer months, such as reorganizing a closet or painting a bathroom. Having promotions or special pricing will attract customers to the store and will allow you to reap the benefits of higher sales in the off-season and future customers for spring and summer.

• Use winter to do cleaning and maintenance in your store. Begin by assessing the interior of your store and then use the slow season during the winter to do needed maintenance before the spring rush.

• Prepare your store for spring by merchandising seasonal products that will have the maximum impact. You should look back at your biggest seasonal sellers from past years and concentrate your merchandising in those categories to ensure a strong selling season, such as stocking gardening equipment.

• Begin to reorganize your store to make way for the influx of lawn and garden products and other spring merchandise. By carefully planning where to position spring merchandise, you will be prepared when the first shipment arrives.

The goal of the North American Retail Hardware Association is to help independent hardware and home improvement retailers become better and more profitable merchants through a wide array of educational and training programs, financial management resources, and human resource tools that are all available online. WRLA members get unlimited access to a full range of training and management services when they join NRHA through the WRLA. Contact Susan Labossiere at slabossiere@wrla.org or Click Here for more information about NRHA.