From The Archives: Benchmarking with the HTA – August 2016

by | Mar 12, 2018 | Features | 0 comments

The HTA has launched the new Garden Retail Monitor, promising to help garden retailers improve their business through sales benchmarking of regional and national averages.

The new Garden Retail Monitor (GRM) system aims to put more management information in the hands of garden centres than ever before. What?s more, there?s no burdensome monthly or weekly data entry needed, saving precious time for your business.

How it works

The concept is simple. Data from a garden centre?s EPoS system is automatically uploaded to a secure, encrypted database, where it?s collated with data from across the country. Participating retailers have an account, which lets them compare their business performance against regional and national averages. Comparisons can be made against businesses of similar size, helping to make a fair judgement of performance against peer businesses.

What?s available

Garden centres can benchmark metrics including total store sales, average transaction value and gross margin. Garden centres can also ?zero in? on the detail within their centres. Benchmark information is provided down to a department level so users can identify high and low performing areas which may hold opportunities for profit growth.

Because of the way the system?s been designed, garden centres aren?t forced to look at benchmark departments that are different to the ones they are familiar with. Departmental benchmark reports can be based on industry standards such as the GCA barometer of trade and the HTA Regional Business Improvement Scheme. This is enabled by the work the system does behind the scenes in mapping each participating garden centre?s sales data to a master ?index? in the system. This in turn enables benchmark reports to be presented in a variety of different ways.

?Benchmark information is provided down to a department level?

More publicity

The data collated won?t only be used for garden centre benchmarking. The HTA has ambitious plans to use the data and statistics as part of its work to promote gardening to the public. Journalists love statistics, and the more of them that HTA can provide quickly the more media coverage of gardening and garden centres the association will be able to generate.

Commenting on this, HTA PR manager Gill Ormrod said: ?It?ll be fantastic to be able to give detailed statistics to media on gardening and around occasions such as Easter and Christmas. The more of this we can provide to the media, the more often we?re going to be able to get gardening and garden centres into the media.?

Informing product innovation

The collated, anonymised data is also going to be extremely valuable to manufacturers and suppliers.? Because data is captured down to the barcode level that?s scanned at the point of sale, suppliers will be able to assess product and category performance and develop more exciting, profitable ranges for retailers. One project being discussed by the HTA is using the collated data to identify changing consumer preferences for colours and colour mixes. If that sort of project can take hold, it?ll lead to more compelling garden products for garden centres in coming years.

How to get involved

Any garden retailer in the HTA with a compatible EPoS system can sign up to use the GRM. Compatible EPoS systems include Corby & Fellas, CSY, Swan and NedFox, with others in the pipeline. If you use another system but would like to take part, the HTA can talk to you and your EPoS vendor about getting involved.

A garden centre simply needs to supply a copy of their EPoS department hierarchy structure in an Excel pro-forma to the HTA. The HTA uses this to set up regular transfer and indexing of sales data in the system. Once this is done, the HTA provides you with a set of usernames and passwords for your staff, and sends through a ?getting started? guide to using the reports. It?s that simple.

If you?d like to know more about or take part in the Garden Retail Monitor, your first step is to contact the HTA.

www.hta.org.uk

more latest news ➡

Westland growing media products added to Westland Live

Westland adds growing media to Westland Live

Westland Horticulture, home to brands such as New Horizon, Boost, Resolva, Peckish, and Kent & Stowe, has announced it has added its growing media category to Westland Live, giving its customers a one-stop shop for its brands and products. Westland Live is an...

British Garden Centres

How big is Christmas for British Garden Centres?

The highly-anticipated Christmas season has arrived early this year for British Garden Centres, as it opened its doors to customers in September to an influx of pent-up shoppers. Following a temperamental and wet summer and a few years of subdued Christmases due to...

Bradford garden centre group wins award

Bradford garden centre group wins community award

The team at a Bradford-based garden centre group is celebrating after winning a regional business award. Yorkshire Garden Centres, owner of Tong, Tingley, Bingley and Otley Garden Centres, won the Community category of the Yorkshire Post Excellence in Business...

Feverfew launched new gardening apparel for women

Meet the supplier: Feverfew Garden Co

Taking the gardening glove market by storm, Feverfew Garden Co is the UK’s first garden wear brand exclusively designed for women, by women. Garden Centre Retail catches up with Rachel Eunson, the driving force behind the brand. As with many recent ventures,...

HSBC economist

Ex HSBC economist to speak at GCA conference 2024

Former HSBC Head of Economics will be helping delegates at the Garden Centre Association’s (GCA) annual conference understand the resurgence of inflation and the challenges that it continues to bring (January 28 until 31, 2024). Mark Berrisford-Smith, who worked...

Primeur Whiskey Barrel

Primeur launches new range of recycled planters

Looking to the 2024 season, garden retailers can step up their sustainability game and enhance their outdoor offer with a brand-new Primeur range of recycled planter designs and colourways. If you are keen to stay ahead of the curve and meet the increasing demand...

Read GCR's latest edition!

Subscribe ToThe Wednesday Word

Subscribe To
The Wednesday Word

 

Get all the latest news, events & more straight to your inbox every Wednesday.

You have Successfully Subscribed!

Pin It on Pinterest

Share This