The specialty coffee business is highly dependent upon volume. The number of customers who purchase products from your business on a daily basis, and the amount of money they spend on each visit, will determine whether your business will succeed or fail. The success of your business will be dependent upon attracting a significant number of customers on a daily basis, and then maximizing the amount they spend upon that visit. If on the average, 100 people visit your establishment every day and spend approximately $2 on a coffee beverage, your gross income for that day will be $200. If you can get half of those individuals to buy a muffin in addition to their coffee, and you sell your muffins for $1, you will realize an additional $50 in sales every day.

Before you ask, where can I get more customers? How can I entice more people to come into my store? You need to ask yourself: Am I maximizing the dollars I can get from every customer who comes through my door presently? What is merchandising?

It may help for you to think of merchandising as an art form. Like any other art, there are rules and conventions governing what you can do, but there is also room for individual expression, innovation and creativity.

Important Key Factors of Successful Merchandising

Store design and layout
You have to start making considerations about merchandising while you are designing the physical layout of your store. The location of your pastry cases, display shelves, coffee bins, service counters, and seating areas, should be analyzed and determined during the early design phases of your space.

Positioning add-on sale items
A common mistake that we often see is positioning add-on sale items out of view of customers who are waiting in line. Customers who are waiting to buy beverages are excellent prospects for pastries and other impulse items, but the add-on sales are not likely to happen if those items are not within plain view.

Take advantage of visually appealing items
There are two ways to promote the sale of companion products: through effective display merchandising, and actual sales presentation.

For an effective display, take advantage of the items that have the greatest visual appeal. Make sure that these items can be easily seen, so that they might attract people and stimulate their interest.

Remember the 80-20 rule
The 80-20 rule states that 80% of your sales comes from 20% of your inventory selection. It is very important for you to understand which items are included within this 20% category. This should not be a challenge if your cash register has preset keys for each item you sell. You should be able to access information from your cash register on a daily and periodic basis, and it should be able to provide you with data in terms of units sold and total income for each item. You should try to constantly improve the variety and quality of your products that fall within your 20% category. Try new and unique items to see how they will mix with your current inventory, and to judge their popularity.

Signs
Attractive, well placed, easy-to-read signs are critical to successfully merchandising your business. Signs attract people's attention. They should be bright, colorful, with large letters, using fonts which are easy to read, and artistically attractive.

It can be very helpful to incorporate graphics onto your signs. A picture of coffee beans on a sign over your bulk bean area will help to convey an accurate message.

Instructional and directional signs
We often see people wander into a coffee bar unsure where they are supposed to order, or where they should pick up their beverage. Simple as it sounds, hang signs that read: Order Here and Pick Up Here.

Menu signs
The next and most critical piece of signage in your espresso bar is your physical menu.

The sign(s) for your menu should be in plain view, easy to read, and categorized so you see:

• Hot Coffee Beverages
• Frozen & Iced Beverages
• Teas, Chai, Hot Chocolate
• Baked Goods, Pastries & Desserts
• Salads and Sandwiches

And whatever else you might be serving that fits into a category.

Point-of-sale signs
Point-of-sale signs are small signs placed on the group of items that you are selling. Such as:

   
Signs for special promotions
Musical events, author book signings, and poetry readings are all special events which you will want to advertise with signs inside your caf�, and in your windows.

Organization and presentation
Effective merchandising in your specialty coffee business requires that all your products need to be attractively displayed and artistically arranged.

Employee-customer interaction
The final key ingredient to successfully merchandising your business is your employees.
Your employees need to understand and master two customer-relations skills:

1. Develop the habit of being observant.
2. Make recommendations and suggestions.