With big department stores closing and vibrators easily available for purchase online, what is it that will bring the customer into your store? The bigger, most important question is, what will keep bringing that customer back into your store?
Today's consumer in an adult store could be a young person or a young couple, a mother or even a grandmother looking for more relaxing, romantic and sometimes naughty experiences in her life. Most women want to be comfortable walking around the adult store, while she's looking for that something to experience in her own home. The more comfortable she is and the more enticed she is walking around your store, the more she'll remember she liked being there; then maybe she'll come back before that vibrator breaks a year down the road.
Women have romance on their minds as they prepare for playtime with their partners.
There needs to be more than just the sex-driven, typical products. We need to offer more products for the “me time” that women are really needing in their lives — such as bath and body products. I have found that today’s female consumers are also looking for American-made products.
I like to tell people in the industry that we need to have some beauty in today’s adult stores. They need to offer more romance rather than just XXX sex — such as the addition of a beautiful spa table with bath bombs, bathing salts, CBD spa massage oils, loofahs, submersible toys, etc. Most women like to prepare for an experience rather than just jump right in. It would be smart for a store owner to offer those products as well. Women have romance on their minds as they prepare for playtime with their partners.
I'm in a lot of adult stores doing my own business. Some have made me want to shop around and come back to shop. There were more than just the packaged typical products from foreign countries. They had gentle, beautiful romance for sale not just XXX adult products. Their shelves were clean and stocked nicely. Unlike some that offer two or three pieces on a shelf because they didn't want to over-buy that single product. Of course, my favorite products offer more of a romantic preparation, for example, unique and sexy bathing products and bath bombs, spa massage oils, tickling feathers, etc. When products are displayed elegantly with adjustable holders and not laying flat on the shelf, it’s the small attention to detail that will have me coming back. It's the experience and the atmosphere you create.
Susan Schibler is the CEO of It’s the Bomb, a U.S. manufacturer of bath and body products.
