Page 10 - OPE JULY 2020

INDUSTRY
The State of Play
it and managed to get through it all right.” Further south again, Leeza Smith
at Martyns Outdoor Power Centre in Christchurch says that although the store was expecting “a little bit of a lull” after lockdown, customers haven’t held back.
Having said this, it’s noteworthy that service customers have been checking
on costs rather than just bringing their mower in: “They are a little bit more price conscious,” says Leeza. “But as long as we keep them in touch, they’re all fine.”
Pivoting online – the experience
Unable to visit most retail storetypes in person, Kiwis pivoted online in substantially greater numbers than previously during Levels 4 and 3.
What’s more, the pundits have it that this online shift will stick.
However, while year on year growth continues for online retail (June 2020 spending was +16% on June 2019), the latest data also shows that June was 27% down on the peak seen in May.
In terms of the New Zealand outdoor
What’s the servicing dealer’s experience of these online opportunities?
Saying it’s early days for him and his team, Brad Graham at Tomo’s Saws & Mowers says his customers currently “just ring in, and say ‘I’m coming to pick up a chainsaw’.”
“So we haven’t seen an effect at all yet, although I know we’ll get a percentage if someone buys online – it comes here, we’ve got to get it assembled and checked over.”
Staying with Husqvarna affiliated dealers, Mauritz Venter at Gardening Aids Glenfield is looking to Husky’s online initiative to bring in some new customers: “The guy that’s going to purchase online is probably going to purchase online.
“And I would rather let him purchase something we can service and get spares for than something we cannot.
“And if online sales get sent to the dealer then we will have an opportunity to meet that customer. We can maybe sell him some add-ons, some oil.”
Action Equipment Te Puke’s Matthew Nelson says the shop doesn’t sell online
We know retail is all about convenience these days but, with our kind of product, face to face contact is still the easiest way get the right person into the right product
sort of shopping more locally. And certainly, since coming out of lockdown, trading has been I’d say very, very good.
“The workshop went crazy after we got out of lockdown and it was just full-on, but we managed to get through the backlog and then this really cold wet weather hit...”
Travelling south, Ingrid de Graaf of STIHL SHOP Levin says lockdown, coming on top of the cancellation of Central District Fieldays in March, was “pretty tough” for the town. Was she surprised at the level of demand coming out of lockdown?
“I think we knew [demand] was going to be built up so it probably wasn’t a big surprise. So I think a lot got stored up until after lockdown, but we were still a bit surprised by how busy it was.”
Although Jamie Rogers and Waikanae’s The Mower Shop went into lockdown in “quite a good position” they, like others, had to spend some money that had been put away.
“We will survive,” says Jamie, “But it has made me realise how important the rainy day fund is!”
SayingthatJunehadbeen“insane”,when
we spoke, Jamie was forced to admit that July had just started to “fall on its nose a bit” as winter hit hard.
The Mower Shop however, just in the first week post-lockdown, had sold some 2,000 links of chain, couldn’t keep up on oils and counted 66 rotaries in for servicing at one point after lockdown.
How’d they get through? “Just keep your head down and arse up!”
Any major surprises from the last three months? “Yeah – just how much people are spending! We’re actually in about the same financial position as we were last year at this time – and we’ve done it without pretty much the whole of April.”
Still a bit less than a year into ownership, Isaac Russell at STIHL SHOP Nelson is another to have seen a better than expected May-June.
Dealing with customers in a contactless manner was “something of a challenge” and “pretty time consuming”.
But, says Isaac, it was “Nice to be in a position where we could still trade – I appreciate that a lot of other businesses couldn’t. So we just worked their way around
power channel’s online offerings, it’s probably fair to suggest that perhaps we’ve been just a little late to the party.
STIHL’s e-commerce offering kicked off in March, right before lockdown, with home delivery options but shifted to “buy online collect in-store” once Level 3 opened things up a bit.
Regarded simply as an additional sales channel for Husky dealers, Husqvarna’s e-commerce site went live on 1 June, after lockdown, and also handled sales centrally but directed purchasers to their local store for fulfilment
Colin Stimpson, Husqvarna NZ Country Manager, explains: “We run click & collect because our products are all pre-delivered and handed over in a safe way.
“We didn’t want to send a chainsaw straight into the hands of an end user. You know it ends up on his doorstep and he starts cutting down a tree in his back yard during lockdown.
“I don’t think that would have been the right thing to do at all. But coming out
of lockdown, it’s just an additional sales channel.”
at the moment but they’re looking into it, having experienced a spike in enquiries online during lockdown.
“During that four-week period, we did see a significant movement or increase
in enquiries online for both sales and servicing. So when we opened, we had a fair bit of work to follow up on with customers.”
Interesting however to note that, now Action Equipment Te Puke’s doors are open, both service and online enquiries have declined “quite significantly”.
Having seen a spike in his Trade Me business, Jamie Rogers at The Mower Shop in Waikanae recognises online is the way the world is going but also that it’ll take some time and effort before typical Trade Me purchasers look beyond the cheapest prices.
Leeza Smith at Martyns Outdoor
Power Centre is also pleased to have but
not placing too much expectation on Husqvarna’s buy online collect in-store set-up: “It’s a good set-up that they’ve got in place. We’re really happy with the way that it will work eventually.
“It sends customers back to the shops and the margins are still good. So no, we’re more
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HANSA’S ONLINE LOCKDOWN EXPERIENCE
HANSA CHIPPERS WAS another
supplier to go live with an e-commerce system during these unprecedented last few months.
With Fieldays going digital, at the beginning of June Hansa went live with its own e-commerce platform, looking for “a year on year return rather than a one-off or one-hit wonder”, according to MD Martin Vogel.
At the same time as recognising that as soon as Kiwis were able buy through traditional methods and channels they’d jump back to that, had lockdown continued it would have been quite a different story.
It’s also there to capture different types of end user, says Martin: “The people that will buy online – or only buy online – are
the ones we want to capture.”
Hansa, like others, has seen strong
demand, since coming out of lockdown: “There’s been that pent up demand of people being at home and looking at their trees and spending time in their own back yard and investing in their own backyard rather than actually travelling.
“So I think that coming out the other side of it has been a positive across the industry overall. Anything home and garden related has been doing really well, the same for us.”
His forecast? “It’s impossible to know how long that will continue, but I think it will continue as long as travel restrictions are in place.”
www.hansa.co.nz