By Richard Jones, Group Editor, rljones@meistermedia.com
Steve Kainer did it backward. Backward, at least, compared to the way most retailers get into water gardening. Kainer is owner of Hill Country Water Gardens, which opened 12 years ago a few miles outside of Austin, Texas, as a small business focused almost solely on water gardening.
The operation has grown steadily, recently broadening its focus to a full-service garden center, and quadrupling its nursery business over the last two years.
The water gardening category has evolved, too. Hill Country has a dozen show ponds on its grounds, full of colorful koi and big, beautiful water lilies. Its bread and butter products today, however, are fountains, along with the statuary and garden art that enhance the water gardeing experience for customers.
Hill Country does fountains, statuary and garden art extremely well. The category saw a significant spike three years ago, and has trended steadily upward ever since. In fact, in 2010 the operation experienced a 25 percent increase in units sold, with a 95 percent increase in sales dollars in cast stone planters and urns. Here’s how Hill Country Water Gardens succeeds in fountains, statuary and garden art, in three easy-to-understand steps.
1 – Buying the Right Product
Fountains are the centerpiece of Hill Country’s cast stone/garden art category. Kainer knows exactly what his higher-end market demographic is looking for. That means cast stone only, and no resin products.
The right stain is important too. ”Our number one stain is a brown relic-looking stain. We do not bring in anything that is painted. It just looks cheap and doesn’t fit the style in our area. Some of the green, relic look also does really well for us. We’ll mix in a terra cotta look once in a while because it goes with the Southwestern flair down here. You have to carry fountains that are going to look good in a majority of people’s yards.”
Kainer likes to see new fountains in person before he buys anything. Hill Country sticks with four primary vendors – Henri Studio, Unique Stone, Massarellis’ and Campania – for most of its SKUs. Once Kainer and operations manager Christopher Howell have identified what they like at the shows, they do a lot of catalog buying in January, as well as during the season.
Early orders are done partly by necessity because the spring season starts the first warm, sunny day in March in central Texas. Kainer says he also gets much better terms by placing earlier orders.
“We’re probably able to reorder a couple of times before payment is due on the first orders,” he says.
Hill Country’s primary vendors account for about 70 percent of its purchases. Kainer says he also likes to try out fountains from other vendors to fill out the rest of his buy. It’s definitely a trial and error process, however.
“We see other fountains we like, but if the plumbing assemblies aren’t good, or it’s difficult to get parts or they don’t go together easily it can be a problem,” he says. ”It’s got to be something that’s easy for two or three seasonal employees to set up and put together in 10 to 15 minutes.”
It’s also important to make sure the vendors have good molds for their products, Kainer says. “It’s not worth spending an hour trying to level a piece to set it up. When that happens, we let them know we’re going to find a new vendor, and we don’t buy from them anymore.”
Statuary and garden art are great complementary products to the fountains. Kainer says his goal with the artwork is to find pieces that both accent his fountains and nursery stock, and also offer Hill Country the opportunity to differentiate itself by offering unique merchandise.
Like many garden retailers, Kainer does a lot of buying at the markets in Atlanta. Dallas and Chicago. He also goes to auctions looking for interesting pieces to sell or use in displays, and works with the thriving artist community in Austin to come up with items you won’t find anywhere else.
While Hill Country’s local market tends to be on the higher end – they weren’t impacted by the economic downturn quite as much as some areas on the country – Kainer and Howell have consciously changed the value of their fountain product mix.
“We didn’t back off our initial early order buy last year, but we did back down on our high-ticket items. In years past it was no problem to sell $3000, $4000 or $5000 fountains on a pretty regular basis. Knowing we were going into a downturn, what Christopher and I did was focus more on that $800 to $1200 range, and we sold a lot more of them. Our numbers ended up being pretty good, considering we didnt’ really move as many big ticket items as we were used to moving.”
The same goes with the garden center’s statuary and garden art mix. ”We casrry some bronze and some granite art pieces. Our cast stone statuary range from $6 cast and dogs bunnies up to $1,500 fro some pretty stellar pieces. In the past few years we’ve brought in some more affordable pieces in the $100 to $200 range. It’s a little easier on the pocketbook and moves more units. I’m going to bring in a few more big pieces this year just for a change of pace, but I think we’re going to to stick to that trend for now,” Kainer says.
2 – Displays and Merchandising
Getting the right product on site is just the first step. What really moves the fountains and statuary, Kainer says, is creating a setting for the pieces that customers can picture in their own backyards.
For Hill Country, that means great displays with a premium on cross merchandising product. You’ll find statuary on nursery benches, and beautiful plants used liberally in fountaina dn are displays throughout the grounds.
“Our nursery manager is happy to let up put statuary on the nursery tables with teh plants,” Kainer says. ”A lot of nursery managers I have seen won’t let you put anything else on the nursery tables because it gets in the way of watering and can become a little cumbersome. But we’ll put ST. Francies right smack in the middle of a nursery table surronded by our plants.”
Hill Country’s philosophy is to use the nursery plants to make the fountains look good and also put the fountains right in the middle of the nursery stock. Everything is cross-merchandised.
“The drawback, of course, is that it’s spread out everywhere and you have to remember where a particular piece is. Especially if someone moved it yesterday. I’ve never heard a customer complain about it, thought,” Kainer says.
Nothing stays the same for long on the Hill Country grounds. Displays change often – once a week or more – to continually entice and inspire customers. Much of that work is handled not by Kainer or Howell, but by the rest of the staff. Kainer has built a creative – and fairly unique – team over the years.
“I’ve found you need a certain kind of staff in this business. We’re not lining plants up in a row. Every time you turn the corner, there’s a different display or water feature, so basically I just started looking for creative people. I have musicians, artists, teachers and car salesmen. They’ve all found a home here and it’s worked out pretty well,” he says.
Another tactic that helps sell water features is running the fountains to show the customer exactly what they can expect.
“There are 160 water features running on this yard. And to sell them, they have to be run-ready,” Howell says. ”They all have to be hooked up. If you don’t want to run everything on the yard all the time, you have to at least be able to hook up an extension cord and have it running in a couple minutes.”
Another simple sales trick Hill Country uses is letting the product tag tell a story.
“We leave the factory tag on the statuary or fountain. Most of the big cast dealers will have a nice showy tag, which brands it and also has the name of the piece. This helps my employees talk about it and lets the customer know they’re buying a high-end piece,” Howell says.
3 – Selling and Training
Great displays and branded products help set the table for a sale, but Kainer says the final step is having his staff well-trained and completely up to date on all the product.
Kainer and Howell hold meetings each Saturady morning starting in February to run through new products with the staff.
“When we talk about the fountains we refer to them by name, “Howell says. ”We say, “Go get the Relic Sargasso Valencia two-tier.” If the employee doesn’t know that one, they get it worked out by the next time we ask.”
In addition to knowing what’s in stock, Howell wants employees to understand how the different pieces work and how the fountains are assembled.
“That will be one of the first things the customer asks you, especially if it’s something they want to take home and put together themselves. In fact, we make a point to ask the customer to stick around as we’re breaking it down and they can see how it goes together.”
Not every piece is so customer friendlyk howver, espeically the big stuff. Kainer says one thing that has allowed Hill Country to be so successful with cast fountains and cast stone planters is having an installation crew.
“I really feel like if you’re going to move big fountains and statuary, you have to have a crew. I’d probably lose 20 to 30 percent of my fountain sales if I wasn’t able to offer installation.”
Before any fountain goes out the door, the salesperson makes sure the customer has a clear understanding of the maintenance involved.
“It’s probably the biggest issue with fountains,” Kainer says. ”If you pet a fountain right out in the open, wind is going to be a big factor. Wind blows water out of your fountain so you’re constantly refilling. Sun evaporates the water. If you put it under a tree you’re going to have leaf drop. We definitely let our customers know this.”
But the knowledge doesn’t deter a lot of fountain sales, he says. ”They are gorgeous, they’re classic and they’ve been around forever. Fountains are just a great product.”
3 Ways to Sell Fountains – Hill Country Water Gardens owner Steve Kainer offers there quick ideas to help you move more product in the fountain, statuary and garden art categories.
1. Don’t dabble. If you want to move cast stone you have to jump in with both feet and you have to bring in some variety. I buy things I like, but I also buy things that are a little more oddball or unique. There’s a butt for every seat.
2. Great merchandising sets you apart. You have to separate yourself from the big boxes. Do something to keep it unique and keep it fresh. We change displays on a weekly basis. It may be something simple, like swapping out some plants, or moving a fountain from the back to front and center, but we’re moving it constantly.
3. Offer installation. If you’re going to move big fountains and statuary you have to have a crew or you’re going to lose sales. We try to reserve one day a week where we can go and deliver five fountains. If you can’t give them a reasonable date of installation you will lose that sale.
Richard Jones. “Hill Country Water Gardens Sells the Splash.” Today’s Garden Center [Willoughby, Ohio] February 2011, Volume 8 Number 2: Page 12.
