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Retailing 118: How To Use Research to Help Your Retail Business

Why do tennis retailers need research? Great question! Research has been the stuff of big retailer strategic planning and corporate board rooms. But the speed of change and the New American Consumer, empowered by technology, has made it essential for specialty tennis retailers of all sizes to tap into and use research.

The good news is, the cost of excellent research has plummeted, and thanks to the TIA it is readily available to its retail members. Visit the TIA website, TennisIndustry.com, click on “Retail” at the top, then “Research,” and you’ll find information on the following reports:

• State of The Industry
• USTA/TIA Participation Study
• Cost of Doing Business
• Consumer Retail Report

The TIA makes these reports available to retail members at no or low cost. Contact TIA Retail Manager Marty Mohar at marty@tennisindustry.org for details and to order copies.

The TIA State of the Industry is the place for you to start harvesting the wonderful and powerful insights for retailers that are available for your business planning. Among the interesting stats in the 2012 State of the Industry is the Physical Activity Council chart that shows tennis’ participation growth rate from 2000 to 2011, which leads all traditional sports.

The frequent tennis player profile offers some revealing data. The average age of a frequent player is 35 years old; about 52% of frequent players are women; median household income is $83,000, and estimated annual tennis expenditures are $733. This partial demographic profile of a frequent tennis player allows you to:

• Review your customer list to determine the demographic profile of your store’s frequent tennis player — and benchmark your marketing and sales plan to attract and build a client list that matches or exceeds the TIA profile.
• Benchmark the estimated annual tennis expenditure of the typical frequent tennis player at $733 and exceed it.

The reasons frequent tennis players gave for playing more tennis include:

1. Found someone/new people to play with.
2. Had more time to play this year.
3. Joined a tennis league.
4. Took tennis lessons.

This is great business planning information for your store:

• Facilitate tennis players finding other tennis players at the same skill level and help to set-up matches.
• Be the catalyst for your customer joining a local league and signing up for lessons with a local pro.
• Partner with your local tennis facilities to set-up special membership deals for your customers.

10 and Under Tennis Impact on Retailers: According to a “quick pulse” survey of pro/specialty tennis retailers, about a third saw increases in sales of Red, Orange and Green tennis balls. These research findings help support your store’s vested interest in growing tennis in the youth market. To help promote 10 and Under Tennis in your community, you can focus your store’s plan on:

• Growing youth participation in tennis with local partnerships with tennis facilities, and your in-store and youth and family promotions.
• Partnering with local teaching pros to promote 10 and Under Tennis demonstrations, local Play Days and kid’s festivals.

This is just a sampling of the tremendous research resources TIA is making available to specialty tennis retailers. You can learn more about taking advantage of and using TIA research for your retail business by getting the podcast of a TIA Retail Webinar we gave in mid-February (e-mail marty@tennisindustry.org for more information).

The next TIA Retail Webinar will be on March 12 at 2 p.m. Eastern time, on “Using Assessment Benchmarks to Improve Your Specialty Tennis Retail Business.”

This is part of a series of retail tips presented by the Tennis Industry Association and written by the Gluskin Townley Group (gluskintownleygroup.com).

From the March 2013 issue
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