Selling fish in a pet store generally follows a distinct pattern:
- Customer identifies fish he would like to buy.
- Employee makes sure the fish is appropriate for the customer.
- Employee catches the fish.
This takes time. Your cost in the employee/customer interaction is in the price of the fish and your employee's time. Since the amount of time spent with a customer is somewhat at the mercy of the customer's wishes, all you can do is maximize the number of fish you sell to each customer.
Believe it or not, you are in more control of the number of fish a customer will buy than you are aware.
If a customer identifies that she likes neon tetras, your employee will undoubtedly tell her they do better in schools of some number larger than three. This is good. They actually like to be in groups of thousands, so three is a small number for this fish.
Since the bulk of the employee's time is spent talking to the customer, you always want to sell as many fish as is appropriate with each sale. Catching one fish or six or 30 in a well-stocked retail tank takes about the same amount of time.
If you create pricing structures that discount larger and larger quantities, the customer is more inclined to buy more fish. The more fish you sell, the less your employee costs per sale.
There are some really great price points that make it easy for the customer to do the math and spend money. Here are some of the most common price points to ensure more than one fish goes home.
- 5 for $5 — this one is always great.
- 1 for $ .99 / 6 for $5 / 30 for $20
- $1.49 / 4 for $5
- $1.99 / 3 for $5
- $2.99 / 2 for $5
- $3.99 / 3 for $10
- $5.99 / 2 for $10
- $7.99 / 3 for $20
- $11.99 / 2 for $20
Keep the discounted price in $5 increments because people are very good at counting by $5. The harder you make the math, the more likely you are to sell fewer fish. People like "easy purchases," and making the math simple for them to spend the $20 they have budgeted for the visit will help you sell fish.
This will require you to raise the price of a single fish in some cases to make your margins work out. Keep in mind that you will indeed sell more fish this way, you will spend less on your employee per fish going home, and the right number of fish will go home with species that like to school.
If you suggest a number of fish to customers, people are likely to accept your knowledge. If you discount the fish in a manner that benefits both the fish and the customer, you are "putting your money where your mouth is," so to speak. And having a customer learn to buy things in multiples really makes for a much more engaging home aquarium, which is the point of having a fish tank.
More fish per tank costs the same to receive, care for, medicate (if needed) and house. Selling more fish with every sale really makes everything better.
