Making fun: carrying products that help make backyards fun can bring customers into your store and pump up your profits - retailing

Editor's note: This is the third in a retail series showing how to make consumers' backyard dreams come true.

Anyone who's seen kids joyously splashing around in the midday sun knows a body of water--be it a pool, swim spa or portable spa--is a major component of a fun backyard.

A variety of accessories are available to enhance the enjoyment of dunking, racing and splashing. The fun doesn't end with the kids, though: Many accessories bring smiles to the young at heart, too.

Retailers who carry these products can increase revenue on two fronts: By selling a highly profitable item--pool toys and accessories offer as much as 50 percent profit margins--and by creating an inviting, atmosphere that encourages shopping, says Rita Rowlen, co-owner of Ultra Modern Pool & Patio in Wichita, Kan.

With all the options out there, what exactly should you carry? To put it simply: If it's fun, it should be on your shelf. Here are some ideas about products, and how to help your customers incorporate them into their backyards.

Child's play

In today's market, there is an almost-endless assortment of toys from which to choose. To narrow it down, retailers recommend beginning with items that can be used in a variety of outdoor activities. Stocking a few unique or newer toys also is a must because many pool and spa owners often see the same toys for sale by mass merchandisers.

With a little imagination, kids can transform in-pool activities such as underwater diving games and catch into real-life adventures, thanks to the addition of rubber torpedoes, Frisbees, rings and more. Your customers also can turn their pools into giant obstacle courses with a slew of beach balls and other floating and submerged gizmos.

For more organized sports activities, retailers have found success carrying volleyball nets, water polo goals and basketball hoops that can be affixed to the side of the pool. An alternative, the floating basketball hoop, can take the art of dunking to a whole new level.

When it's time to relax, rafts and other inflatables give children and grown-ups a good way to stay close to the fun.

Land lovers

Don't forget to offer items that work outside the pool or spa as well. One of the most popular dry-land options is the swing set, or what has become known in today's world as the play structure.

Play structures often deserve their own private space and flat ground, says Terry Katz, owner of Terry Katz Landscaping inc., a horticulturist and landscape contractor in Cincinnati.

Today's play structures encompass everything from a standard metal swing set (you remember: a slide, two swings and a glider) to a deluxe wooden hybrid that is part swing set, part Swiss Family Robinson tree house a la Disneyland.

For older children, a sport court situated nearby may be just the ticket. These paved recreational areas can be used for shooting free throws or tooling about on whatever wheels are in vogue at the moment, from in-line skates and scooters to bikes and tricycles.

A sport court's surface may be anything from a 10-by-10-foot square of concrete to a regulation basketball court made of cushioned rubber. "There are all kinds of surfaces," Rowlen says. "You have to ask [your customers] `What's the purpose of it?'"

Family fun

For backyard fun for the whole family, a host of additional "toy" options exist for adults as well.

Many retailers consider outdoor dining equipment and accessories a natural addition to their product lines. A pool deck can easily incorporate, or transition into, a barbecue center. Rowlen says such centers, which have been staples in California for a number of years, are migrating into the Midwest. In fact, the barbecue center may be the cornerstone of an outdoor great room that also includes a stereo system and fire pit--the ultimate in backyard entertaining.

Weather-resistant game tables, from billiards to foosball, allow for even more fun and games in the backyard.

Planning for the fun

Such diverse possibilities make laying out the yard in advance even more important. Outdoor rooms demand "a good flow," Rowlen says. "They need to make sense."

Barbecue centers and dining areas should be close to the house, to allow for easy transportation of dishes and food. A complete plan should allow for any needed utilities (electric, gas, even water) to be run as early in the process as possible.

Sport courts and play areas also should be carefully situated in a place where parents can supervise the activity, and where the noise won't be too intrusive on neighbors.

Retailers should remind customers that their yards can change as their families change. The flat land that this year is given over to a play structure may a few years later become a sport court and, later still, an English garden.

That means customers who buy backyard fun accessories from you today likely will be coming back later to add to their mix, or to simply update it as the family grows.

With all these options, a backyard, not to mention a retailer's store, can get pretty full.

"I have a sport court, sand volleyball pit, barbecue center, a trampoline, a swim spa and a lake with a dock," Rowlen says.

But there always seems to be plenty of room for more fun.

RELATED ARTICLE: Landscaping adds to the fun.

Even the most accessory-laden backyard isn't so much fun without a pleasant atmosphere. That's where landscaping comes in.

Landscaping can add color and interest to a backyard, while providing important screening, says Terry Katz, owner of Terry Katz Landscaping Inc., a horticulturist and landscape contractor in Cincinnati.

He tells customers to screen both their play areas and pools: "That's not just to screen them from view from elsewhere in the yard, but also from your neighbors." Landscaping a border around the play structure also can keep people in the yard from wandering into the path of a swing in full flight.

But screening need not be total. Parents will want to have a view of the pool and playground from the house, and perhaps from one space to the other. Such sight lines must be considered during the planning. Options for screening include trees and bushes or fencing of various densities.

It's best to warn customers in advance, however, that landscaping isn't cheap.

"One thing most people don't understand is that good landscaping isn't inexpensive," Katz says.

A typical suburban yard, he says, can cost $5,000 to $20,000 to create an at-home resort ambiance.

But the ultimate backyard can evolve over time rather than all at once. In fact, Katz prefers that to the alternative. "It's better to do it in phases," he says, "rather than take the cheap approach."

--T.C.

Thomas Clark is a free-lance writer based in Edgewood, Ky.

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