PASADENA, Calif.—For more than 30 years, adult retailers have been working to improve their relationships with their customers. During the Upselling Your Customers in a Sex-Positive Way seminar at the AVN Novelty Expo on Friday, moderator and sex educator Sarah Sloane and panelists said these days retailers really need to step it up when it comes to doing just that.
Sarah Tomchesson of The Pleasure Chest, the first adult retailer to not block out store windows and hide merchandise, said the store’s focus has changed in recent years from simply retailer to educational and workshop resource.
She also noted that upselling sometimes doesn’t mean getting the most expensive toys into a customer’s hands, but getting the right toy to them.
“It’s not about the money, but about the relationship,” she said.
Sex educator Megan Andelloux has worked for some time with the medical community to bridge the gap between adult retailers and the world of sexual health.
“Most Americans turn to their doctors for sex information, and most of the medical community has no idea what to do with that,” she said, adding that at a recent International Society for Women’s Sexual Health conference, only one pleasure products manufacturer was in attendance with a booth, which was “mobbed.”
Reaching out to the medical community can help educate physicians, who can in turn educate their patients on the proper pleasure products for their needs.
Author Janet Hardy, who works in the alt-sex community, noted that retail staffers need to be educated on various types of alt-sex—everything from BDSM to fetish to polyamory—in order to keep customers comfortable, shopping and loyal.
“As the mainstream gains more access and their curiosity grows more and more, the confidentiality issues are higher, too,” she added.
She also noted that alt-sex communities are very tied in to one another and a good review or bad one of a shopping experience can have a tremendous ripple effect via word of mouth.
Sex educator Garnet Joyce tackled the issue of online retailers providing the educational opportunities that brick-and-mortars traditionally do.
While she noted that brick-and-mortars do have an advantage because of personal interaction, but suggested online product descriptions worded in a sex-positive way can have an impact, as can dedicating a portion of the site to education.
“Listing ingredients and their pros and cons, listing staff picks and more can show customers that you care about them and they are not just dollar signs to you,” she said. “Just because you’re online doesn’t mean you can’t interact with your customers.”
The seminars at AVN Novelty Expo were sponsored by Sinrex. For more information, visit AVNNoveltyExpo.com.
