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Flip through any home design magazine and you’re likely to see at least one home with barn doors in it. This eye-catching alternative to traditional hinge-mounted doors is hot with homeowners who want to personalize their homes with distinctive features. What’s more, homes for sale with “barn door” in their listing sold for 13% more than expected and 57 days faster, according to research by Zillow Digs.
In light of this trend, homeowners and builders increasingly are asking dealers about barn door track hardware. As with virtually any building product, if you don’t stock it, you’re at risk of losing the sale to your competitor down the street who does stock it, or to the big box store on the edge of town, or an internet retailer.
If you’re considering stocking barn door track hardware, read on for tips to be successful with this product segment.
Stocking Essentials
When it comes to stocking barn door track hardware, dealers frequently ask three questions:
- What sizes should we carry?
- Which colors are most popular?
- What are the price options?
Fortunately, with barn door track hardware, stocking a few SKUs will take care of 90% of customers’ needs.
Sizes
Popular sizes are hardware packs of tracks and rollers in 1-3/8” and 1-3/4” dimensions, which fit interior doors from most door manufacturers. Barn door track lengths of 5’, 6’, 7’ and 8’ are sufficient for most door widths and applications, including for single and double doors and nested doors.
Colors
Manufacturers offer barn door track hardware in a wide range of colors and finishes, from copper and chrome to white, brown, red and blue, among others. When beginning to stock barn door track hardware, it is usually sufficient to start with black, as that fits with virtually any home décor—from modern to rustic. Other colors can be offered via custom order until such time as you find which colors are most popular in your market and would be good to add to your stock.
Pricing
Similar to most building products, barn door track hardware is available in a wide range of prices and quality. As the old saying goes, “you get what you pay for.” As long as you’re working with a reputable manufacturer, their standard hardware will provide well-crafted products at a reasonable price. Some manufacturers also offer quality products with economical pricing for larger, multi-door projects, such as for multi-family housing, which is beneficial to stock for a range of price options.
Across sizes, colors, pricing and more, such as accessories, a key to success with track hardware is to choose a manufacturer that will work with you to tailor a stocking order to your and your market’s specific needs.
Domestic or Import?
In the push to stay competitive with big box stores and internet retailers, stocking low-price import hardware can seem appealing. However, you and your customers will feel a clear difference with American-made barn door track hardware, which is noticeably more solid and substantial.
In addition to the goodwill created with customers by stocking made-in-the-USA products, domestic-based manufacturers are better able to deliver custom orders—and to deliver them quickly—allowing you to meet virtually any customer need without having to stock a plethora of SKUs.
Open a New Window of Opportunity
Beyond being used for a wide range of interior door applications, barn door track hardware is also used for other decorative and functional applications. These include for interior window shutters, and cabinet and entertainment center doors, among other uses.
Products like the Goldberg Brothers Shutter Series provide easy-to-install kits that enable stylish and space-saving barn doors in place of draperies and cabinet doors. Such kits enable dealers to grow their business in at least three ways. The first is by going after the lucrative window covering market, which LBM dealers traditionally have not participated in. The second is by expanding your millwork sales, as interior shutters on barn door track hardware typically require four shutters per window compared to two faux shutters mounted on the exterior of each window. Third is by enabling an add-on to your window sales, potentially including as profitable bundled products of hardware and windows.
From HGTV to popular home improvement magazines and social media sites, barn doors have captured homeowners’ imaginations. Stocking well-crafted American barn door track hardware can be a non-space intensive way to expand your offerings and grow your business in serving this hot design trend.
– John Golesh is president of Goldberg Brothers (www.goldbergbrothers.com), a Denver, Co.-based company specializing in American-made barn door track hardware. A building industry veteran, Golesh owned and managed one of the premier commercial and residential door shops in Denver for more than 25 years.
