Retail buyer for Knock First in Maryland, Claire Sass, shares how to encourage word-of-mouth advertising and attract more customers.
(NOTE: This story was written by Claire Sass and appears in the February 2025 issue of SE Magazine)
In retail, word-of-mouth advertising is gold. A recommendation from a friend can prompt someone to visit a new store, try its wares and ultimately become a loyal customer. However, this isn’t as common in the adult industry as few people stand around the water cooler Monday morning talking about the latest sex toys they’ve tried out. In fact, most people wouldn’t even mention to a friend where they buy their lube.
So, how can retailers in the adult industry get the kind of word-of-mouth advertising that has people rush in to check out their store and become a local sensation? You flesh out the merchandise in the one department that attracts customers who do talk around the hypothetical water cooler: BDSM/Fetish.
If anyone is out and about talking about their kinky attire and newest toys, it’s your customers in the BDSM and fetish communities who often hold parties with attendance ranging from 20 to more than 300 people. It’s the ideal setting for this water cooler moment:
“Where did you get that beautiful collar?”
“Knock First in Rockville Maryland. They have so many! All hand-crafted, and such a variety of styles.”
This is word-of-mouth advertising in action. After receiving trusted advice from someone with a similar passion in the BDSM community, that admirer might come into the store to buy one for themselves. While there, they may end up also purchasing a blindfold, some door restraints, lube and toy cleaner. A month later, that same customer comes in again to pick up a vibrator and a set of nipple clamps for their next party. Around Valentine’s Day, they come back to shop for their partner, changing a new customer into a regular.
So, how did we do it? We started by building a substantial collection of BDSM toys and outfits that are party-friendly, group-play-oriented and a step above what’s found in any other adult store in our area. In addition to the types of products, we also added variety to the intensity, sophistication and level of play when we built up our fetish section. Then, we tricked it out like a Macy’s window in New York City at Christmas time!
Once our fetish wall was upgraded, we started seeing an immediate increase in new customers from our area. They’d all come in and say they heard about us from a friend and didn’t even know we were here, despite having been in the same location for eight years!
Over time, we slowly upped our game by peppering in a few hardcore products, mostly to add to the vibe, and guess what? They sold! It seems our customers were upping their game as well, reaching for more extreme toys, outfits and restraints. Their tastes were evolving and we were the beneficiary of their purchasing power.
An upgraded BDSM section also draws a second level of revenue from the vanilla customer who is “just browsing.” Your fetish section is way out of their league, but it makes these customers feel powerful and sexy to be shopping in a store that sells such things. For this reason, they’ll feel more compelled to buy something. It may be a small lube or a tiny bullet vibrator, but they want to feel like they belong there, so it’s unlikely they’ll leave empty-handed.
Making people feel sexy and empowered is part of how we play wingman to our customers. Infuse them with confidence through bold boundary-pushing or simply validating their vanilla purchase. This is often enough to bring them back to your store again and again, and that’s the name of our game.
Word-of-mouth advertising is gold, especially in our industry. You just have to get the right customers talking about you.
Claire Sass is a lifelong consumer of adult toys and newly appointed Director of Wingman Services at Knock First in Rockville, MD. For more information, call 202-492-9244, email askClaire@knockfirst.net or visit knockfirst.net.
