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hen shoppers are browsing in your store, are you there to help them make purchasing decisions? Do you know the story behind your products, and can you help customers transition from passing interest to deciding that they both want and need an item? A basic principle of sales is that it is far easier is maintain and nurture a current customer than it is to land a new one. So, whether you are a resort shop serving tourists or a museum or zoo store that also draws in the local community, you are in the business of relationships.
Building relationships with vendors is the other side of the retailing coin, and valuable connections can be made at the nation’s gift trade shows. We offer four Special Sections in the issue with the latest news and information from the International Gift Exposition in the Smokies (IGES), Urban Expositions, ASD and the National Association of Retail Buyers (NARB).
Part of understanding the role shopping plays in your customers’ lives is taking note of how they celebrate the seasons and holidays, and even occasions such as back to school. Party and hospital stores, with their many repeat shoppers, are especially in tune with their customers during the winter holidays. We offer stories reporting on both types of shops in our Christmas in July feature. Even zoo stores watch the calendar for opportunities to sell more merchandise. In the late summer, these stores stock practical gifts and souvenirs that schoolchildren can use once they head back to the classroom, our Zoo and Aquarium section feature found. The section also offers tips on how to sell more educational toys and T-shirts and apparel at zoo and aquarium shops.
Botanical garden retailers, with their spectacular natural settings, are skilled at giving their clientele a picture of how to create a home oasis. We offer a story on how store managers are selling windchimes, flags and banners to shoppers seeking to complement nature at home.
We also offer stories on pet gifts, name-dropped items at national park shops, how to sell jewelry at leisure facilities and licensed sports merchandise at college stores, hiring, training and staff management at independent college shops, glass gifts at nautical museums, getting the merchandise mix right at religious gift stores, and more.
I hope you enjoy the issue. Please contact the magazine at the e-mail address listed below with your comments, questions and suggestions.
Scott C. Borowsky
President and Executive Editor
SOUVENIRS, GIFTS AND NOVELTIES MAGAZINE
EDITORSGNMAG@KANEC.COM
“Success is more permanent when you achieve it without destroying your principles.”
– Walter Cronkite
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