Positive Outlook for Gift Store Business In 2012
The U.S. landscape is dotted with gift and souvenir stores at virtually every bend in the road. From large cities to the smallest pastoral hamlet, you can find a store that sells trinkets and memorable collectibles that reflect the character or history of the local community. These stores while seemingly modest in size and scope are just one small part of a larger gift and souvenir industry, which if the trend seen in 2011 continues, is poised for a banner year in 2012.
Holiday sales in 2011 were vibrant enough to help the overall economy crawl out of the ditch and to get back onto the road to recovery. Retailers are always hopeful that the holiday season, during which U.S. consumers spend almost 35% of their total shopping dollars for the year, will be the boost that their businesses need to continue on into the next year. And in 2011 the mantra for many shoppers was shop local, shop small, shop in your neighborhood. The beneficiaries of this movement to support local businesses, among others, were the many gift and souvenir shops that depend on their communities and visitors to these communities for their very survival.
Retail sales during the holiday season topped $465 billion of which more than $18 billion is spent in gift stores. The industry itself has approximately 30,000 stores of varying size and scope of operation, from Hallmark to mom and pop shops selling collectables and t-shirts. Sales vary by types of products sold with souvenirs and novelty items accounting for 25% of sales, seasonal decorations 12%, greeting cards 10%, and giftware 5%. And if the pundits that follow the industry are correct, sales in 2012 should be strong and supportive of growth in the gift and souvenir business, especially those entities that have an online shopping option for their clients.
Analysts see sales on the local retail level growing by some 4% – 7%, with some looking for even stronger growth based on renewed interest on the part of many consumers to scale down their purchases, meaning buying smaller “thought” gifts as opposed to larger ticket items, as well as these buyers focusing more and more on shopping locally.
These days, with the help of more automated processes guiding every stage of the gift shop owner’s routine, the small shop is able to access and inventory many more items than they ever could in the past as well as doing so on a timely basis so as not to have too much or too little inventory at critical times, one of the biggest concerns for the smallest of these businesses. Now, most of these businesses no matter the size have a POS (point of sale) system that in addition to keeping track of daily sales and cash register functions, also helps the store owner to have a real time view of their inventory. And in particular, these businesses can see on the spot what is and what is not selling. In addition, the more savvy operators in the business use database programs to manage customer information and loyalty programs as well as mass email promotions and campaigns to stay in touch with these customers.
The small to mid-sized gift and souvenir shop has all the tools at its disposal to compete for a share of the larger pie in that industry and it seems that for 2012, the pie might be a little bigger. Those businesses that take advantage of the tools available to them are better positioned to serve their customers and to grow their business in what is a deceptively large part of the retail sales industry in the U.S.
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