The gift and souvenir market is big business. According to market research firm, First Research, the gift and souvenir market totaled about $18 billion in sales in 2013, spread among 30,000 stores in the category.
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Retailers and distributors are in the midst of a major shift. As consumer demand for instantly accessible online inventory and quicker delivery grows, industry leaders are being forced to alter their supply chain management strategies in ways that drive sales and meet customer expectations.
Candy retailers are discovering that using the Internet to market their wide selection of candies and products in their stores is helping to increase their profits at a rate like never before. Candy retailers have evolved into diverse businesses that sell everything from your classic lollipops to artisanal creations. There are countless media outlets that can be used as a resource and this makes business only sweeter.
It’s an exciting time to be an online retailer, especially because new third-party marketplaces are cropping up regularly in the evolving e-commerce landscape. The global success of Amazon and eBay has led to an explosion of marketplaces from newer players that provide retailers with opportunities to grow their online sales, both domestically and internationally. While the addition of marketplaces provides more revenue opportunities, it can be a challenge for retailers to determine which options make the most sense for their products.
Excitement is in the air, the food and entertainment is ready, and fans arrive early to be the first to enter the building. Small Business Saturday, the independent retailer’s Super Bowl, is right around the corner. So what can you do now to turn Small Business Saturday this Nov. 29 into Super Saturday? Retailers can implement the following four tactics to prepare their stores for the big day, and spread the “shop small” message.
“Drive them to retail” is a marketing mantra as old as the marketplace, and it’s back. It appeared for a while that online purchases would continue to erode brick-and-mortar traffic. Showrooming represented a detour from the traditional purchase path, as consumers began to browse for items at stores, and fulfill the purchase online for fractional discounts; an idea driven by cold logic in the pursuit of price. But that has changed.
Back-to-school shopping is much different from what it was even a few years ago. Shoppers now have real-time dynamic information in hand, and are making shopping decisions faster. Many retailers are trying to keep up with the frenetic pace of today’s shopper, and struggling with how to execute effective promotional and pricing strategies across the myriad channels consumers use.
Americans love giving and receiving gift cards. They are always in demand, and present retailers with significant incremental sales opportunities, as consumers report spending more when both purchasing and redeeming gift cards. According to a biannual consumer survey of 1,100 US consumers by the Retail Gift Card Association (RGCA), convenience and choice make gift cards extremely popular among consumers. Although mobile and electronic gift cards are not yet widely used by consumers, the adoption of these technologies is expected to continue to rise.
ComScore reported in 2012 that the number of mobile users accessing the Internet would surpass traditional desktop users by the end of 2014. In fact, ComScore reports this occurred for the first time in the first month of this year. In January 2014, users accessing the Internet via a mobile device exceeded those who accessed through a desktop computer.
Retailers are in full back-to-school mode, and with good reason. More than 50 million students will be going back to school this year, and many will need school supplies, clothes and other items that will be purchased during the summer shopping season. This typically runs from Memorial Day to Labor Day, making it the second busiest shopping event of the year.