Creating well-thought-out displays can give souvenir sales a boost.
A memento of a trip to a special place; that’s the textbook definition of a souvenir. It can be anything from a simple rock to a Spartina handbag. Souvenirs can be magnets, T-shirts, insulated cups or other items, often emblazoned with the name of the place visited. A majority of stores carry at least a few such items along with their regular stock.
Michael Hale, CEO, founder and creative director of Los Angeles-based consulting firm, Retail Rehab LLC, says he discovered how valuable these “little” items can be to one’s bottom line back when he owned a retail store. “I had a $6 coaster that produced $20,000 a year in sales,” he says.
“I tell that story to entice owners of businesses to take a look at their sales statistics and understand what their drivers really are. It may not be the $200 throw or the $60 sweatshirt. Sometimes it’s those $6 items that produce more volume than anything else.”
The trick to moving these items is how they’re displayed.
Where should they go?Many store owners station their souvenir displays right by the store entrance or in the front window so shoppers looking for mementos can see that they’ve come to the right spot. Such is the case with Flamingo Jim’s, Rockaway Beach, Oregon. It’s the kind of colorful roadside spot with whimsical statuary outside that people on car trips up the coast find hard to resist — especially when kids are on board.
“Our main sign outdoors says ‘Gifts, Clothing, Souvenirs,’” says manager Laurel Schriber. “In the windows, we’ve got kites and some other random little signs and things. When you walk in the front door, you’ll see our taffy. There are also a couple of racks and shelves on our counter where we display finger puppets, nail files and stickers. We usually put stuff outside on our deck in baskets when the weather is nice."
The store stocks a wide variety of clothing with “Rockaway Beach, Oregon,” “Oregon Coast” or “Pacific Northwest” on it. “Our bestselling items are the clothing — sweatshirts mainly — and toys,” says Schriber. The sweatshirts range in price from $28 to $60, depending on the quality. “The kids go for the toys and the adults buy the clothing.”
If none of that fills the bill, the store has shot glasses, mugs, snow globes, stickers, keychains, magnets, insulated drink cups and trinket boxes that say “Rockaway Beach, Oregon,” or “Flamingo Jim’s” on them. Souvenir items are distributed throughout the 3,000-square-foot shop with other items. “It’s a full store, but we use our space well,” she says.
 At Corey’s Pharmacy, items like T-shirts are reasonably priced. Should all souvenirs be kept in one spot or distributed throughout the store, as Flamingo Jim’s does? Hale suggests: "If you have the room, multiple locations are best. Have a spinner by the entry to entice customers, another spinner by the check-out area for impulse buys and one larger fixture in the ‘dweller’ area of your store for the more in-depth shoppers. The fixture at the check-out area should always feature your tried-and-true, top-selling items.”
In Vero Beach, Florida, 100 yards from the Atlantic Ocean, sits Corey’s Pharmacy and Souvenirs. It’s a place where one can get a prescription filled and get some nice mementos, too. The store’s motto: “If Corey’s doesn’t have it, you don’t need it.”
The souvenir items are shelved along the store’s walls, while the middle aisles house drugstore goods.
“The owners have been doing this for 67 years,” says Lori Clark, who manages the non-pharmacy part of the store. “And it works.”
Clark says a lot of souvenir business flows to the store because of its competition. “Most of the other shops on the street are higher-end boutiques,” she says. “We have very reasonably priced items compared to those other shops. Tourists go there, then can come in here and buy a T-shirt for $25 and lots of other souvenirs that are under $10.”
Magnets, picture frames and coffee cups with “Vero Beach” on them are hot items. Insulated cups festooned with turtles, palm trees or mermaids are big sellers, too. “We’re all about the turtles here,” says Clark. “We have one of the biggest nesting grounds along the coast.”
One might think souvenir sales would take a back seat to the drug store operations. Not so, according to Clark. “It’s 50-50. Souvenirs account for half our profits.”
Rose Lucia owns Gifted by the Sea, Brant Beach, New Jersey. The 3,000-square-foot store stocks jewelry by Pandora, Kendra Scott and Dune, along with clothing and home decor. Lucia eschews traditional store fixtures for the most part, preferring to show off her merchandise on real furniture.
“My store is broken into two sections. When you walk in the door, you’ll see the jewelry, clothing and accessories. On the other side, I have the Long Beach Island sweatshirts plus the home decor and baby departments.”
Items with a map of the island are among the store’s most popular souvenirs. It can be found on mugs and insulated wine tumblers, platters and wall art saying, “Welcome to Our Beach House” or “LBI is My Happy Place.”
Grouping the goodsWhat’s the best way to group souvenir items? Hale says, “Ideally, you’d want to arrange a fixture by theme first, category second. If you have a three- or four-sided fixture or spinner, each side may present a different theme. Spinners work well to allow for multiple themes and hold a good amount of inventory in a small footprint.”
At Gifted by the Sea, Lucia displays jewelry on branded spinners or on fine jewelry display forms. Elsewhere, she groups souvenir mugs together.
Corey’s displays triple-milled soaps and matching candles together. “The candles have the same scents as the soaps,” says Clark. Near them are locally made Key West Aloe lotions.
At Flamingo Jim’s, “We’ve got all of our adult clothing on one side, and the kids’ clothing in another section,” says Schriber. “There’s a toy section and a table where we display our mugs and shot glasses all together. The snow globes are grouped together, too.” Magnets are so popular that they have several displays. Coastal-themed items — jars with sand and seashells and turtle figurines made out of wood and resin share shelf space.
Cross-merchandisingTravelers often hunt for gifts for people back home. Hale suggests making it easier by looking for opportunities to cross-merchandise souvenirs with other items that would make nice “go-withs.” For example, pair apparel with coordinating accessories and put mugs and glassware adjacent to specialty foods.
 Gifted by the Sea creates vignettes around items to tell compelling stories that motivate customers to buy.
Corey’s gets a lot of business from locals. The store carries the entire Royall Lime line of men’s fragrances, after-shave splashes and body soaps made in Bermuda. “People say this is the only place they can find these products,” says Clark.
The packaging of these products practically screams, “Gift me!” The bottles, which have colorful old-timey labels, are created out of handmade glass from the original clay molds and come wrapped in parchment with a wax seal.
Height, lighting and signageHale says, “A good rule of thumb for floor fixtures is that they are not taller than 54 inches so the clerks in the front can see over them and keep tabs on what’s going on in the store.”
As for lighting, Hale says he would never tell retailers what kind of lighting they should have, as they usually have to work with whatever fixtures came with the space. However, he says “good lighting is important everywhere in the store and especially for this category.”
At a store loaded with kid appeal, it should be no surprise that toys sell well at Flamingo Jim’s. Schriber keeps the motto, “Eye level is buy level” in mind when setting up displays for her shortest customers.
Showcasing your hitsIf a certain item is a big customer favorite, it deserves a prominent and attractive display that helps sell even more of it.
One of Gifted by the Sea’s top sellers is Dune jewelry, particularly the items containing sand from different beaches. “Many of my customers come in just for the Dune items,” Lucia says, “and not just people on vacation, but people who live here.” She decided to give the jewelry its own branded glass case — “actually an old Pandora case that I converted over. It’s a good setup. The case has its own corner, so everyone who comes in passes by it.”
Another special display, a lighted glass etagere, holds wine glasses etched with “Long Beach Island.”
She believes in the power of scene-setting to move product. “Especially with the home decor items, I want people to get an idea of how they or whoever they’re buying it for could use the item — I want them to say, ‘Wow, this is something so-and-so always mentions she needs or wants,’ and here it is.”
Lucia puts emphasis on attractive seasonal displays. “The women who work for me are really great at setting up tables for whatever time of year it is,” she says.
Clark strives to keep Corey’s Pharmacy and Gifts’ displays fresh with new and creative ways to show things off. In honor of her efforts, the owner bought a new slatwall-and-baskets unit just for the Turtle Tracks collection, popular with souvenir- seeking kids and their parents.
“That was my Christmas present,” laughs Clark. “Now all the books, stuffed animals and T-shirts that go with them are all very nicely shown off together. It’s a much cleaner and better look overall.”
Lucia has some advice for other retailers with regard to creating effective presentations of souvenir items. “Displaying them well is key,” she says. “It makes things look more upscale than simply lining everything up in a row.”
Clark’s advice is: “Be fair in your pricing. People will buy that much more, appreciate the value and come back.” And they do. In her seven years at the store, she’s recognized a lot of repeat customers who come back year after year.
With a little effort and a little finesse, you, too, can create winning displays that entice tourist customers to take a little bit of your community back home with them.
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