Menkind

Gifts &

gadgets galore

With their 59 stores now reopened and exciting plans for the summer in place, we caught up with Fred Prego, marketing director of Menkind, to learn how the company is tempting customers back into its stores, and boosting online services to those who still prefer to shop from home

Fred, what’s your career journey to this role?

I began my career in marketing with Kimberly-Clark, later moving to British Airways as head of marketing for Air Miles/ Avios. After this, I was marketing director for GAME retail before joining Gift Universe in early 2020.

Does Menkind have a typical customer?

Even though we are a gifts and gadgets store with a range that appeals more to a male audience, half of our customers are female, showing that we sell as much to men who want to indulge their thirst for gadgets as we do to women. We also have customers from a variety of diff erent age groups, so our customer profi le is very diverse. There is not much diff erence between those who shop in store and those who shop online as we have customers of all ages and diff erent demographics visiting all our channels.

How many Menkind stores are there now?

Currently, we have 59 stores across Great Britain and, from May, all our stores were branded Menkind as the last Red5 store in Leeds moved to Menkind.

And what about the pop-up stores for key periods like Christmas?

Yes, we do open generally around 25-30 concessions or pop-up stores at Christmas time due to the busy period for gift giving. We’ve had great success with these pop-up stores in the past, as customers across the country loved the variety of our Christmas range.

Bestsellers across gifts?

It is difficult to pick a few as we literally have hundreds that we sell all year round. We have extended our wellbeing range that is doing very well and has been well received with customers. Our Red5 tech gadgets are always favourites, in particular remote control toys and drones that don’t require registration, such as the Red5 Kestrel Drone with FPV.

Any unexpected hits during lockdown?

At the beginning of lockdown, we sold hundreds of jigsaw puzzles and adult games you can play remotely. Similarly, during the most recent lockdown we sold many beer-making kits and beer draft pourers, as people were keen to recreate the pub experience at home. Generally, stay-at-home entertainment product ranges have been quite popular, and we stock a great variety of items in this arena.

How did the company deal with the first lockdown back in March 2020?

As well as introducing new lines of products

such as games, puzzles and many other at-home entertainment items, we also worked on improving our online shopping experience, helping customers navigate our offering in a more streamlined way - we improved our website menu and added improved filters for the different product categories. We also simplified the ‘add to basket’ journey on our website and started offering more payment options. All of these small changes made a difference in offering our customers a more streamlined experience whilst shopping online.

Did you introduce Click & Collect during lockdown, or was this something you already offered?

We have been offering Click & Collect for a while on our website, and we continued offering the service during the second lockdown in November 2020. However, we discovered many loyal store customers were reluctant to venture out to pick up their purchase and chose instead to have it delivered to their home. Since the stores reopened in April we can see that customers’ confidence in Click & Collect has come back, as we are processing hundreds of orders every week like before Covid.

What do you predict are the top gifts for 2021?

Given that the UK public has been stuck at home due to lockdown and there is still some uncertainty around travel, we expect more outdoor gifts and gadgets to be popular, such as BBQ related products, outdoor games and decorations, and other items that help us bring that holiday vibe directly to our gardens.

On your website, you say that if you can’t find an existing product you want to sell, then you just create it yourself. You’re known for creating great theatre, How does this work?

especially at the front of your stores. We are incredibly lucky to own Will this continue? brands and product licences in many We can’t wait to create store events again categories and have direct contact with but the safety of our customers manufacturers and product design teams and colleagues is across the world. paramount, so we Feedback from customers will wait until we are sure these events are safe for everyone. We have great plans for the summer, so fingers crossed! can come from stores or product reviews for example. We regularly meet with manufacturers to discuss these ideas, with our mission being to offer great quality products at great prices. ‘Even though we are a gifts and gadgets store with a range that appeals more to a male audience, half of our customers are female’ How was 12 April For example, when reopening in England electric scooters started and Wales? to emerge, we developed our Customers are still very cautious RED5 eScooter model with all the and in general follow the safety guidance features customers wanted, such as a disk in place in our stores. We continue to do brake, anti-puncture tyres, front and rear demos in stores when it is safe to do so and LED lights and built-in bell, at a fraction customers are more likely to ask questions of the usual price points. to staff that handle the products. Although we have noticed lower traffic in shopping How have you found sourcing new centres than before Covid, customers products without trade shows? still enjoy buying our products and our We were very lucky to have strong conversion seems higher than in the past, so relationships with well-established we are hopeful for the future. manufacturers and suppliers. It has been an interesting experience to develop products Anything specific you’ve done to encourage remotely, usually by video and in different customers to return to the stores? time zones. We received more prototypes Yes, like many other retailers we opened than usual for us to test as we could not with a huge sale but we also introduced an visit the factories in person. It will be exciting prize draw, which was available in great to go back to a trade show when they every store, for one visitor or customer to finally come back! win a gadget bundle worth £500. The bundle has been presented to visitors at the entrance Feelings about the future? of the store and the entry mechanism was a One thing is for sure, Menkind will still be there. very simple scratch card. We have already received thousands of entries. menkind.co.uk