Bringing Home the Sales Selling Quality Home Décor Gifts at

Resort Locations

When its vacation time, guests staying in resort destinations still have home on their mind.

Home décor gifts are popular at travel spots across the United States, and for this article, store staffers and owners described how they sell more in this category, what sells best, new trends in décor items, and their store policy on shipping items directly to customers’ homes.

Near the blue waters of South Lake Tahoe, Calif., Preston Herrington , assistant manager at On Tahoe Time, said that selling more home décor items is all about the store’s “amazing merchandising. You come in, and you immediately love it, and go out and grab your friend or your husband, they’ll go out and grab their friend. People just love it here, and we have great word of mouth about our merchandising, which is sometimes themed to area activities like hiking, and sometimes display is about like-items placed together in attractive ways in the store.”

Best-sellers are a mixed bag, Herrington reported. “We have a lot of locally-made, artist-made work, including art about the lakes; we have maps that are hand-drawn of areas throughout the world that are kind of a nostalgic decorative item; we have locally made ornaments; and we have fine glassware that’s locally made and etched with the shape of our town on the pieces.”

Trends in décor items are not something this shop sees, because so many of the décor pieces they carry are unique and local. “Every customer is different. Some are looking for something to fill an empty spot in their home, often people don’t know what they are looking for until they come in here and they see it; and then they say, ‘I have to have that.’ ”

The 1,200-square-foot shop does ship to customers’ homes, so they don’t have to travel with the items that they purchase, however, not all the time. “We do drop shipping from our website; unique one-of-a-kind items that we have here, we do use a FedEx across the street.”

“We have a lot of locally-made, artistmade work, including art about the lakes; we have maps that are hand-drawn of areas throughout the world that are kind of a nostalgic decorative item; we have locally made ornaments; and we have fine glassware that’s locally made and etched with the shape of our town on the pieces.”

- Preston Herrington, On Tahoe Time, South Lake Tahoe, Calif.

In the desert resort community of Palm Springs, Jill Kassinger , owner of her eponymous store, Jill, said the best way to sell more quality home décor is through “Excellent customer service. And then we promote some items on our website, too.” Her best-sellers are “Cocktail glasses, home

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