ASD Gifts and General Merchandise Special Report

Selling Gifts at Variety (From page 58) bookends, Hartley said.

At the end of each season, the team meets–even during December when the store is still busy – to talk about items they’ve had for several years that can be cut loose and current areas of opportunity.

That way, when they come to markets, they come armed knowing the amount of space they have to work with. Then, they can stock the best and newest–what customers have come to expect – in store. They work hard to make sure they don’t disappoint their customer, Hartley said.

Dicks merchandises 600 different vendors in 9,500-square-feet of space. “We’ll always have the newest and best and tried and true,” Hartley said.

Chesleigh Gore , a partner at the 8,000-square-foot store Ogle Brothers General Store in Sevierville, Tenn., said one of the best things you can do to sell gifts is organize your displays. She’ll use planograms and a drawing computer program to plan displays and strategize how they’ll replace merchandise on those displays. In a store the size of Ogle Brothers, it’s very important to keep on top of organization, Gore said.

Given the tourist area they’re in, the majority of the store is namedropped, Gore said. Resin bears, candles (made locally and name-dropped with their logo) and logo’d clothing are best-sellers, Gore said. Their inhouse made pottery is also a hit.

The key to adding new gift merchandise to your stock is testing the market first by buying a few SKUs in a product line and finding out what sells, Gore said. ❖