Selling a Wave of Gift Choices

Beach and Resort Personal Care, Candles, and Coastal Gifts

At coastal stores and resort-area shops, gifts, personal care, and pampering products such as candles are all bright sellers this winter.

At The Wharf Shop in Sag Harbor, N.Y., Co-Owner Gwen Waddington said hand-crafted and locally made items are among her best-sellers. “We have a lot of local giftware such as Sag Harbor personal handbags, handcrafted ornaments, tableware, and other home goods. We have a line of candles from South Africa that are hand-painted there. They benefit the community in that country, and they are beautiful, too.” Both that beneficial aspect and their attractiveness draw shoppers, she noted.

Selling more of all these items is based on not only their uniqueness and hand-made qualities but is in part due to customers supporting this family-owned business. “People come to us to be a part of the community. They like shopping on a real main street, and they want to support us. They also get personal service, free gift wrapping, and we have excellent seasonal displays as well as cross- merchandising items,” Waddington explained. “All of those things contribute to sales.”

In Watch Hill, R.I., Erika Anderson , owner of Westerly Gifts, also said local does best when it comes to gift items. “Our retro Rhode Island line of garments are extremely popular. They are not only unique, we only offer limited batches, which makes them even more special. Some are themed to iconic area images, but they all have that retro look and are super soft. They use original art.” She added, “In the personal care area I sell mostly lip balms, and they do very well; I also offer some bath and body products, but the balms stand out.” Candles are the second-best seller in her 700-square-foot, she attested. To sell more of any item, she put an emphasis on creating easy-to-access online sales, reaching out to repeat customers, and offering a good price point on merchandise, including on her appealing limited-batch clothing. “In-store displays are not the most important thing for us these days,” Anderson related.

In the resort town of Scottsdale, Ariz., not far from the popular boating location of Saguaro Lake, Gift-ology Owner Parag Shah described his best-sellers.

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