Keeping the Home Fires Affordable Home Décor Gifts at Discount, Variety and Floral Stores

Home décor represents a popular category at discount, variety, and floral stores – particularly during the pandemic. For this article, store staff members and owners provided insight about their top sellers and how to find them, as well as the best ways for stores to sell more décor items.

At Down to Earth, a gardening and floral store in Eugene, Ore., Manager Rachel Klinnert said “House plants are my top-selling home décor item. We offer them in a range of sizes with indoor pottery to complement them. We also do a lot of home décor gift items, such as candles, and kitchen goods like Fiestaware. We have Fiestaware bowls, fruit bowls, and plates in all colors, all made in the U.S., and many people mix and match them.”

To sell more décor items, Klinnert relies on social media posts and displays in-store, combining décor items with other merchandise. Finding new home décor items that fit well in the 9,000-square-foot store’s merchandise mix is an on-going process, she reported. “We’re always looking for new local vendors, and we support our local artisans with the items they offer, such as local pottery. We look for sustainable materials and unique items.” Klinnert added that “We go to trade shows and search in catalogs as well as reaching out to local vendors.”

In Seattle, Wash., at City Peoples Gardening Store, Gifts Buyer Lisa Crabtree explained that pillows are the store’s “number one top selling décor items. We also do well with pots for plants both indoors and outdoors. But pillows are the big item in interior décor for us. They’re colorful and we look for organic materials, natural materials with texture.” According to Crabtree, “A lot of our pillows feature some embroidery or applique rather than just simple prints. We look for woven items, any pillows that are unusual.”

“House plants are my top-selling home décor item. We offer them in a range of sizes with indoor pottery to complement them. We also do a lot of home décor gift items, such as candles, and kitchen goods like Fiestaware. We have Fiestaware bowls, fruit bowls, and plates in all colors, all made in the U.S., and many people mix and match them.”

- Rachel Klinnert, Down to Earth, Eugene, Ore.

Selling more home décor items at the 5000-squarefoot store includes “a fair bit of emphasis on social media,” but Crabtree asserted that the best way to improve sales is still in the store. “It’s really an experiential thing. People come in for the nursery and they come in for gifts, and we have attractive displays. We don’t really sell online.” However, she noted that the store also does a monthly newsletter. “We focus on the new items that come in through our newsletter, as well as on Instagram and Facebook. We post special group stories on our home décor items.”

Finding new items in this category has been a challenge, especially recently, she reported. “We haven’t been going to trade shows because of Covid the past few years. So, I look for things I like, I try to include local vendors whenever possible, and I research products on Etsy. I also hear about certain items through word of mouth, and I follow up on those items that are of interest to me. We always try to buy and support locally whenever we can.”

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Keeping the Home (From page 32) mix of merchandise. “I use catalogs, I find local vendors, I use online ecommerce panels like Fair. We’re just starting to go back to trade shows. I always try to support local makers when we can and bring in things that are unique and different.”

Also in Seattle, at The Beehive Mercantile variety store, Owner Paula Lukoff explained that “as a mercantile, we sell a little bit of everything from furniture to clothing and foods, but when it comes to home décor, we do best with candles of all kinds and unique glass votive candle holders. We also look for items that have a kind of vintage flair,” she said. “In fact, for my displays, I like to bring in some vintage items from estate sales to add in.” Along with the candles and votive candle holders, Lukoff says that like Crabtree, she does best with pillows. “Particularly we do well with high-end designer pillows in silks and velvets, or more novelty types of pillows, such as those with bees on them because of our store name, or nautical themes because of our location in a community by the water.” Another big hit: “Kraken items are selling well, because our new hockey team is called the Kraken. So, we’ve brought in pillows and wall hangings with big octopuses on them.” The store also does strong décor sales with original art and prints from local illustrators, as well as with pottery pieces for air plants. “The best-sellers in home décor really changes with the seasons here,” she said.

At the 2,000-square-foot Sweet Discounts in Sacramento, Calif., Augustine Hernandez , the owner of the busy discount store, described candles as his numberone best-selling home décor item. “Definitely candles do the best. Mirrors are another strong seller for us. They’re good bargains because the price is right; we offer 50% off all year long. They’re good quality items as well.” He described home décor as a popular category for his store, although most shoppers are looking for clothing or kitchen items when they come into the store. Asked how he promotes sales of more décor items, he explained, “We post anything new that comes in on social media.”

As to how he finds the items he stocks in the store, Hernandez stated, “Primarily, we use liquidators to supply our merchandise, including home décor items.”

“Our owner, buyer, and merchandiser is amazing at creating displays. She mixes and matches décor with non-décor items, and the displays are all colorized, too. For example, if we have a black and white ceramic section, then we have a black and white wrap displayed next to that.”

Lukoff’s top-techniques to sell more home décor items at her 6,200-square-foot shop include in-store displays and social media posts. “I think selling more décor pieces comes down to a combination of things. In-store displays are very important. I set up little vignettes about the merchandise, and we put a lot of décor items in our windows to catch people’s attention coming into the store. On Instagram, I do a lot of promotion there, and we’re in the process of getting our ecommerce site up and running, which will lead to additional sales in this area.”

She follows an equally eclectic approach to finding and adding new home décor items that fit her store’s

In Langley, Wash., at The Star Store, Janet O’Sullivan manages dry goods in a store that includes a large grocery and deli along with a wide mix of clothing, accessories, gifts, and décor. According to O’Sullivan, the store has a range of best-sellers. “It’s hard to pick just one or two. We sell lots of different kinds of glassware and ceramics, and they all do very well for us. I would have to say ceramic goods are the biggest décor sellers for us.” To sell more of these items, it’s in-store display all the way, she asserted. “Our owner, buyer, and merchandiser is amazing at creating displays. She mixes and matches décor with non-décor items, and the displays are all colorized, too.” She explained, “For example, if we have a black and white ceramic section, then we have a black and white wrap displayed next to that.”

Much of the merchandise the Whidbey Island mainstay offers came from trade show finds in the past, O’Sullivan said. “We have not gone to the shows in a while though because of COVID, so right now, online shopping is the way that we find many of our items.”

From gardening and floral shops to discount and variety stores, home décor is a merchandise category that’s staying strong, and frequently utilizes handcrafted items. ❖