Advice for Store Layout that Encourages Browsing and Buying

At zoo and aquarium gift shops, advice varies as to the best ways to encourage browsing and buying in a gift shop, but organization by likeitems is a main take-away.

At the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum, General Manager Nancy McGaffic said placing like-items together is key. “I think shoppers that are looking for specific items appreciate them being together, like hat tacks and magnets and key chains all on one spinner. If someone is collecting those kinds of items, they appreciate them all being together and not having to search all over the store for them.”

Organizing merchandise by grouping similar items works well for McGaffic and for Kim Ses- sions, director of administration and the gift shop buyer for the Austin Zoo in Austin, Texas, as well. Additionally, Sessions said, “I like to do what I call a ‘speed bump,’ with something that makes customers stop and look up and see something that would encourage them to stop and shop. For us it is a rounder of plush that they have to get around in the store whether coming in or going out.” She also keeps some child-centric items at eye-level on lower shelves so they can see them, reach them, touch them, and then “tell their parents or grandparents they want the toy.”

In Seward, Alaska, Vicki Cromer, lead receiving supervisor at the Alaska Sealife Center gift shop noted “The first thing they see when they come in is usually what they walk out the door with, whatever their eye sees first. We did a whole table of plush that we put up front, and that is all we sold that day. So, my best advice,” she said, “is keep whatever you want to sell up front.”

And, in Bend, Ore., at the High Desert Museum, Alison Luce, retail lead at the museum’s Silver Sage Trading gift shop, said the key to display is “Make sure that things are easy for people to find. We are currently a work in progress because we’ve recently had some transitions here, but grouping similar items together, and placing the items where people can easily see them, is extremely important.” ❖

Trading gift shop also sells a lot of name-dropped items. The museum explores the history and culture of the west as well as displaying extensive exhibits of living wildlife and flora and fauna.

According to Luce “I would say T-shirts, magnets, stickers, and tote bags that are name-dropped all do very well. We always try to have, and display, items that either reflect the museum or are from the environmental region that we’re located in.”

Among those are plush animals related to the museum’s own live exhibits, such as otters, porcupines, owls, and other local wildlife, but Luce said at this time the plush items are not namedropped.

Although these plush items are extremely popular, so are the name-dropped souvenirs and gifts the mu- seum offers. “People like to have souvenirs that have the name of the place or institution they visited on them, for sure. It makes them more meaningful.”

As a small shop, Silver Sage Trading needs to display its souvenir items by “grouping like-items together. We have the name-dropped items, let’s say magnets, in with other magnets that do not have our name on them.”

Overall, name-dropped items remain a big hit for zoo and aquarium gift shops, with customers seeking this kind of merchandise to keep their memories of visiting, and the animals they’ve seen, fresh. Displaying this merchandise along with other items in the same category is also important, in many cases because of limited space in the stores. And, offering a range of name-dropped merchandise at attraction gift shops, from clothing to magnets, is also important. ❖