Wanna be a gift seller? Read on….

Hey Mr. Grumpy – yes, I mean you sitting at the other end of the counter of the gift store. Are you listening? A guy yelled at Mr. Wilson - an octogenarian who has a gift card store at the Broad Street. Now, let me ask you did you get any message here? No? Then, sit back and take long breath and perhaps a glass of cold water and make you comfortable enough to read the aforesaid lines once more. I‘m sure this time you have cracked the underlying myth of the lines that I insisted for visiting once more.

What is a gift store?

A gift means a lot; but the meaning which is more appropriate and productive in our case is something acquired without paying compensation in money or monetary terms as a receiver of it. A gift store however stands for a shop where gifts are kept in a tastefully decorated manner vying for your attention.

Who can have a gift store?   

To put things in right perspective the ideal question should have been who you think should run a gift store.

They say, winners don’t do different things – they do things differently. Likewise to run a gift store successfully you need to have to be a genius like Einstein or Newton – all that you need is attitude; attitude in dealing with people, attitude in handling your customers and attitude in making them precious for you, a seller.

What a gift seller should know beforehand?

From a marketer’s perspective a seller, wanting to own a gift store, should address the following questing before taking a plunge into it.

ü  What makes the gift store rocking?
ü  Why do you think people should come to you?
ü  Where should you open the store?
ü  What would you do to make sure that the first timers’ come back to your store?

Let’s discuss it one by one.

• Making the Gift Store rocking: A combination of factors contributes in making a gift store rocking; but the first and foremost objective must be always to collect the best items in the product line for your store which will automatically create a brand pool for your store.
• Making sure of footfall at the store: You have already done the homework through the selection of right product mix. Now, the next move should be to study prevailing prices the gift items vis-à-vis your products. You need not have to be competitive always provided you have better product line on offer at reasonable prices.
• Place of Store opening: Try and open your store in a convenient location where commuting becomes easy. This ensures regular footfall at your store, thereby higher propensity to sale.
• Ensuring repeat sales: It reminds me of a story where two honey sellers were in the same neighborhood and just side by side. One stocked the best quality honey while the other not so good. But, after sometime people began avoiding the first shop that kept the best honey because of rude behavior of that seller. Do I need to say anything more?

A piece of advice – never take your customers for granted. You have to be competitive and innovative enough to retain them for sure.