A green light for giftware: looking to grow your business? Give yourself the gift of giftware and get a piece of the $36 to $50 million Americans spend on it each year - Statistical Data Included

Art Business News, August, 2002 by Jennifer Wong

"Anything goes," said Bessie Nestoras, editor of Gifts & Dec. "Personal choice is the trend." If you want to carry giftware, you have a variety of high-quality options at various price points to choose from that didn't exist in the industry before. This means that you can customize trends based on where your store is located.

Start Small

If you are thinking of carrying giftware, start slowly by offering unique photo frames. "We have people who come in who can't afford custom framing for a small photo," said Moore. "We can give them a $20 ready-made frame that looks great. It helps to have all the options for a customer."

It's a natural that a frame shop would carry ready-mades, said Wieder, but carry something unique that your customers won't see at a department store.

Gifts in a custom frame shop go hand-in-glove for some framers. People come in to frame all sorts of things--many of them as gifts--so why not extend your products and offer gift items in your shop? Plus Americans are notorious for buying on impulse and desire. "People like to poke around and look at things and touch them," said Wieder. "It can be a blank experience for people to walk into a frame shop and just see a wall of corner samples."

Most of all, make the decision to carry giftware because it's something you are interested in and think would be fun. Then get to know your customers' preferences and get excited about what you carry in your shop. Before you know it, you'll be shopping for gifts with all the extra money from giftware.

SOURCES

Barnes & Co., (615) 385-9955

Fotofolio, (212) 226-0923

Gifts & Dec, 800-309-3332

Linnea Design, 888-582-2577

Maximal Art, (215) 483-5563

Michael Studio, (310) 390-9900

Mirage, (416) 285-7991

Unity Marketing, (717) 336-1600