Convenient bags and boxes boost gift wrap sales

Drug Store News, Jan 3, 1994 by Allene Symons

This shopper is in a hurry. She's just left work and is heading for a friend's birthday dinner, but first she needs a way to gift wrap the potted plant she bought on her lunch hour.

She finds the answer in her nearby chain drug store: A plastic gift bag large enough for her outsized gift, and it comes with a decorative cord for the bow. She finishes her no-scissors, no-tape gift wrap by adding a gift card and the special touch of a bright tie-on satin heart.

The gift wrap category is on the upswing, fueled by the demographics of busy working women who are switching to convenience wraps like gift bags and boxes.

Convenience wraps are also drawing more men into the gift wrap department, buyers report, since now it's easy for a guy who is all thumbs with tape and wrapping paper to sidestep both for a colorful bag or box.

Buyer Penn Keller of Martinez, Calif.-based Valco Drug reports that his combination greeting card and gift wrap department is up 27 percent over last year. Keller says, "More and more of the business is with bags." They are taking space from other departments, he adds. Gift wrap at Valco is now 16 feet and expanding.

Get a handle on it

Diana Wolff of Med-X says, "Handle bags are hot." So are stuffing tissue and other accessories. "That's where the money is," says Wolff. "We're doing the volume in accessories." She has boxes in new sizes and shapes on order and says of the expanding novelty gift box business, "I think it will be interesting, and I think it's great--if you have room to display them."

At a large national chain, the buyer notes that the new printed ribbons and tissues are good performers in the chain's average 27-foot sections. A popular combination, as selected by customers at this chain, is promotionally priced solid colored handle bags in the 99-cent range with the purchase of the higher ticket filler tissue. Tie-ons or package decorations--like a tiny baby rattle for a baby gift wrap--are also selling well.

Several buyers, including Valco's Keller, report that combo packs--flat wrap with a coordinated bow--are still selling. On the other hand, many buyers would probably agree with one buyer who said that roll wrap is "probably losing some volume to the gift bag and colored boxes."

With an increasing number of design choices and price points--new iridescent papers, printed ribbons and tissues, for example--a shopper can customize a gift with her own mix of decorative touches. Plus, she can economize on one item, such as a bag, then splurge on another item like tissue.

Total gift cost is also a factor. In this tight economy, more consumers are discovering that they can cut back on gifts because a festively wrapped gift conveys caring for a modest cost. A premium satin bow, especially for weddings or anniversaries, adds more perceived value to the gift than the extra cost of trading up from regular ribbon.

Display innovations

Drug chain buyers also note that manufacturers are rallying to support the gift wrap surge by providing innovation beyond product design.

New compact fixtures from American Greetings, for example, display gift wrap and accessories in lifestyle or everyday occasion groupings instead of in categories (all bows together or all gift tags together). The manufacturer also offers new box sizes in a display with a measuring rule to help shoppers choose the right size for different gifts.

Ambassador and Hallmark offer POS programs to reduce out-of-stocks while streamlining inventory, and both have beefed up their design offerings and licensed gift wrap products.

In addition, both Hallmark and AG offer new signing. Hallmark's conveys the line's value prices, while AG offers signing to call out its occasion-boutiqued products.

In its new licensed program for 1994, Cleo offers 14 new licensed designs, including Sesame Street, Tuff Mickey, Animaniacs, Minnie!, The Lion King and The Flintstones. Also new for 1994: 32 gift bag designs plus four new displays besides Cleo's 3-foot permanent endcaps. Also offered are eight new printed tissue designs and licensed bag and accessory items including Mickey Mouse and other Disney favorites such as Goofy and Bambi, Michael Jordan and new this spring, Looney Tunes.

Gibson introduces Gift Wrap To Go, a new convenience line of bag and box ensembles with tissue and gift tags. Other new gift bags include jumbo plastic sacks in different colors and designs for wrapping oversized objects like an infant car seat.

Lowering prices

Hallmark is taking an aggressive stand in gift wrap with price reductions: 70 percent of gift wrap prices are at or below 1991 prices; 26 percent are below 1989 prices. The manufacturer also offers bags in more sizes (SRPs range from $.79 to $1.29), more licensed designs and a greater selection of wedding and baby shower gift wrap.

Hallmark's design replacement rate has increased from 30 percent to 70 percent. Its gift-wrap display has been expanded to a total of 54 feet, including 10 feet of options.

AG offers gift wrap supertrays, including Superman and Thomas the Tank Engine, which can serve as feature ends, endcaps or freestanding displayers.