Further to my post yesterday about strong greeting card sales, newsagents underperform in the gift packaging area. Newsagents have around 20% market share. Compare this to our close to 40% market share on cards and you can see that something is wrong.
Card company people I have spoken with suggest that our poor performance with gift packaging – wrap and boxes – is due to poor location in-store, poor range and poor interaction between the business and the category.
Newsagencies with good growth in the packaging area tend to have it at the front of the shop, well displayed and offering a good range. They also train staff to invite shoppers to consider the wrap.
Overseas, packaging displays tend to be built more strongly around the occasion than we see here.
This is another area of our businesses where we can be more engaged and achieve a better return as a result.
Was recently in UK and was very impressed with the packaging of their roll wrap – it hangs! meaning you can utilize unused high space enabling customers to see it from the front of the shop. It hangs about four deep and is colour cordinated – it looks fantastic.