I am grateful for the opportunity to walk the many floors across the three buildings of the Atlanta gift fair last last week. While there were plenty of suppliers with the squall products, there were some exciting new products to see along with new approaches to retail and visual merchandising.
This year was different to last year with suppliers more keen to do business. For example, within 24 hours of meeting with a supplier I received an email from them. This is not usually the case. – no, they wait for the long show to end and then do the follow up. The more attentive response this year indicates a keenness in a tough marketplace.
What is fascinating about the show is the range of what constitutes gifts. In Australia we are bound by what the buyers of our wholesalers select. Getting to Atlanta I get to see what those buyers miss. It is fascinating and can open to opportunities.
Every newsagent with a gift department needs to continue ti evolve the offer. They need to decide what their specialisation is. The days of being a general gift store are gone. Price is an issue too. Restricting yourself to lower price gifts could deny you destination traffic that could be valuable. In fact, at Atlanta I saw many opportunities for specialisation that could work in newsagencies.
Country newsagents are especially fortunate in the gift space as they tend to have the retail space and captive market to work well for them.
The fair itself is attended primarily by women 35+. Our group of three guys with funny accents was a bit out of place. But since Americans love a good accent we were able to charm our way to some cool stands.
Here are my top five takeaways:
- Product range refresh is vital to your success. Often, this means supplier refresh (change).
- How you display products is vital to success.
- Colour is crucial to telling stories.
- Walking the floor and interacting with what you sell is essential.
- Love what you do. It’s not a job, it is a life choice.
I have more than 300 photos from the fair. Here is a small selection to reflect some what I enjoyed.
