Gifts for men are a challenge for shoppers and retailers. Shoppers commonly say they can’t find anything interesting for me and retailers often say the same thing at gift fairs and from talking with gift wholesalers. This problem is magnified in the newsagency channel where suppliers assume what we can sell, and are often wrong.
We are using Father’s Day to pitch some fresh gifts for men in multiple locations in-store. Gifts not from traditional newsagency suppliers. The key to this is each display displaying range more so than volume of stock.
It is working well with gifts performing well in the business, people discovering items they did not realise we stocked, gifts that work outside of the Father’s Day traditional gift.
Some items have been imported especially, thereby providing a unique platform for pitching in-store and online. They help bring a fresh visual aesthetic to the season, which I like.
A kock-on benefit for us is the traffic the various father’s Day displays attract and they opportunity to then browse nearby Father’s Day cards. This is important as newsagencies are not the same destination for card season traffic that they were a few years ago.
I am excited for Father’s Day this year and what we can do to reposition the business as a offering gifts for a broader appeal than people may have assumed.