It is terrific to see the mens gift offering expand beyond stubby holders, socks and similar. Thanks to new wholesalers and better buying by existing wholesalers we are able to tap into cool gifts with a broader appeal than we have had in the past.
I am especially liking gifts that play well outside of seasons, as well as gifts that skew for guys but can work just as well for girls. It is a bonus is they work well for people 35 and younger.
Whereas in the past mens gifts used to be the same year in and year out, now we can play as if we are in the fashion business, seasonally, knowing that what is in this season will have faded next season. Sure this is harder work for the retailer, but the benefits are worth it is we can become known as being a shop with cool gifts.
The changes over the last couple of years and in 2018 in particular in the mens gifts space are considerable. This is why I say it is exciting … because through this category of gift we can expand the appeal of our business both to existing shoppers as well as to new traffic shoppers.
Plus, many of the newer, funkier, mens gifts lend themselves to social media pitches. This is vital if we are to seek out and attract new shoppers to our businesses.
Finding the gifts is a challenge as you need to either have existing suppliers innovating through their buying for you or your need to seek our new suppliers who so not usually serve the channel. Both are options. I am seeing both work well in may businesses.
Given the number of cards we sell for males, it makes sense that we are strong in the male gift space. That said, gift sales in our channel skew strongly female, more strongly than the percentage of female cards we sell. I think this is because of buying choices by newsagents and others in our businesses who do the buying. It is something we need to fix, in our buying. The new products we have access to can help with that.