[BCMA] Advice sought for improving Museum gift shop

[Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv.]

For successful sales, begin by seeing your place through the eyes of its visitors and users.  Learn what they hope or expect to find there and then exceed their hopes with your offerings, however few or simple.  Build your repeat business through word-of-mouth by happy customers.   Look to current leading trends in society and then find retail items that reflect those along with the topics your institution presents.   Link past history with the present for effective sales.in the present.  For effective sales revenue, do not just represent or offer history by itself.   That is not to say that books with historic topics are not useful, for there is a decent audience for them.    Just do not stop there and think you will have a successful shop.   

Attend the annual Gift Show(s) in Vancouver and Edmonton to learn what is at the forefront of consumer trends, and stock with those things that link in some visible interpretive way with your museum themes and audience.   If you can not afford to attend the shows, spend time with popular magazines representing a variety of interests.  Look for what appeals currently to men, to women, to children, to the elderly, to the young and make sure you have a good balance for each on the shelves.  Picture your various visitor types and discover items for each of them.   Above all, do not limit yourself to "museum" or "history" items.   Find things that meet contemporary interests and desires but that also reflect those same interests from the past.

Avoid giving shelf space to local artists and crafters just because they are local and want to show their stuff in your shop.   If a normal retail shop would not sell their things successfully, you probably will not either.   Do not waste valuable shelf space on things that do not sell.   Make your customers happy by stocking things they want.  And, I don't mean junk tourism trinkets, but things that really give meaning and interpretation to the topics in your museum.   Visitors volunteered their time to come seeking that experience.  The shop should be a continuation of your exhibits, but acting as a threshold experience between the inner and outer worlds, linking both through useful retail items and those that will provide a memory of the experience for visitors.

If necessary, consider purchasing stock items in cooperation with other local museums and galleries as a way to meet minimum order requirements.   Do not consider the other institutions as competition but as partners in building the image of museums and galleries as having shops people want to shop at because they have good stock.

Consider "consignment" very carefully before doing it.  The normal split or retail is 40% shop and 60% artist/consigner.   Normal retail mark-up is 100% of wholesale and you can even do more if it will work.   For a successful shop, you will want to focus on things that will earn you the most.   

Don't waste shelf space on stuff that sells too slowly unless it is an item that somehow presents a good image of what your shop and museum is all about.   Including a few high priced items of a certain type can help to promote good sales of lower priced items of the same type.   Evaluate displays and sales constantly, moving things around until successful sales patterns emerge.    A common strategy to cause the sale of a stifled item is to move it to another location.   Often its sale will then happen within the first hour.  (Personally, I think it is because of the subtle effect of long term UV on material surfaces, and something that appears out of place will get immediate attention.)

A strategy for avoiding saying "No" to mundane art or craft items but to provide a positive ("Yes") for community relationships with ordinary local artists, artisans and audience is to host occasional special exhibits based on themes that relate to your institution.   For example, host an art show with the theme of ":Heritage" or "Nature or "Portraits" or :"Flowers", etc., allowing whatever that might mean to the artists, rather than just an "Art Show" or "Pottery Show".

Most of all, have fun with the shop and the stock selection process.  Make it feel buoyant.   Include a man and a woman as equals in the stock selection team.   Do not have one person make all the choices.  Your audience will never be one type of person.  Consciously work to meet their needs.

Cuyler Page
Heritage Interpretation Services
Vernon, BC
cuyler at telus.net
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