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“Lifestyle ornaments have been strong for the last two years,” says Rob Waples, account executive at Old World Christmas.
“We’ve introduced four non-traditional Santa’s this year, based on lifestyles: Wine making Santa, Gardener Santa, Cell phone Santa and Highland Santa (playing the bagpipes). Last year we introduced the Fireman Santa."
These are all examples of blending traditional Christmas ornaments with different lifestyles. All have been successful for us.
“We have also introduced ornaments based on specific interests, occupations and hobbies: Doctors bag, Mechanics tools, Spool of thread, Fishing Creel, playing cards, musical instruments, sports. We are always looking for new suggestions, listening to what retailers are asking for.”
Tips for Selling Ornaments
Christine Casey, co-owner of Ornament Central says she and husband Jim have sold ornaments at the retail level since 1983. She designs all of the company’s ornaments based on what she learned all of those years. She offers these tips:
1. People collect ornaments—not just for themselves, but also for their children and grandchildren. There is a huge market that is comprised of parents, aunts and uncles, and grandparents who buy an ornament every year for each child, depicting some milestone of that year. If you carry that one ornament that your customer has been searching for, you often make the sale for all of the children or grandchildren in the family.
2. Take the time to talk to the shopper. Sometimes they only know what they aren’t looking for: “I already got her the soccer ornament, and she doesn’t dance anymore; I bought her a karate ornament, and a train the year she loved those.” This is when a few questions can help the shopper decide on that child’s ornament—does she play an instrument? Have a pet? Did she get braces, or a driver’s license? Once you help that shopper make the difficult decision, not only will he or she likely buy for the others right there, in your store, but will return all year, for other special occasions—graduation, engagement, dance recital, coach’s gift, teacher gift, weddings—these are all gift-giving occasions that ornaments can fill.
3. Ornaments are economy-proof. In this scary economy, be sure to have plenty of ornaments of many styles to meet those customers’ needs. We found in 25 years of selling them that ornaments are quite economy-proof. In a good economy, shoppers buy an ornament and tie it to the gift box with the $100 sweater in it. In a poor economy, they forgo the expensive sweater; instead, the personalized ornament is wrapped up and becomes the gift, when they realize that they can buy a gift for an individual or even the entire family living next door for less than $20, while still showing that they have put thought and caring into the gift.
4. Personalizing ornaments can increase your sales exponentially. I design most of my ornaments so that they can be sold without personalizing, since we have customers that do not want to do that. But we always try to convince storeowners that it is easier than they think it will be, and that writing a name and the year on the ornament will increase sales in a way they can’t imagine. Just as carrying a wide variety of ornaments to depict milestones in a child’s life increases sales and makes you the “go-to” store, so does personalizing, especially at a time like graduation or wedding season when the shopper is giving a gift of money, but wants something to make it more personal. A graduate ornament with the name, school, and year of graduation can be tied to a money card with a pretty ribbon and show not just the generosity of the money gift, but that the shopper put some personal thought into it as well.
The visual display experts from Midwest (800/776-2075) offer you some display ideas:
Give black top hats new life—flip upside down and fill with ornaments for a fun, playful look. Great for containing ornaments, picks, ribbon, and for creating centerpieces.
Create the illusion of a tree by suspending ornaments in a spiral from the ceiling. Use a series of metal or wire wreath bases to suspend the ornaments.
Create big impact with small trees by elevating to new heights. Display in an elevated garden urn, or by placing on a small side table.
Another way to create sales is to remind customers that ornaments can do more than hang on the tree. Use them as a decoration—draped from a hanging fixture, hanging from the woodwork, from the corners of a breakfront, etc. They can also be displayed in glass or holiday bowls.
To sum up, ornaments will not only spread holiday cheer for your customers, but they can help make your sales merry and bright.
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