Gift Closets: How to Promote “Evergreen” Gifts Year-Round

October 31, 2014 Evergreen Enterprises 0 Comments

For years now, consumers have been using the concept of a “gift closet” as a way to better manage their gift giving. With the recent spread of social media sharing via blogs and Pinterest, gift closets have lately become a very popular trend, impacting the buying habits of thousands of household purchasers. So, just what is a “gift closet”?

How Gift Closets Work
Based on the motto that it pays to be prepared, people will buy gifts long before they are actually needed, and store them in designated location in the home for future use. While maintaining a gift closet is a flexible concept that may look different for each person, most consumers are using a gift closet for one or both of the following 2 advantages:

1. Convenience
With numerous reasons and occasions to give throughout the year, people can buy gifts on their own schedule and be ready in advance, instead of waiting until the last minute and scrambling to buy something for an occasion they may not have seen coming, or may have just forgotten about. Keeping a stash of “giftable” items allows buyers to be ready for birthdays, showers, graduations, weddings, and other events at short notice. 

2. Cost
Buying gifts ahead of schedule (even months in advance) also lets cost-conscious consumers save money by taking advantage of seasonal sales, clearance tables, and other discount opportunities to keep their overall spending down. Frugal living is a very common topic of discussion online these days, and gift closets are a popular technique among the thrifty.
As the practice of pre-buying gifts varies from person to person, so does the storage method. Just because it’s called a “gift closet” doesn’t mean that people always use an actual closet. People with smaller assortments of gifts may use a single closet shelf, a large drawer, or even a corner of a room. The most successful gift closets are maintained by people who take time to plan, budget, and organize. Some make lists of all the people or occasions they might buy for throughout the year, or even use an Excel spreadsheets to track their "inventory"!

How Retailers Can Get Involved
At the very least, retailers should be aware of the popularity of gift closets, and how consumers tend to embrace this trend in their own homes. But beyond that, it’s also something that you can promote or take advantage of in your own store. Here are 3 basic ways that may work for you:

1. Signage
We know that many retailers are tight on space in their stores, and may not have much room to add something like a “great gift closet items” area. But even just some simple signage can make a difference. You may want to to include a sign mentioning the gift closet idea for customer who aren’t yet aware, or you may want to mark existing products you carry as potential gift closet items for those who already have their own system at home.

2. Stock
Speaking of items, you’ll want to make sure you carry enough different types of products to cover all of the gift-giving occasions and recipients that your customers may be looking to buy for. We all know that the Christmas is most gift-oriented holiday of the year. (And it’s coming relatively soon!) But there are countless other opportunities for gift giving at other times of the year as well. We’ve got tons of gift-oriented items for just about every occasion you can think of—birthday, wedding, baby, teachers, anniversary, graduation, and more! We also offer lots of giftable items with universal, year-round appeal for under $25 retail.

3. Savings

Apron Strings Kitchen Store, www.apronstringsstore.com

When it comes to price, we mentioned above that buyers are often looking for the best deals to stock their gift closets. If you sometimes put things on clearance, we recommend grouping them together in one place to help identify them as easy gift closet additions. We routinely keep a wide selection of items on sale (as much as 50% off!) that you may want to use as inexpensive gift closet ideas, passing the savings on to your customers rather than price according to your normal margins.

We hope that these suggestions give you some ideas of how you can adopt the growing habit of gift closets and use it to help grow your business. For more information on our entire product selection, please visit us online at www.MyEvergreen.com

.