Organizing Your Store's Baby Shower Gift Registry
The first step in developing a baby shower gift registry is to list major product groupings within categories. A feeding category, for example, should list reusable and disposable products, bottles, breastfeeding products and aids, as well as bibs and high chairs. Include as many gift products as possible at various price points to make it convenient and financially affordable for anyone wishing to purchase from the registry.
Effective shower registries will show columns for product, color, or pattern, as well as the items needed, items already bought, and date sold. Information on the shower registrant is also a valuable tool for future contact with the customer. Aside from the basic information such as name, address, and phone number of registrant, obtain shower date, estimated delivery date, and ages of other children in the household in order to help drive future sales. The name of the salesperson working with the customer may also come in handy. You will find that stores that are successful with their shower registries will fine tune the list often to more specifically focus on their customers' needs and on regional trends.
Marketing a Shower Gift Registry
A well thought out and organized shower gift registry is essential, but how do potential customers find out about your valuable service?
Direct mail is generally the most effective method of attracting potential expectant parents to your store with the least waste, and it is targeted directly to your potential customer. Prenatal mailing lists for expectant parents within your surrounding store zip codes can be obtained from a number of mailing list companies (mostly located in larger cities). A simple single sheet bulk mailing is usually the most cost effective and successful method of reaching your potential customer.
In the mailing, online for the customer the rewarding advantages of shopping in your store. Stress the fact that you have a professional staff of knowledgeable and helpful salespeople who will provide personal attention. They will take the time necessary to explain the benefits of the products needed in order to make better shopping experiences for customers.
Use special incentives to entice the customer into your store to complete the shower registry. Maybe it will be a free sitting at a local portrait studio, free custom-printed shower cards, free furniture delivery after a certain purchase level is achieved, or discounts on purchases based on the number of products selected on the registry. Whatever the choice, it's a relatively inexpensive way of generating profitable future business.
Offer registrants small business-like cards or postcards (at no charge) explaining that they have registered for their showers at your store. Include location and directions to your store, phone/fax numbers, and toll-free number and e-mail address, if available.
Encourage out-of-town friends and relatives to phone in orders, and offer gift-wrapped shipping directly to them or to the registrant.
Train Sales People
As an independent store owner, customer service should be one of your top priorities. As such, your salespeople should be specifically trained to walk around with the shower registrant to inform her about benefits of products she may list on her registry and to recommend other popular products. This is one of your major competitive weapons.
Shower Registry Layaway
Consider offering a shower registry layaway, where shower registrants can actually pre-order their larger, major ticket products, such as furniture and bedding, and their friends and relatives will be able to purchase the products out of their layaway. To effect such a layaway, a formal contract, including a modest deposit, should be drafted between you and the customer, whereby it becomes the responsibility of the customer to take possession of all layaway items at a predetermined point in time, after friends and relatives have completed their purchases.
Computerized Registry
Living in the digital age provides you with several new ways to improve the efficiency and profitability of your registry business. Gift registry software is available for your store, allowing you to easily create and change registries for parents on the computer and to quickly find and print a registry for gift shoppers. Many also include standard management reports that enable you to analyze (and improve) your registry business. Additional options may include handheld scanners to simplify the registration process for your customers, touch-screen functions allowing customers to access registry information from a sales floor kiosk, and more.
An integrated Internet component is an extremely valuable addition. Some registry software, such as My Baby RegistryTM from Dax Innovations, connects your in-store registry to a web site, allowing parents to share their registry with friends and family worldwide. Those friends and family members can also make a gift purchase from your store via the web. This essential tool helps local stores compete professionally with the nationwide mass marketers for new registry business.
Organization
Whether you choose to computerize your registry or not, paper copies of each active registry should be organized into a notebook and alphabetized by the registrants' last names. Just as your well-trained and informative salesperson walked the floor with the shower registrant, so, too, should the process be repeated with the shower buyer. It may be helpful for the same salesperson who helped complete the registry to handle potential buyers from it. In this way, the salesperson will be more in tune with the wants and needs of the registrant, and can better utilize suggestive selling techniques.
Taking a professional and organized approach to your shower registry in terms of mailings to potential customers, use of in-store signage, and employing well-trained, knowledgeable salespeople will provide both shower registrants and buyers with a positive, memorable experience and a lasting impression of your operation.
Subsequent mailings to them about youth furniture and accessories available or special in-store events will reinforce their positive experiences and prolong their longevity as your customers.
Word-of-mouth advertising from loyal, satisfied customers should be your primary desire, and a powerfully executed shower registry can help you attain that goal.