5 Must Haves that Make Selling Gift Baskets Easy

October 24, 2008 · Filed Under Industry Information 

Which group of words best describe your gift basket business?

  • Easy to operate
  • Monthly profits
  • Low stress

  • Struggle
  • Time Consuming
  • Labor intense

    • No one told you that this business would be easy, and that’s true for all businesses. There’s a fixed amount of time involved before any enterprise finally begins making steady cash.

    Gift basket designers sometimes focus on their businesses for three years or more before they can stop working for someone else and have the profits earned from their businesses pay personal bills.

    If this was a make-lots-of-money-the-first-month business, the barriers to entry would be so high that you’d look for another industry.

    There are five resources that will make selling gift baskets a smoother and easier process, allowing you to lessen your stress, satisfy customers quicker, and let you steadily put cash in your bank account each month. Are you familiar with them?

    1. Inventory that Matches Customers’ Preferences

    It’s great to see lots of products on your shelves. It’s not great to watch that same inventory become caked with dust because you choose the wrong products, so knowing your customers and what they want is a priority.

    Before you buy your first inventory or more merchandise to add to existing products, focus on the people who buy often. Consider your region and specialty products. Look at your sales to see which items fly off shelves first.

    Then you can look at wholesaler lists online, including natural and organic options, and choose better, quicker-selling assortments.

    2. Pre-Made Forms

    Sales, credit, deliveries, inventory, competition - how will you document information that’s vital to your business?

    You can either wait until the form is needed and then take precious time away from designing to try and create one, or you can get a ready-made supply of popular forms made exclusively for the gift basket industry.

    From there, it’s so easy to duplicate each form and place them in a binder to grab as needed. Or you can keep the forms on your computer, completing the information while speaking with a customer and print it on demand.

    Make a form from scratch or easily fill in the blanks. Which option is for you?

    3. Organized Workspace

  • Is your tape dispenser hidden under a pile of papers?
  • Why is the gold-colored curling ribbon on the floor under the work table?
  • Are crackers purchased in the spring still waiting to be unpacked?

    • These problems make business management difficult. Thankfully, these traits can end, to be replaced with better habits to manage your workspace.

    It won’t happen overnight, but with perseverance, you’ll invest 30 minutes or less to clean your space each evening and arrive every morning at an organized facility, ready for the day’s production and revenue that comes with it.

    Have you ever seen an organized gift basket shop? Check out these before and after photos.

    4. Drop Shipping

    Two immediate reasons come to mind when I think about why gift basket retailers maintain relationships with drop shippers:

  • Their city does not allow them to create and sell gift baskets from home, but that rule doesn’t stop you from pursuing business.

  • Business is booming. In fact, your marketing works so well that the orders are arriving faster than you can manage.

    • That’s just two reasons, and there are more for working with drop shipping companies.

    They provide great designs, simplify the order process, and make it easy for you to add their photos on your site and sell to your customers. Problems are handled quickly, and they pay commissions on time.

    No wonder they’re a must have. Here’s how to get started.

    5. Marketing Materials

    “Do you have a catalog?” is a question you hear every day when speaking with prospects by phone. What’s your answer?

  • “You can see gift baskets on my Web site” is one response, but not everyone has a computer.

  • “Sorry, we don’t have brochures” ends any possibility of a sale and associated referrals.

    • Today’s technology makes brochures, flyers, and postcards easy to create, print, and mail. The best part is that once it’s done, there are few changes the next time you print them, and revenue made from this sales tool is worth the investment.

    See sample brochures here.

    Which of these must haves saves you time and stress?

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    Comments

    2 Responses to “5 Must Haves that Make Selling Gift Baskets Easy”

    1. Lorie Obernauer on October 29th, 2008 11:35 pm

      Carefully analyzing your customers’ preferences is a sure-fire way to continue to sell your gourmet designs. I love dark chocolate, but each time we look at our “best-sellers”, milk chocolate items are at the top of the list. It’s important to continue to offer your customers new items, but don’t forget to stock up on their favorites. Thank you Shirley for reminding us about this important factor to consider when buying.

    2. Shirley George Frazier on October 30th, 2008 3:08 pm

      Lorie,

      You bring up an excellent point about buying what customers love versus buying our personal preferences.

      I quickly learned, at the beginning of my business, that buying what I liked kept inventory on my shelves!

      It’s best to familiarize ourselves with what buyers want so that cash registers ring more often.

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