Will Gas Prices Slow Your Basket Sales?
Last Tuesday, my area’s newspaper (The Record) published a front-page story on gas prices and how small businesses are coping with deliveries, charges, and making sure costs are covered without losing lots of customers.
The reporter interviewed several businesses including a limousine firm, pizza shop, and mattress distributer. The company that most interested me was a flower shop. They recently increased the price of flower deliveries from $7.50 to $8.50.
“That hasn’t had much effect on orders,…People know it costs them just as much to drive here and pick it up.”
Rather than increase their local $1.25 delivery fee, the pizza shop owner raised the price of a plain large pizza from $11.75 to $12.50.
Are you making sure that your delivery costs are covered? Here are three tips, one which hopefully fits the way you do business.
1. Schedule gift basket deliveries for once daily. Deliveries outside of this schedule (rush or special orders) include a gas surcharge fee.
2. Resist driving to retail stores to buy gift basket inventory. This practice consumes many gallons of gas that’s best conserved for marketing purposes.
3. Become familiar with streamlined ordering from manufacturers and distributors than you may have in the past. Such firms are listed on the wholesalers’ page and at Gift Basket Wholesale Supplies. Expect a nominal increase in their delivery charges, which is offset by the increase in your gift basket prices.
How are you coping with the gas price explosion? Is it difficult for you to raise prices, or are you absorbing the cost on your own?
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Cheer Baskets are the New Get Well
One of the first lessons I teach at gift basket classes comes as a warning when creating get well baskets.
I suggest to budding designers that they omit certain edible products that may put the receiver back in the hospital. Alternatives to traditional gift basket contents are soups, teas, puzzles, and books.
A recent article published in Courant.com focuses on get well baskets. They interview several designers that create “baskets of cheer.”
Photos aren’t available, but I believe you’ll appreciate the background and insights on what makes their baskets unique and appealing, especially since it’s sometimes difficult to decide what to put in comforting gifts.
I explain product and design options for get well baskets in this video.
Is “baskets of cheer” a better way to say “get well baskets?” Before changing your theme’s name, consider what customers will think. If they understand the meaning of “get well” more than they understand “baskets of cheer,” then don’t change the name.
When making get well baskets or other themes, make sure you know how customers will pay ahead of time. That’s the weekend subject at Ask The Gift Basket Expert.
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How to Step into Sales Opportunities
While running errands last weekend, I saw the cutest baby and toddler shoes selling at deep discounts. Shoes are one of many specialty containers I talk about in this article.
They’re not only a great reminder of how small my daughter once was, I also immediately thought about how these petite shoes create wonderful “foot in the door” and appreciation gifts.
At four dollars for each pair, it was difficult to not buy several dozen. Do you also find yourself applying brakes before overbuying?
It’s smart to take a deep breath and consider a sales plan before spending your hard-earned cash on products and services. That’s how I curbed my spending before buying the decorative shoe you see above which I filled with bath beads. It’s a great item that sold well, but I was careful not to purchase too many even though they were six dollars a pair.
Overspending not only extended my budget, it also exhausted my storage space, a problem mentioned in Buying and Storing Products.
Here are three ideas that worked to sell my shoe-based gifts:
What do you think about shoe-based gifts? Do you currently offer them to clients, or do you believe that they’re an item that clients will walk by?
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Mixing Charity with Gift Baskets
Two weeks ago, in the Gift Baskets Newsletter, I explained the process of wholesaling your gifts through hospital gift shops and how it may be an overlooked revenue stream.
The other side of the coin is assisting hospitals to create gift baskets as donations or for benefits and auctions. I was reminded of this in a recent Fort Morgan Times article.
“The baskets will be sold in a silent auction to raise funds for the hospital’s Relay For Life team,…”
Read about some of the products and themes chosen by hospital staff members.
I have three tips if you believe this type of charity will promote your expertise while giving back to a worthy cause.
1. Contact the public relations office to introduce yourself and let the person in charge know about your commitment to charities and functions associated with the hospital.
2. Put your fears about creating competition to rest. It’s highly unlikely that your participation will unleash an army of professional designers at the facility.
3. Get close-up photographs of the event’s designs. The newspaper picture shows more of the empty table and less of the gift baskets.
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Baskets of Changes in Store
There’s just one way I can express my appreciation to you for bookmarking and/or subscribing to this blog, and that’s to update the appearance and share new and exciting opportunities for you to learn, grow, and profit with gift baskets.
This update was long overdue. The previous infrastructure crumbled. You couldn’t share your comments, and it got to a point where I could not access the backend to post daily information.
I hired a professional to change everything, and this is the result.
In the next few weeks I’ll let you know what’s in store. Meanwhile, what do you think of the new appearance, and what’s most pressing in your business that you wish addressed here?
I’ll still respond to questions at Ask The Gift Basket Expert; however, since we’re getting comfortable here, I encourage and welcome your feedback. Click on the blue “Comment” link above, and express your thoughts (Shirley, I can’t stand it, it’s great, etc.).
Here’s to more years of uncovering the best and brightest ideas to create a bountiful business with gift baskets.
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