Dec

30

How to Make Sure You Have Enough Gift Basket-Making Items to Satisfy Customers

Filed Under Product/Supply Problems | Comments Off

What’s your timetable for buying items needed for each gift basket occasion?

This decision is one that can make or break your ability to create quality designs for customers who depend on you for special event gifts.

For example, Valentine’s Day merchandise is best ordered by early January, Mother’s Day items by early April, and Father’s Day gifts by early May.

You’ll find this type of pre-planning critical to your success in 2011 due to lean inventory practices by some wholesalers and increased retail competition.

This is one of the topics to be explained in full during the teleseminar, 7 Super-Important Secrets to Know and Follow Before You Start Making Gift Baskets for Fun or Profit on Tuesday, January 11. Full details are listed at GiftBasketRadio.com, and a free gift is yours if you sign up by today.

Happy New Year!

Sep

2

Save Now by Taking Advantage of Wholesale Specials

Filed Under Wholesale Suppliers | Comments Off

This month I notice that wholesalers are offering lots of special pricing on new and familiar gift basket products.

How many of these specials have you ordered, or are you not aware of what’s available?

Set aside a few minutes of time this week to visit your favorite online wholesale Web sites. You’ll find a tab, usually in the left column, that leads you to a clearance or specials category labeled with those or similar words.

Everything won’t be of interest, but there are lots of opportunities to save money now so that your profits are higher this year.

From there, follow my advice on this 15-minute talk about selling to the corporate market, which you can access by pressing the play button below.

If you can take advantage of sale prices now, you’ll reap big rewards this holiday season.

Learn more:

You still have time to sign up to attend the one-hour online telephone seminar on Corporate Gift Baskets: How to Find Clients, How to Get Orders. Among other results, you’ll:

  • Be able to identify corporate prospects
  • Get to the decision makers and market effectively
  • Complete a near flawless presentation, concluding with sales and referral names for follow up

Click this link for more details about the teleseminar scheduled for September 7, from 8:40 – 9:40 pm EST. You’ll receive the recorded event by Email if you sign up but cannot attend the live session.

Jul

29

Gift Basket Design Techniques that Increase Sales

Filed Under Baskets, Containers, Enhancements | Comments Off

What catches your eye when searching for home decor or landscaping products?

There’s something about the shape, color, and overall attractiveness that makes you select specific items. That’s the same principle that convinces customers to say yes to your gift baskets.

When asking for feedback on the reasons why a customer chose a particular gift, the person won’t always pinpoint your design elements, but their buying patterns will give you lots of insight on what makes them buy. Here are three factors that may be high on their preference list.

1. Think Tall. Height is a motivating criteria. I noticed this not only with my clients but also when judging gift baskets at conferences years ago where other designer judges gave high marks to tall designs.

Your baskets or container gifts qualify to be wide when the required size is large. Outside of that, build up, not out. That’s a strategy that seems to be consistent in our industry.

Read more about this in the article, Tall Baskets Add Height and Sales Value.

2. Color KaChing. Let food and fashion alert you to each season’s popular color choices. This is one tip I remember hearing from the president of The Color Association of the United States. For me, she was right.

The more I stayed aware of seasonal colors and applied them to my gift baskets through shred, tissue, and bows, the more my sales increased. Look at your inventory, check the holiday color palette, and match them together.

3. Name Fame. Themes are a big attraction with individuals and corporations, and both want a name associated with each design.

Your baskets may start with names such as Welcome to the World or A Star is Born for newborns. As you expand your designs, news articles and personal conversations will help to broaden your design name options. Remember that people resonate with theme names, so make sure each of your gift baskets has one.

The answer in this article to the question, Why Name a Gift Basket? sheds more light on this topic.

What other elements of gift basket design convince your customers to buy?

Apr

29

Free Advice Can Be Hazardous to Your Business

Filed Under Enhancements, Startup Help | Comments Off

FREE ADVICE ISN’T ALL IT’S CRACKED UP TO BE

How many times have you shared your dream of gift basket business success with someone who gave you advice that didn’t work? You’re not alone.

Click here to find out how I learned not to listen to other people so that you benefit faster than I did.

WHERE TO FIND ENHANCEMENTS

Buying from a retail craft store is sometimes advantageous, but being in business requires you to buy products for a low cost that can be sold for maximum profit.

A designer recently asked where she can buy enhancements, and here’s my response.

Apr

8

How to Stabilize Bottles and Price Nested Baskets

Filed Under Baskets | Comments Off

How to Anchor Bottles in Gift Baskets

Sparkling ciders and other bottled beverages need to be stabilized, or they may break during transit.

That may have happened to my gift baskets if I hadn’t anchored the bottles.

Is this your problem, too? Watch this video to stabilize bottles the right way.

Basket Pricing 101

Nested basket sets can be a great bargain, but how do you price each basket size?

One popular pricing formula is found on this baskets page at GiftBasketBusiness.com, and if you don’t know the meaning of “nested baskets,” you’ll find an explanation, too.

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