Entry Details

About the Entry

Category: 
All Content > How-To Article > Heartland

Title of entry: 
Blow Plush Displays Out of the Water

Issue or Publication date:
September-October 2024

Publication name: 
Souvenirs, Gifts & Novelties Magazine

View Website home page:
https://sgnmag.com/

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https://sgnmag.com/article-13511-Blow-plush-displays-out-of-the-water.html

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Entry Essay: 
Souvenirs, Gifts & Novelties (SGN) magazine is published six times a year and reaches 24,000 destination retailers through print and digital distribution. Readers include retail decision-makers at tourist locations such as zoos, aquariums, museums, amusement parks and more. The magazine often features articles with tips on how to clearly organize different merchandise categories in gift shops.

Organizing plush in a gift shop might seem simple, but there truly is a science to this task if a retailer wants to boost sales in this category. Retailers take pride when they get the displays just right. For the September-October issue of SGN, we shared best practices on how to purchase plush for aquarium shops in our article titled, "Blow Plush Displays Out of the Water."

Plush is a big category for many destination retailers, including aquariums, with one retailer telling us for this story that plush makes up about 12% of its sales. For many aquariums, proceeds from the gift shop goes back to supporting the animals at the attraction, so it's crucial to organize and display merchandise just right. The article discusses how to select find trendy plush for aquarium gift shops as well as how to organize those products in a way that stands out. Plush comes in all different shapes and sizes (just as animals come in all shapes and sizes), so stacking these products requires creativity. Several aquarium retailers share their solutions to organizing tricky plush displays. We highlight a few pro tips for readers to have easy takeaways for their stores, too.

This how-to article resonated with readers. One reader emailed us that he is applying these tips in a new science museum gift shop he is opening in 2025. He said, "One of the best ideas I got was to have the plushies face the guest as they come into the store. It's a small little detail but I have never thought of doing that before. I can't wait for future articles and tips to help me better my future gift shop."