Housewares Business-to-business magazine for housewares retailers and their suppliers
Wedding gift lists provide a chance to market not only to the happy couple but to their guests as well.
That was one of the messages from Pepita Diamand, co-founder and retail director of gift list specialist retailer Wrapit, at this week’s Housewares Conference.
This dual selling opportunity has helped Wrapit achieve an £8m turnover, and the company is looking to achieve 3,500 lists this year via its 15 UK showrooms – in a market worth £400m.
“Wedding gifts are not a discretionary purchase,” Diamand told her audience. Each gift selected costs, on average, £75, and Wrapit’s average wedding gift list is worth £2,700.
Key to exploiting gift list business to its full potential, she emphasised, is to integrate the stores with an online facility. She said that 80% of Wrapit’s couples come into one of its showrooms but that there is always a laptop on the consultation table, allowing the couple to use the website to create the list.
Diamand revealed that her company’s business takes 48% of its revenue from tabletop and 14% from kitchenware. The rest is made up of soft furnishings, bedlinen and accessories.
Couples are now making a marked move towards ethical gifts, and what Diamand described as “heirlooms”, which couples like to be made in the UK. Plasma screens are also big business, but increasing numbers of couples are also asking simply for cash, she said.
There will be a full report on the Housewares Conference in the April edition of Housewares Magazine, organiser of the conference along with HousewaresLive.net.
