Great Ideas for your Small Business: Wrap It Up
One of the nicest things you can do for your customers and your business is send them out the door with their merchandise beautifully gift wrapped. It saves customers time and money, and great packaging is one of the smartest and most costeffective advertisements for your retail business. Think of Tiffany’s signature turquoise box and how much goodwill that has generated through the years.
One of my favorite stores is Takashimaya, an elegant Japanese-owned boutique on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.
The multilevel store features unique jewelry and clothes, as well as gifts for home, garden, and bath. And, in addition to its gorgeous merchandise, the store is famous for its perfect gift wrapping.
Gift items are swathed in layers of tissue paper and nestled into a heavy triangular box. The wrapped packages are then swathed in tissue paper and placed in a signature triangular bag. No matter what you buy there, whether it be a candle or $500 earrings, the gift is even more special be- cause of the unique gift wrapping.
Craft Company No. 6, Rochester, New York’s dazzling, one-of-a-kind craft gallery, wraps gifts in custom-designed cardboard boxes. Their gift boxes feature a pen-and-ink drawing of the converted firehouse that houses the 6,000- square-foot store. While you are waiting for your gifts to be wrapped, they encourage you to sign up for their mailing list. The store also has a newsletter to keep good customers posted on merchandise, special events, and promotions.
As an avid shopper, I’m always surprised when a merchant hands me my purchases in a blank paper or plastic bag. If you can’t wrap merchandise, at least invest in custom bags or order stickers with your logo, address, and phone number. It doesn’t take much to make every customer a walking billboard for your business.