Opening a gift shop isn’t something that happens overnight. It takes planning, money, and time. But, as an adventure tour operator, you could see a great return on your investments if you open a gift shop for your guests to buy souvenirs. These souvenirs will also make your guests happy because they’ll get to take a piece of their trip home with them. And selling souvenirs can increase your business revenue! Here are 6 steps for opening a gift shop as an adventure tour operator.
6 Steps for Opening a Gift Shop as an Adventure Tour Operator
1. Make a Plan for Opening Your Gift Shop
You probably already know your customers. Now’s the time to define them. Who are your regular guests? What are their demographics? This will help you identify the products your customers would be interested in buying.
You should also be able to figure out the spending capability of your guests. This would help you stock the right products at the right price range. Next, you should calculate how much it would cost with a budget for a season. Use your current company revenue or seek investments or loans to pay for those investments.
Planning is an integral step if you want to open a gift shop as an adventure tour operator.
2. Get the Right Location
Many adventure tour operators already have a location where people travel to take part in their tours or travel experiences. Your tour location likely has a space where people check-in and check-out of your tour. Find out if you can have your retail space there. If not, can you expand your location to include a small retail space?
When you want to open your gift shop as a tour operator, you should make sure your retail space is in a place where customers are most likely to see it. It should be in an obvious location so your guests can’t miss it. Also, if you want to save space, you can always have your guests buy photos online through an integrated photo and video sharing app. PicThrive makes this possible! And there are several great reasons for selling photos and videos of guests enjoying your adventure tour.
3. Staffing Your Gift Shop
Another thing to consider when opening a gift shop is how you’re going to keep it staffed. Will you hire employees to restock shelves, run the cash register, and keep the store clean? What steps do you need to take to hire those employees? And how will you train your staff once they’ve been hired? Will you run the gift shop with your employees or take a more hands-off approach to focus on other aspect of your business? Making these decisions about gift shop staff before opening your retail operation can help things move more smoothly later on.
4. Learn from Your Competitors
Your competitors and other adventure tour operators with retail operations can offer a lot of insight. Make plans to visit other adventure tour operators’ gift shops. You’ll be able to see how they’ve set up their stores, what their hours are, what they have for inventory, how much they charge, and so on.
Additionally, you can also ask other adventure tour operators questions like “what do customers like best about your store?” or “who is your average customer?” Keep in mind that different travel experiences appeal to different audiences.
5. Choose Your Inventory
Travelers in general are likely to choose souvenirs that would remind them of their trip. There are lots of different products to choose from, like larger items such as apparel, bags and backpacks, and wall art, to smaller items like plushie toys, magnets, and key chains.
Digital souvenirs like photos and videos of customers enjoying their travel experiences are fantastic options as well! PicThrive makes offering photos and videos to your guests as souvenirs easy. And photos and videos of people enjoying your tour can even help your business grow!
What you sell in your gift shop should help your guests fondly remember their tour and your facility.
6. Advertise as Much as Possible
To let your customers know that they can take a part of their trip home, you should advertise on social media and your company’s website. Highlight your retail space and showcase the products they can buy. You should also have a system where they can buy photos and videos online. This is a very important step for opening your gift shop as an adventure tour operator. You need to let your guests know that you have these additional products for them to buy!
Consider the customer’s journey and find out where and how you can reach them. Do they book their adventure tour directly or through a platform like Viator? How do they get to your location? Where and how can you advertise your products while your customers are at your site and on their tour?
How can you advertise your gift shop and products after the adventure tour is finished? Think about the before, during, and after of your adventure tour experience. Also, ensure that your tour guides mention your gift shop to your guests.
In Short…
Opening a gift shop as an adventure tour operator may seem like an expensive venture, but it is a great way to upsell your customers. You’ve spent the money to market your tour to your guests, convincing them that your tour is the best. You’ll get a higher return on that investment if you can offer guests more goods and services while they’re onsite. By opening a gift shop, you’ll be adding another stream of revenue to your company. And following these 6 steps for opening a gift shop as an adventure tour operator will help you along the way. Check out this podcast if you want to learn more about how to generate revenue from retail and merchandise.
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