For those who run local businesses...

[Patrysha]

And serve a retail type target market....

Would it be appealing enough to you to be able to offer your customers free gift wrapping and low cost in-town delivery throughout the holiday season that you don't have to mess with at all - other than joining the program for a low fee of just $47 a month?

What if a portion of the delivery fee goes to a local charity?

This would all of course be supported by a website, email list, and any publicity I can get beyond the in-store promotions. There'd be opportunities throughout to share your business directly and indirectly (coupons vs. article sponsorship)

There aren't really any prizes involved, just little customer service touches that will do some good for the community.

[vangogh]

I'm not running a local business, but I can see where that would be a useful service. How would the gift wrapping work and delivery work? Say I did have a store, would my customers see the gift wrapping as something I'm doing or would it come across as someone outside my business doing it?

I ask because it's not all that hard to wrap stuff for people and doing it in house leaves a good feeling in the mind of the customer. If it seems like the store is passing the service off it probably wouldn't leave the same impression.

Sounds like a good idea though, especially if it's also supporting local charities.

[Patrysha]

Actually none of the stores here offer gift wrapping...(except the jewelry store I think) they might pop a box into your shopping bag for you but that is about it.

I was thinking that it would be seen as something the retailers are getting together to offer...as in we can't do it on our own but together we could offer it to our customers. It's seldom busy enough to have someone on staff to do gift wrapping, but it's generally too busy to have staff off the floor to wrap.

Last time I shopped in the city gift wrapping was something you had to pay for (but it's been at least ten years since I went to the city for Christmas).

Just an idea I had to keep customers engaged through the Christmas shopping season because I doubt the other Christmas promotion is going to gain much traction as it was designed solely for the advertisers and merchants and offers very little (imo) to the customers.

[vangogh]

In that case it would be a good idea and could bring some good feelings toward the retailers. Maybe you could do something to let everyone know which businesses contributed.

[greenoak]

the trouble with the gift wrapping that i see...is that the customers would want it wrapped right on the spot..... and in a normal day at the store there are lots of time between gifts needing wrapped....so not sure how it would work....or how you would have somoe one there all the time.... i wouldnt want to come back to pick up somethng giftwrapped but iwould like something gift wrapped...
thismight be really nice tho at a big christmas event...like our openhouse..
hope this helps..
ann
magpie cottage (http://www.magpiecottage.blogspot.com)

[KristineS]

I'm a terrible present wrapper so it might have some appeal for me if I were a customer, but my question would be the same as Ann's. Is the gift wrapping going to happen on the spot, or is there some central location where gifts are wrapped and then can be picked up or delivered to the buyer. The advantage of on the spot wrapping is that you're sure the item that gets wrapped and returned to you is the item you bought. I'm not so sure I'd feel the same security if the item was taken to a different location, wrapped and then returned to me.

[Patrysha]

Yeah, it would've been too much work to organize it in a way that would be of actual service to the customers.

I am just going to lay mostly low for the Christmas season other than the work directly for clients and bring out a bigger project in the New Year (though I hope to be able to pre-launch it during Small Business Week)

[dynocat]

Your idea works well here in a mall setting. Big Brothers and Sisters has a gift wrapping service set up in the mall. Since it's done by volunteers and available all mall hours during the shopping season, they are busy. All proceeds go to the organization. It's been in place here for years so shoppers count on it now.

I can't see how it would work for physically separate stores because of the time and pickup issues already mentioned.

[Patrysha]

Yeah, there was space in the mall available that I could have done a short term lease on, but there are really only six stores in the mall (the rest being services and a couple of empty spaces) and while most of the retailers are concentrated downtown (near the mall) - it would've been a pain instead of a joy...like I need that during the holidays season?

Moving on to other things...

[MrKent]

What if you had a "Charity Gift-Wrapping" van in the parking lot for the mall customers? Could work for a small mall, espcially if there are no other options at the location.

Of course, you would have to have access to the vehicle.

Just a thought. But then inclimate weather could be problematic.

[Patrysha]

There were options at the mall...but the mall doesn't have enough retail tenants to support it on it's own.

It was one of those passing thoughts that sounded real good in my head until I started to dig into the logistics of it and then it was dead in the water pretty quickly.

[handprop]

Hey Patrysha, I actually like the idea! I'm not sure why but I think it's great. I buy a ton of presents for my family and customers and I normally have some girls at the local college wrap them. If I had a service available that made sense to me I would happily pay them to take care of the whole project including pick-up and delivery. Maybe it's just me and i'm way off base but to me that would have a lot of value to me and my business.

One reason I like it is because each year I try and figure out a bunch of gifts to buy for customers that I don't have to gift wrap. The types of gifts that I normally find that don't need wrapping are always the ones that are not classy.

I also think you could have all sorts of value added products, and i'm always looking for items I can include to sweeten the deal.

Maybe i'm alone in this and it's a bad idea but I think you could have a great business.

Same with birthdays for customers, I always get birth dates from customers and send them cards. I would love to send them a wrapped gift that didn't look tacky. My customers spend thousands with me and I think nothing of spending on gifts for them. I would also be willing to do it online if the sole purpose of the business was a value added gift wrapping for B2B that kept track of the dates as well. I'll look up what I spent last year but I bet it was close to 10 thousand.

Mike

[handprop]

I was way off, I spent $14,000. Most of that was gifts that were made in Wisconsin, my home state.

Mike

[Patrysha]

That would be a great niche market for somebody...not me though...way too much work doing things I really don't enjoy (shopping isn't quite my kryptonite but close...)

In this scenario I was thinking of doing the oversight and deliveries...the charity volunteers would have done the wrapping...

I have a business...I was just looking for something to keep me active and in the public eye through the Christmas season before I re-introduce the new community promotion. I couldn't start it up over the holiday season (well I could have but I didn't want the headache of a showdown with the Chamber of Commerce and the stick in the mud powers that be.)

[handprop]

Sorry Patrysha, I was just getting all excited because Christmas is coming and i'm not looking forward to dealing with this again.....thought I could talk you into it.:D

Mike

[Patrysha]

With that kind of budget I bet I could connect you with a crafty mom in the area who would be more than happy to do the pick-up, wrapping and delivery for you :-) It's not exactly something you necessarily need an official business to take care of.

[Blessed]

I'm with Mike - I think it's a great idea. However... I completely understand the whole - too much of a headache to deal with right now - thing too!

[Patrysha]

Yeah, I pretty much blew my sons' whole summer with the promotion I did locally. The next one won't be as time consuming and complicated because now I have a better system and some experience under my belt.

Jumping into something completely new would put me right back into too many hours until I could figure out the system...

Don't want to get shiny object syndrome and veer off course when I am sooo close to having it all come together :-)

Not that a move like that would be completely out of character for me...

[AdamG]

Interesting. In Australia many if not most retail businesses offer gift wrapping at Christmas as part of the service, no extra cost. I think I have seen someone charge for it but definitely not the norm.

I mention Christmas because so many purchases are gifts.

[Patrysha]

That used to be the case here too Adam, many years ago. Some stores still do on the higher end, but even there they most often just box em up pretty and send you along your way. Having worked retail back in the dark ages, it can be the worst time of year to add a service...so busy and hectic....just pining away for December 27th when we could rest (because the 26th is Boxing Day and you're lucky to get off the floor to grab a bit of a sub on the way by as you zip through the stockroom)