Taking a cue from the sweltering summer days out there; let’s turn up the heat on your registry so it’s ready for what’s expected to be a very busy gifting time over these coming months. While summer is usually a time to kick back, we want your creative juices to kick in so we can plan ahead. 

A few actions taken now will energize your registry and have you ready for what’s ahead.  You can, and should, take advantage of some quick hit opportunities in coming weeks and then focus on all the major fall and year-end celebrations crowding the calendar:

• Salute Grads: For the next several weeks, there’s still time to tap into what’s projected to be the biggest graduation gifting season ever.  Students moving out (or moving on) need lots of stuff to launch into this next stage in their lives. Sales are projected by NRF to approach as much as $74 billion – a 5% increase over last year.
• Housewarmings and new moves: Aside from grads setting up new living spaces, families are moving with plans to settle in before the school year starts up.  As many as 12-14% of us move every year.
• Weddings: We remain in the midst of a huge wedding rebound; couples will continue to crowd the calendar into 2023.  An estimated 2.4-2.5 million couples will tie the knot over the next year or so, driving a surge in gifting activity.
• New babies and more birthdays: There are deliveries and celebrations happening every day.  Of late, birth rates have picked up, which means we are constantly seeing more birthdays too..
• Holidays: Still months away, we can expect to wrap the year with lots of joyous gatherings and gift exchanges.

Here’s a calendar of what we see going on:

Importantly, industry research we see suggests that celebrations for these events are often considered ‘necessary’ spending.  While continued economic uncertainty exists, customers want to find ways to shower family and friends with gifts, so make the most of this.

In fact, a key trend emerging across the marketplace is the desire for togetherness – people want to gather and share good times.  What a perfect backdrop for a gifting…and a gift registry or gift list.

Some Cool Ideas to Heat Things Up

Be Social – Your customers live on their phones and rely on social media for the latest news and product information so go with the flow! Heat things up with more social activity and weave in great gift ideas (and a hint about a gift registry) wherever you can. 

• Post hot products and other ‘gotta have’ items - even better, post customers having a great time using these items. You can invite customers to share their personal favorites as well with hashtags, etc. that focus on ‘gifts that make smiles’. Even consider a contest focused on ‘best gift ever’ to spark more activity.

Be Bold –Make it impossible to miss the fact that you have a gift registry.  Do a quick review of your marketing and customer communications and look for ways to insert gifting and registry mentions throughout.  Don’t forget such seemingly small items as store signage, website bursts, or even just a quick one liner in an email. You never know when a customer will be ‘registry ready’.  Make sure they come to know you as the ‘go-to’ resource for a great gift for any occasion.

• Sneak in a few ‘don’t forget to remember the grads and new movers’ in whatever you have going on now through September.
• You are probably already pulling fall and Q4 plans together – scrutinize them for every opportunity to talk up the gifts that make celebratory gatherings and holidays happy and stress free.

Be Fresh and New – No doubt you are updating the look of all of your marketing materials as Fall approaches, so be sure to include a refresh of your registry materials as well.  Don’t overlook the impact you can make with updated messaging that shines the spotlight on your gift registry.

   Use your partner dashboard to:

• Swap out images, start talking about fall gifting events in your copy and content, and frame everything in your seasonal color palette.
• Consider a new design template for the hero image on your gift registry home page.
• Be sure that you have all the appropriate event type options for your registrants that are seasonally appropriate (that includes shout outs for Q4 different holidays)

     And don’t forget:

• Use all that white space below the hero image on your registry page to demonstrate your commitment to support registrants and the gift planning process.
  • If you already display all the services, features, and benefits available to assist these customers, think about adding a seasonal twist to ‘top product ideas’ to reflect new merchandise or even offer a new perk to entice more gifting.
  • If you haven’t ever done this before, now’s a great time to use this space to reinforce why register with you.

And Lastly –

Don’t Be Shy – Be sure to take advantage of the marketing services and features we offer.  We have programs that can give you and your products more visibility through display on our website and social platforms. 

Your business is constantly evolving over the year and your gift registry should stay in step. Whether you want to shout out new products that make great gifts and/or new features that offer new ‘value’ to registrants, there is always something to talk about that’s timely and new.  Keep your registry users coming back to see and learn more and that will motivate them to update a registry list – or even consider creating a new gift list for another occasion. 

As you continue to move forward with your gift registry marketing plans, let us know how we can help! We can always be reached at marketingguru@myregistry.com.