Stick balloons provide high margins and low shrink in floral
Stick balloons provide high margins and low shrink in floral
Looking for easy sales with high margins? Look no further, the answer is simple -stick balloons. Pre-inflated stick balloons are a staple in our supermarket balloon programs because they boast one of the highest gross margin items in your department and the longest shelf life. What’s not to love about a low-shrink, high-margin item?
There are three types of stick balloons: four-inch micro (size of a tennis ball), nine-inch mini (size of a cantaloupe) and 14-inch shape, usually licensed but there are general designs other than characters.
Pre-inflated stick balloons in the floral department provide both high margins and low shrink.I’ll share my secrets to success on four-inch micros: The trick to driving sales is to use a display (I’m partial to the rack seen here in the photo because it’s thin and clean). We train our clients to merchandise like styles together and like categories together. Doing this color blocks the rack, making it is a more dramatic merchandising presentation, in order to increase sales.
The display should be right next to the consumer bunches and fresh cuts so that customers can use them as an easy add-on. Why give away a free enclosure card when you can sell a balloon message for $1.49?
Mini balloons should also be displayed in floral, or you can drive sales by placing them in the card aisle. We love using magnetic canisters as a way to display them at eye level in the card aisle and those kids in the shopping carts find them hard to resist. It’s a fun toy and a great alternative to a candy bar in the checkout lane as a reward for good behavior.
Nine-inch minis also make great add-on sales for potted plants. Again, more than a keystone with 60-plus point margins, and it additionally solves a customer’s need to explain the gift to its recipient.
Finally, 14-inch stick balloons are mostly seen as character-licensed shapes. I love to watch a child’s face when he or she notice the display of balloons with Mickey Mouse’s face on a stick or Olaf’s body on the rack. It’s so hard to resist this impulse buy, plus it serves as a great party centerpiece decoration. What supermarket doesn’t want to be the one-stop shop for its customers’ next birthday party?
The beauty of stick balloons is buying them in smaller quantities for just-in-time inventory and using these timeless, long-shelf life items to create fun, eye-catching displays in your store. And I can’t resist mentioning again how fantastic the gross margins are for any retailer.
Elissa Mast is president and chief executive officer at E&R Sales in Richmond, VA. She can be contacted at 1-800/234-7474 or [email protected].
