Jan. 2016 ZAG News

ZAG NEWS Jan. 2016 PAGE 1

ZOO AND AQUARIUM BUYERS GROUP

ZAG News Volume 15, Issue: 1 www.zaggift.com Jan. 2016

Gold Sponsor Spotlight! Art Studio Company is AL-

WAYS coming up with fun

new products for our ZAG

friends! We continue ex-

panding our line of hand

stitched sequined ornaments because they are doing so

well at retail. Our new pastel line of whimsical animal

scarves and bags are doing

well too! Don't forget a

portion of our proceeds

help an endangered spe-

cies! Checkout our web-

site artstudiocompany.com

Cool Jewels® by Phillips is a leading provider of gift, trend and souvenir jewelry. During the past 40 years, we have been privileged to work in partner-ship with many of the zoos and aquariums through-out North America. Buyers have placed a significant value on our unique line of over 3,000 SKUS, continu-

Build-Your-Own Light Blazer

Imagine * Create * Defend

We at Wild Republic are thrilled to introduce an extremely exciting new toy program for 2016; Build-Your-Own Light Blazer. Now your customers can come into your shop and get both an experience and a product; a product they have

created themselves and made their very own.

Build Your Own Light blazer program includes a compact vibrant display with its’ own storage compartment

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The Sandy Creek Mining Company, Inc. is the wholesale builder and supplier of mining equipment and products used in panning operations at tourist attractions across the USA and around the world. We have provided quality equipment, products, and service since 1991.

Sandy Creek Mining Co. was born out of a demand for hands on family activities that are fun, educational, and affordable. Panning for gemstones and fossils has become a

popular activity at many caves, zoos, museums, aquariums, and agritourism destinations because of its hands on educational appeal and high profitability for many years of operation.

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http://artstudiocompany.com/


Gold Sponsor Spotlight!

More Gold Sponsors for 2016


ous introduction of new animal and sea life items, attractive margins, clever merchandising solutions, Quick Check® order check in, personalized customer service and an unrelenting focus on their success. Our team is incredibly honored that a large percentage of our clients have entrusted Cool Jewels® to manage their jewelry program, freeing them to focus on other priorities throughout the retail operation. We provide the floor display along with free custom hang tag and pre-ticketing, develop a site-specific product assort-ment, ship in 3-5 business days and assist with reorders if desired. Buyers and their associates need only work the cash register! As 2016 approaches, Cool Jewels® has used its innovative approach to product and merchandising develop-ment to keep our partners in the best position for success. New styles utilizing rose gold, natural stone such as druzy, tiger eye and rose quartz, as well as unique twists on the traditional bangle bracelet, like multifacet-ed stone with inlaid pendant and two-tone closures, will help keep things interesting for their guests. An exciting new floor display option can accommodate virtually any custom graphic, allowing for a perfect fit in themed exhibit shops. Imagine celebrating the birth of a baby giraffe (or any other animal) with a display featuring a magnificent giraffe scene on the panels and matching themed product! Your customers, staff, management committee and you will be delighted. Everyone wins with this type of creative thinking. Cool Jewels®. Less Work. More Profit.

Cool Jewels cont.….

Gold Sponsor Spotlight!

All of Sandy Creek’s mining equipment is built with an emphasis on great eye appeal, authenticity, and lon-gevity. All of our equipment is custom designed to fit your needs. With young customers in mind, sluices are low to the ground eliminating any platforms or tripping hazards and are ADA compliant. We utilize a dual wa-ter system to ensure clean and pristine water from your water tower. All water is self-contained and recy-cles. The stainless steel and pressure treated construction ensures years of hassle free and low maintenance operation. Built for maximum throughput, the used sand is carried away from your customer for later remov-al during off peak hours.

As the industry leader, Sandy Creek takes pride in providing the highest quality mining rough at the best possible price. All mining rough includes collection bag, educational ID card, custom printed la-bels with your attraction’s logo for the mining bag and collection bag, and ship-ping in quantity. With mining rough starting at as low as $1.95 we can accommodate almost any budget.

Contact us today to learn what we can do for your bottom line!

Sandy Creek Mining Company

Sevierville Booth# 2512-15 IAAPA Booth# 2678 (419) 435-5891 [email protected]

Sandy Creek continued...


underneath. The customer simply moves from station one through station six on the display, choosing and assembling his or her favorite components to build their own Light Blazer. Easy to follow instructions are posted at each station of the display to guide them through the experience.

Batteries are included for TRY ME mode. The program includes accessory kits in blis-

ter packs and boxed sets. For the display you can choose exactly which individual com-ponents are right for your shop to maximize the impact of your customers’ experience. Also note there will be various display wraps for each type of location.

This exciting new program ships in January. Contact your Account Executive to place

your order today

Wild Republic cont.….

Shoptalk with New Board Member Kim Gefre

You’ve been with the Lowry Park Zoo for several years now, what challenges have you’ve conquered that you’re most proud of? Working at a non-profit you learn to be very resourceful and find yourself thinking way outside the box. As we all know there isn’t much money available for fixtures so I am most proud of my learned ability to creatively recycle fixtures that I do have and make usable tables and display out of pallets. I am not a creative guru by any stretch but the zoo has taught me to think innovatively which in turn saves us money and allows us to practice what we preach ….which is recycling.

If you could change just one thing in your store, what would that be and why? I think 99% of Buyers might say this also…….I would want my store bigger Our current store is too small for our current attendance and when we get about 20 guests in the store shopping it can start feeling congested. A bigger store has been on my wish list since I started.

What are some of your best sellers and how do you position them within your store? Plush, t-shirts, and toys in that order. For visual appeal, along with increased sales, I like to change out my feature display once a month with new items we just got in. With our high membership base it’s very important to ALWAYS keep changing the store around to attract repeat visitors into the shop.

What would be your top two customer service key points you emphasis to your staff? We have a service theme which is “to make sure that each and every guest leaves with a smile on their face and a desire to re-turn”. My top two points would be (1) greet every guests and (2) share our conservation message.

Lastly, if you were given one wish to save one animal forever from extinction, what would that be and why? Only one? I would say the Rhino but don’t ask me to choose between the different species of rhino because that just wouldn’t be fair. I think they are pretty amazing creatures almost prehistoric looking. I was fortu-nate to have a behind the scenes rhino encounter and they are truly magnificent.


This time of year it is nice to look back and reflect…as well as looking forward. When I look back at this year’s ZAG Week in Tennessee I realize what a truly special time that is for all of us in this industry. We are fortunate to have a time and place that so many of us can get together and share, discuss and plan, and spend time with our peers. ZAG week will always be special to me for a few reasons. The first trade shows I went to as a brand new buyer were the shows in Tennessee. That is where I started to build friendships with other buyers and vendors that I still cherish. So much of our business is done by phone, computer or internet. It is so nice to speak face to face with a vendor. You can start to build mutual trust and respect that only comes from a hand-shake and an eye to eye conversation. I met many of my peers in the Zoo and Aquari-um business for the first time in Tennessee. I was introduced to new vendors, and to other buyers that I still consider friends and mentors. It was at the Tennessee trade shows that I first learned about ZAG. I remember well Donna Steakley telling me all about the group, how it would benefit me to be a member. It was a couple of years later that Donna suggested I run for the ZAG Board. This year our goal was to keep improving the ZAG Week experience for our members. I think the Board did a great job with that, and we will continue to listen to feedback, consider any way to make ZAG Week even better next year. So, now we can look ahead to 2016. Our Spring orders are in, we can anxiously await the flood of visitors that come with each new season. This is a time for cleaning and planning. A time for preparation and strategy. But, take a few moments to reflect on 2015. We can find the positive in any sit-uation, that’s what we do! We are Buyers; we drive the revenue ship for our institutions. As the calendar turns take a moment to think about where you’ve been…where we have been. And find the excitement about where you are going…where we are going. ZAG will be there along the way. It will be time for more shows and more buying trips soon. So enjoy the Holiday season. I hope you will send me any feedback for how ZAG can help you have an amazing 2016. Happy Selling! Michael [email protected]

President’s Message

ZAG is a collection

of merchandise buy-

ers for zoos, aquari-

ums and other wild-

life-related institu-

tions and attractions.

The goals of ZAG

are to increase and improve communication be-

tween buyers, and to raise awareness and pro-

fessionalism of the field within the zoo and aquari-

um industry.

Our Mission Board of Directors

Michael Davis (TX) - President

Tommy Brown (MO) - V. President

Brent Walter (WI) - Treasurer

Missy Rosevear (PA) - Secretary

Laurie Vanderwal (AR)

Denise Lamoureux (MA)

Kim Gefre (FL)

Yvonne Miles (CA)

Theresa Danneffel (MI)

Michael will be doing a seminar at the January Las Vegas Market:

Mission Based Merchandising: How Retail Can Support Vision

Tuesday, January 26, 2016 | 11:30am - 12:30pm

Pavilions Seminar Room

Www. Lasvegasmarket.com

http://www.lasvegasmarket.com/seminars-and-events/?page=6


This past November, ZAG WEEK was held at the IGES and Smoky Mountain Gift Show. Thank you to everyone who made it a tremendous success. The Zoo & Aquarium Buyer’s Group sponsored current ZAG members Amy Lohr from the Austin Zoo, Linda Thomas from Alexandria Zoological Park and Vicki Lantz from the Lazy L Safari Park to attend ZAG week which included all events and travel expenses. The criteria to apply for a sponsorship indicated that the buyer must not have attended a national gift show within the last three years, has a travel budget of $500 or less and must attend all ZAG sponsored functions if awarded the sponsorship. This year there were many opportunities for ZAG members to network, share ideas and work with vendors/sponsors. Our travel winners hit the ground running. They became a part of our ZAG community by joining in our sponsored events and shared with other members at all the functions. They were such joy to work with and their visible enthusiasm has reinforced how important and valid the travel sponsorship program is for ZAG and our members. We asked our travel sponsorship winners to reflect on their very first ZAG Week. The Travel Sponsorship winners include Amy Lohr, a fairly new ZAG member who “initially started as a volun-teer in 2012 and became a full time administrative staff member in early 2013. Shortly after, I became the first ever Gift Shop Manager at Austin Zoo. A few months ago I was also promoted to manager of Guest Rela-tions.” The facility is “nestled in the Hill Country of Central Texas, Austin Zoo is the forever home to more than 350 animals, across 100 different species. The mission of Austin Zoo is to help animals in need through rescue, rehabilitation and education.” Linda Thomas from Alexandria Zoological Park in central Louisiana which is “home to over 500 species of animals and has a yearly attendance of over 165,000 visitors from all over the world. The Alexandria Zootique was founded in 1971 by a dedicated Friends of the Alexandria Zoo (FOTAZ) member, Joy Lacomb.” Linda is “the General Manager of the shop, as well as the "Go To, Get It Done" person in the zoo for Special events such as Les Fest, Zoo Boo, Wild Night of the Arts and Holiday Light Safari.”, and Vicki Lantz from the Lazy L Safari Park whose family owns the facility acts as not only Zoo Direc-tor, but wears many hats including gift shop manager/buyer. The Lazy L Safari Park” is a family owned and operated walk-thru zoo featuring over 60 species of animals from alligators to zebras. Our visitor attendance is around 25,000 annually. We are located in Cape Girardeau, Missouri in Southeast Missouri. The Safari Gift Shop at our zoo is a small, but very full souvenir shop featuring toys and plush animals, educational puzzles and games, gifts, jewelry, T-shirts and more!” We asked our winners how they heard about the travel sponsorship and what did they think about the ap-plication process? Vicki from Lazy L Safari Park and Amy from Austin Zoo found out about the travel spon-sorship from our ZAG newsletter. Amy from Austin Zoo added “I received a response in a timely manner say-ing they acquired my application and I would be notified by noon on August 21st. On that day I was e-mailed that I got the sponsorship. Overall, I thought the application process was very well run, and I was well in-formed on what to submit and expect.” Linda agreed “I learned about the ZAG travel sponsorship while searching for new vendors on the ZAG website. The application was very simple and easy to do.” Gift and Trade shows in general can be very intimidating to even the most seasoned buyers so we asked our winners their expectations. Amy responded “When I first read about the show, I imagined a room with about 20-30 vendors that displayed their products. When I got to each cities’ showrooms, I was surprised with how many vendors and rooms there were. I also did not expect to have such experienced ZAG members guide and mentor me on their buying procedures. My goal was to have the top selling items other zoos sell, along with finding plush of our newly rescued cougar cubs. With the advice of ZAG Members, I was able to find the two most popular products, along with the perfect cougar cub stuffed animals, and I ordered both for my gift shop at the show.” Linda’s expectations “were to locate new and different vendors for our store as well as to connect with other gift shop managers and buyers in the industry. From this connection, I hoped to discuss what had worked or not worked in their shops. This show exceeded my expectations as for what I

Reflections from the ZAG Travel Sponsorship Winners by Denise Lamoureux

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had hoped to gain from this experience.” Vicki also “didn’t know what to expect about the gift show. I had been told that it would “blow my mind”. That would probably be an accurate description of my first day at the show. I went there just hoping to find some new vendors, but I left with so much more. The experience and my accomplishments more than exceeded my expectations. I have to admit that the first day was very overwhelming. But thanks to the ZAG Board showing me around the show floor the first day, I felt confident enough to craft my own game plan for visiting the show floor over the next few days.” Throughout the years, ZAG works to make sure the independent buyers and vendors work together to pro-vide the best merchandise, service and sales for their facilities. As we continue to move forward, learn and grow ZAG strives to provide new experiences and opportunities for our members. ZAG Week is a successful platform to help to achieve these goals. Vicki shared “The ZAG Mixer and Dinner were both awesome. I liked that the mixer was held at a zoo and I found the gift shop at Rainforest Adventures very inspiring. My favorite part of the ZAG Dinner was the roundtable discussions. It was good to network and learn from other zoos on what works and maybe what doesn’t work as well at other facilities. I attended the other ZAG spon-sored sessions and learned a lot about retail which was some knowledge that I was lacking. I am making some improvements to our gift shop based on the new knowledge learned during those sessions. Also, I will be setting up a “conservation product” area within our gift shop (Thanks Tommy!). Amy also thought “All the members of ZAG were very friendly and helpful. Being a first time buyer with only two years of experience, I was honored to have the privilege of guidance throughout my 1st show. The members of ZAG had a lot of wisdom to share with me. I was able to bring back new ideas for different displays and items in our gift shop.” In addition, “I did not know what to expect when I first found out we were going to a Mixer. I arrived at the indoor zoo and found out I was going to meet vendors and other gift shop buyers from zoos and aquariums. I enjoyed meeting and talking with vendors without them trying to sell me their products right there…The ZAMM dinner was a beautiful set up. Hearing buyers from zoos all around the United States talk about top selling items was very informative. My favorite part was when the board had us split into groups depending on our annual admissions. This was when I was able to discus with other buyers that have similar budget and gift shop size. I also attended the New Buyer’s Talk, Merch 101, and Conservation Talk. All three talks were very well prepared, and I learned a lot. I especially liked learning from a buyer in Merch 101 with 40 years of experience on how to display items in the gift shop.” Members can find Yvonne Miles’ from San Diego Zoo PowerPoint presentation for Merchandising 101 on our website at www.zaggift.com under buyer resources. Linda from Alexandria Zoological Park also shared her thoughts on ZAG Week events, “The Mixer was a very well organized and thought out event. There was plenty of space for everyone to sit or just min-gle, great food, beer, wine and other beverages. The atmosphere was perfect for ZAG members and the ven-dors to meet face to face away from the hustle and bustle of the show. The ZAMM dinner was also well done and very tasteful. There were ample opportunities for us to get to know other managers and/or buyers. Per-haps one of the best opportunities was the group session that enabled us to come together according to our size and discuss things that we were doing every day to make our venues better and more productive. I attended all of the ZAG sessions and learned a great deal from them about conservation, marketing, the art of display within your store and what products had worked and those that had not.” We asked our sponsorship winners to share any final thoughts on the experience. Linda replied “I had a very enriching and educational experience with the ZAG Board. I was better able to see first-hand how im-portant ZAG is to further developing our industry as a whole and met some great people that help govern it. The show offered me the opportunity to meet some exciting new vendors and to place orders to arrive throughout the upcoming year for the Zootique. I would strongly urge anyone that has not been to one of these shows but cannot afford; to go online next year, find the ZAG sponsorship application and apply. As for me, I thoroughly enjoyed my experience and am looking forward to attending more shows in the future. I

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http://www.zaggift.com


cannot thank the ZAG Board enough for this once in a lifetime experience.” Amy from Austin Zoo added “Overall the knowledge I gained on my travel sponsorship was well worth it. I would definitely recommend others to apply because not only did I learn from every ZAG member things to add and change in Austin Zoo’s Gift Shop, but I also developed relationships to discuss new merchandise in the future. Attending the show helped me see how many vendors are out there and how important it is to always change up products. We have a lot of members at our zoo, so they do not want to keep buying the same merchandise. I will be attending future shows, such as the Las Vegas Show in January. Thank you to all ZAG members for the infor-mation and help you gave to Austin Zoo’s Gift Shop and in turn, its rescued animals!” Vicki summed it up nicely, “I just can’t say enough about the overall experience of the whole week. ZAG and the board were great to work with and so nice and helpful. I loved meeting everyone and I feel that that is what I liked the best about the entire week. I made new friends and colleagues that I can network with throughout the year – not just at the gift shows. I would actually (and already have) recommend ZAG, the gift shows, and the travel sponsorship to other zoos. I definitely will try to attend this show in the future if at all possible. Attending future gift shows will help keep our gift shop with fresh display ideas, new merchandise, and even keep me energized too. Thanks again for an absolutely great week!” We can’t thank our travel sponsorship winners and members enough for embracing ZAG Week, providing wonderful feedback and sharing their experiences with us. The ZAG travel sponsorship for ZAG Week (IGES/Smoky Mtn. Gift Show) will begin the application process summer 2016 and the criteria and how to apply will be posted on our website www.zaggift.com. There are additional travel sponsorship opportunities available to ZAG Members, please visit our website for more information. Thank you to everyone who made ZAG week a resounding success and for their help guiding and mentoring independent Zoo & Aquarium buyers!

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ZAG Vision Statement

As an organization we are com-mitted to network, educate, inform and connect independent Zoos, Wild Life Centers, and Aquarium Buyers worldwide while maintaining a conscience of conservation and a concern for people and wildlife.

Our ZAG Values

Care: We are concerned about one another within the ZAG organization and make attempts to help animal institutions with their current in-house retail operation.

Connections: We are here to connect buyers to industry information, encourage buyers to connect with other buyers and connect buyers and vendors at social events.

Creditability: We act in an honest and trustworthy manner that reflects the state of the industry while providing the most current factual opinions on re-tail goods and services.

Conservation: We embrace conservation com-merce, animal welfare and the ethical treatment of people, animals and the environment worldwide while trying to conserve our natural resources.

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Financial Report 2015

2015 has been a great year for ZAG! We have currently have 105 Sponsors and 17 Gold Spon-sors. We all should be excited about these numbers and that all of these great companies want to support our incredible business! Let’s hope for many more to join in 2016.

As of the end of this year, I will be stepping down as Treasurer. I have had the pleasure (busy pleasure) of holding this position for the last 4 years. I have learned a lot while doing all of the financial things that come along with ZAG. We have grown tremendously the last four years. We have also now hired an accounting firm that we have been working with for the past 8 months. They have helped out by getting everything organized and keeping all of our books. It has taken a lot of pressure and responsibility off of the Treas-urer, as well as at the same time given us a second look at a lot of things. It is more organized now that a professional is helping out. With all of the finances and daily monetary du-ties, it is nice to know that there is someone to help out when we need it. We all know we are buying professionals, not ac-countants. Starting January 1, Brent Walter from Henry Vilas Zoo will be taking over the duties. Good Luck and Congrats Brent!


HOT TRENDS IN 2016

Making a Resolution is an typical tradition – for Zoo and Aquarium buyers

one of your work resolutions is to find unique new items that your guests

will love and will help bring in funding to help your facilities animals and

CollectA® offers many diverse, unique species in their popular Sealife and Wildlife

collections which can expand your collectible animal figurine collections or provide you

that distinctive variation that will appeal to both boys and girls, and a wide variety of

ages. In 2016 CollectA® will introduce over 20+ new collectible figurines within these

same collections which will include a Wombat, Hirola, Thylacine, Himalayan Tahr,

Available January 2016

For zoos: Once Upon an Elephant: readers learn what may happen should this

keystone species disappear. Midnight Madness at the Zoo: a whimsical zoo-themed

twist on March Madness.

For aquariums: Sharks and Dolphins: photographic comparison of these ocean-living

fish and mammals.

For zoos and aquariums: Mammals: photographic comparison of land and ocean-living

KidTees – Saving the world, one foot at a time….

Socks are definitely the next (already) BIG thing, and KidTees by Stephen Joseph is excited to

announce we have new sublimated socks! The socks have already debuted at the recent

shows and the response is phenomenal!

View our digital catalog to browse the awesome designs. Minimums are only 48 pair per

design/order. Have a new exhibit or fun new animal you want to feature? Let us customize

awesome socks just for you! Custom minimums only 96 pair!

OPI Apparel & Souvenirs

Your image is our passion! The Next Big Thing for 2016 are our plush pal and

youth t-shirt combos featuring your namedrop. With new animals to choose from

such as a lion, penguin and frog, little ones are sure to find a matching plush pal

http://www.kidtee.com/us-links.html


The hottest accessories in fashion are purse charms and now they are part of of Salvador Kitti's line of products. Each high quality

piece of designer jewelry feature images taken from our founder Amy's original oil paintings of wildlife. They

attach to any bag easily with a lobster claw clasp and they can be paired with our other Salvador Kitti products or sold on their own.

ef*ivory

At elephant friendly ivory, the 2016 season brings an exciting new

product line: ELEPHANT FRIENDS. We recognize that parents

purchase for their children first, so ELEPHANT FRIENDS are 17 bright-

ly colored tagua animal figurines at a low price point! Each piece

comes packaged in a clear bag with a colorful, juvenile

All of Aurora’s products are sure to delight but worth noting are:

-Our Miyoni Animals now come in a laying pose, making it even easier for a child to snuggle with their new

friend

-The popular Sea Sparkles Mermaids now have stylized hair and come in the hot-

"Ready for some awesome new Doodle Pants styles? After

meeting with many of our ZAG friends, we took your feed-

back and turned it into something amazing! Drumroll

please…13 NEW STYLES created featuring all the

amazing animals you’ve been asking for. To name a

few we have gators and tigers and Bears (oh my!). In

our assortment you’ll find everything from slithery

reptiles to fierce felines so please contact us to re-

Rosen Publishing's new spring books will be in the warehouse and ready to ship by February. Six Ocean Friends

titles as well as Nature Explorers will be featured for the youngest readers. Sea Animal Crafts along with Zoo Ani-

mal Crafts headline new offerings in arts &activities. For review copies or additional information on the books or


Launching a Webstore The question is repeatedly asked, should we or shouldn’t we? All retail companies are tasked with growing their business. Current stats on web sales have exceeded expectations. “Internet retail sales in the U.S. will grow 10% a year through 2015 as shoppers spend more time online”, Forrester Research says, and the im-plications aren’t good for brick-and-mortar stores.

According to a new report out Monday, U.S. e-commerce sales grew 12.6% in 2010 to $176 billion. “That total will grow to $279 billion in 2015”, writes Forrester analyst Sucharita Mulpuru.

The 2010 growth rate outpaced that of 2009, when ecommerce grew 11%. The usual suspects aided e-commerce’s rise: the economy’s recovery, more first-time online shoppers and greater spending per online shopper.

E-commerce will grow over the next four years as shoppers continue to shift their spending from physical stores to online ones, the report says. Increased use of smart phones and tablet computers, greater mer-chandise selection and new business models, such as daily-deals sites like Groupon, will also aid growth. New e-commerce platforms provide affordable options for retailers to participate with online sales.

San Diego Zoo Global is currently underway with the re-launch of their webstore ShopZoo.com come De-cember 2015. “Our last website was bogged down with old technology which didn’t keep pace with the new innovations for online selling. Closing down the webstore in 2011, regretfully, was difficult but necessary for business”, says Yvonne Miles, Corporate Director of Retail for San Diego Zoo Global.

“The focus was to find an affordable platform which could provide reports, a secure shopping cart and easy to manage”, notes Susie Andrew Merchandising Webstore Coordinator. “Shopify met all our criteria for what we were looking for. Additionally, I have found the templates very easy to navigate. We’ve experi-enced a few hiccups along the way but nothing we haven’t been able to address immediately.” Focus will be on branded items not found anywhere else but on ShopZoo.com

Whether or not you have a webstore, the key is to do your research and produce a business plan before you commit to launching you a webstore. Seek out other like businesses or museums that currently are doing business online, most will share their experiences and guide you through the process.

For more information regarding online stores see below.

https://www.shopify.com/blog/14327905-countdown-to-launching-your-ecommerce-business

http://www.top10ecommercesitebuilders.com


With another year in the books, the ZAG Annual Member’s Meeting, held during ZAG Week in Tennessee, was as informational as ever. For those unable to attend, and others who have requested a recap, below you will find a compilation of answers to the round table discussion questions.

Current trends and hot sellers were discussed first. As always, these answers were thought provoking and varied. The plush category is always a sought after souvenir in the Zoo and Aquarium industry Rhode Island Novelty’s Adventure Planet and Fiesta have the top selling plush snakes. This item does well across the board. The Petting Zoo, Aurora and K & M also had strong plush pieces. The Aurora Mini Flopsies do ex-tremely well year over year. Rhode Island Novelty’s pink and natural giraffes remain strong. It goes without saying, children always gravitate to plush, wanting to take home their favorite animal.

Year over year Safari, Ltd., and Little Critters pieces are a hit with kids of all ages. Safari’s Good Luck Minis seem to be a fast mover for everyone. Rhode Island Novelty’s toy line excels at the median price point, while Melissa and Doug and Educational Insight’s toys meet the needs of people looking for a high quality item.

T-shirts seem to be making a comeback, as all members reported high volume t-shirt sales. Noblewear, Tip-sy, Polar Graphics and Big Bang were frequently mentioned. Phillip’s Cool Jewels and A.T. Storrs remain the most mentioned jewelry vendors in our shops. Again, souvenir stones from Village Originals are high volume sellers for many facilities.

“Green” products are demanding more attention than ever, and since home decor and accessories seem to be on the upswing, many Members are carrying product from Art Studio and Stoneage Arts to meet the de-mands of more upscale customers.

We all incorporate name-dropped products in our stores. This category can range from mugs, pins and mag-nets to ornaments and flashlights. As varied as the product, are the vendors now capable of filling the order. Companies such as Kalan, LP., Rhode Island Novelty and Rico Design make great cups and magnets, to name a few, while Art Studio offers more artisan items such as handmade ornaments. Melissa and Doug has also noticeably increased their reach on customized items with a full range of quality toys available for imprint. Paparte and Scandical still remain strong for Zoo and Aquarium shops.

It seems more Zoo shops are carrying lotions and The Naked Bee line seems to fit the niche for many of us. As a common alternative, PTL Enterprises carries a wide range of sunscreens and lotions as well.

Next, we discussed employee customer service training. It seems that every facility has their own practices. This ranges from utilizing the basic employee manual to San Diego Zoo Global’s formal training. Most facili-ties fell somewhere in the middle, citing on the job training with experienced workers, some with the help of their Human Resource Department.

The last round table discussion question provoked discussion about markdown policies. These principles were variable. Many buyers employ a clearance section to get slow sellers out the door. Some other suc-cessful ideas were offering a free gift with purchase, 50% or sidewalk sales, event days, grab bags or birthday bags and last chance carts. Those facilities who close for the season generally have success offering an end of season sale. Everyone agrees, it is very important to your business to move out slow sellers because if it is not selling, you are losing money.

Here’s to hoping you are successful for conservation in 2016!

Regards,

Missy Rosevear

ZAG Annual Member’s Meeting


There were a lot of changes that the board did this year to make the ZAG week the best yet. We wanted to make sure it would benefit each and every member. Based on the feedback from you, we think that we met our goal!

Each day we had a different “talk” or seminar for you to attend. First Time Buyer’s Talk with Brent Walter. Q&A Panel with Bill Lucey from Rainforest Adventures, Steve Fairchild from Sedgwick County Zoo, and Matt Fouts from Tanganyika Wildlife Park. Merchandising 101 with Yvonne Miles from San Diego Zoo. Can Conservation help drive your mission with Tommy Brown from St. Louis Zoo. Thank you to all that attended these talks. The presenters spend a lot of time getting ready to relay some great information over to our members. We had great feedback from these, so look for more in 2016!

We also made some changes to our Annual Member’s Meeting this year, including changing the name to reflect what it really is, a member’s meeting. We really got down to business to talk about some great topics that everyone wanted to know about. We still had some great give-aways, but not at the expense of cutting down on meeting time. We still had our wonderful dinner, great round table discussions, and presenting afterwards. Based on feedback from prior years we added a few new things. We added for the Zoo’s and Aquarium’s to meet with like size attendance facilities as well as a Q&A time for the Board. We think this was greatly appreciated and accepted from the members that attend-ed. It was nice to have some more time to sit down and talk with each other about the same problems or accomplishments that the facilities had. We hope that if you didn’t have a chance to attend this year, you will put it on your list of things to do next year during ZAG Week at the Tennessee Gift Shows. There will be a recap soon of things discussed at the meeting. Have a great 2016 everyone!

ZAG Week Recap from Tennessee!

CONSERVATION CORNER

It’s a wrap During the Holiday season Americans will throw tons of packaging, gift wrap and bows away that will go into landfills. As zoos and aquariums we should make an effort to edu-cate the public about packing and wrapping alternatives.

A great way to pack a gift to ship is in popcorn with no additives, not only will it secure the product but it can be composted after use. Another great way to save our planet is reuse gift bags every holiday season, not only will it save you money, it will save tons in global carbon foot printing. If you must wrap a gift consider using used newspaper, wall paper scraps or even

brightly colored old clothes patched together for the wrap or a brightly colored bow.

As we all know some people will insist on using store bought boxes, bows and wrap; in this case offer recycling at your institution and help defer the waste from our landfills. The best gift we can give to ourselves and the Earth is to respect our natural resources and not use them frivolously.

Documents

Jan. 2016 ZAG News