By Kathleen Furore
When you think of buying hats and headwear for your costume shop’s inventory, what first comes to mind?
The customers you’re stocking those hats for are likely thinking of Santa hats and witch hats, cowboy hats and pirate hats, top hats and a bowler hats, and maybe some bunny ears or a hippie headband or two.
But hats and other creative headwear can be so much more than those standard—albeit important—pieces. When merchandised and marketed creatively, the category of merchandise that tops customers heads can do a lot to enhance your bottom line.
Creative Merchandising and Marketing
Stocking your shelves with a variety of hats and other headwear is obviously a must. So is making sure customers understand that any costume can go from fun to fantastic by simply adding something creative up on top!
The following ideas are ideas to get you started on the road to creatively merchandising and marketing hats and other headwear in your shop.
Post before and after pictures of costumes—one version with headwear, one without. Also merchandise several types of affordable hats and headpieces right with your costumes to give shoppers ideas about how they can enhance their look without breaking the bank. Add-on sales can be key to additional profits!
Merchandise a rack of inexpensive fun, crazy hats near your checkout to encourage impulse purchases. Add a mirror close by so anyone who comes in—kids especially—will be tempted to don a topper and peek in the mirror to examine the potential purchase. And at least some of them will end up walking out of the store, hat in hand (or on head!).
Sponsor a design contest. This could take many different forms, depending on your audience. You could borrow an idea from the Dallas Children's Theater, which sponsored a hat design contest in honor of its 30th Anniversary Season with Emmy-nominated DCT costume designer Lyle Huchton. Kids in kindergarten through 12th grade submitted creative hat designs for upcoming DCT shows. Grand prize winners worked with the designer to build the hat, which ultimately was featured on stage during the show. Winners also had their bios in the show programs, won four tickets to opening night, and receive recognition on stage. And every student who submitted an entry had a drawing of their hat displayed in DCT's lobby for the season.
Is there a local theater or school drama department you could work with to sponsor a similar contest? It could generate positive local publicity if “Sponsored by x Costume Shop” was included in news stories, flyers, promotional announcement and show programs!
Giddy Up and Gear Up for the Derby! You don’t have to be in Kentucky to take advantage of the Kentucky Derby every May. It is, after all, an event famous for the wild and wonderful hats attendees wear. Groups from coast to coast host Derby parties, complete with their own versions of fancy headwear. Why not get in on the fun? Host a hat-making party in your shop, or create a special promotion focused on Derby hats and everything needed to make them (think flowers, feathers, buttons, bows, plus glue guns and fabric glue).