I love learning something new from my sales reps, especially a little tidbit like this one: the most popular initials for monogram items today (at least for American women) spell out Mrs. Jackel.  Although I can’t confirm the popularity of M,R,S,J,A C, K,E, and L scientifically, those do sound like top letters to me.  Many thanks to Michelle Ciotti, our Ganz rep, for sharing this clever mnemonic device.

“Mrs. Jackel” made me think about the popularity of gift items with initials on them in today’s market.  You can find almost anything imaginable with a letter of the alphabet attached, and there is no doubt that many of these items sell very well. Ganz does lots of alphabet items, especially for  teens and women customers. Mudpie, whose cheese boards, napkins and spreaders illustrate this blog, is another company that has applied the initial concept creatively to everything from soap to bottle toppers.

Should you carry initials in your store?  Chances are good that at least one initial program will fit with your product mix, whether your target market is tweens or the carriage trade.  But there are a few caveats that I’d like to pass along:

• Companies always list initial products among their most reordered products — but that is in part because you need to reorder often to keep all the letters in stock.  Choose an item based on the product’s merits rather than just its “best seller” status.

• Consider carefully how heavy the initial “buy in” will be.  Do you get even numbers of all letters, or is it weighted towards best sellers?  Is the entire alphabet represented, or just a “handkerchief assortment”?  (This is a selection of only the top letters, so there is no X or Z, for example.)

•Does the display fit with your store design? It almost always works best to sell initialed items in the display provided by the vendor. We’ve tried it both ways, so I’m speaking from experience.

• How reliable is the company when it comes to shipping reorders?  Will the sales rep stop in to help count stock?  How many of each letter do will you need to order to restock? What will the total minimum be for a reorder?

• And lastly, what will you do to liquidate the remaining letters when the item slows down? Nothing lasts forever in our industry, so you need to have an exit plan — and to select an item that you predict will sell for at least a year or two.  Some companies will allow you to return a certain percentage of your unsold stock for credit when you discontinue an initial line.  Or perhaps you will choose to let the stock sell down and then put the remaining supply on clearance.

Our store has had a good run of several initial items, including pocket tissues, notepads and glass paperweights.  Although it’s a bit more work to keep the displays of these items fully stocked, they’ve more than earned their place in our merchandise mix.  It may be well worthwhile  considering adding some to your store’s inventory as well!

Happy Retailing,

Carol “Orange” Schroeder