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 Want to buy a Holidog plush mascot from Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari? To do so in person, you will have to travel to Santa Claus, Indiana, when the parks are open between May and October. Thankfully, a more practical option, the HoliShop, is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year at www.holidayworld.com/holishop. You can get your Holidog toy anytime you want, from anywhere in the world.
“We launched the HoliShop to satisfy popular demand from our customers,” says Paula Werne, director of public relations at Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari. “We sell Holi- Cash gift cards, plus logoed items such as roller coaster-themed souvenirs, cups and mugs, lots of shirts and hoodies, ornaments and snow globes, towels, gift sets, our pictorial history book, and DVDs of the episode about us on National Geographic Channel’s ‘World’s Toughest Fixes.’”
The International Spy Museum (ISM) in Washington, D.C., is open year-round. But for 24/7 shopping, you can surf to the Spy Museum Store at http://spymuseumstore.org. It sells a wide variety of spy toys, games, multi-function gadgets/ gear, unique apparel, and souvenirs designed and produced exclusively for the Spy Museum.
Like Holiday World, the museum’s online store is a response to customer demand. Launched in early 2003—six months after the Museum opened its doors—the Spy Museum Store offers bestsellers like Deny Everything products, the “Music to Spy By” CD, and the “Spy Museum Souvenir Book.” “Our customers tell us that our ‘gifts are to spy for’—cool, unique, and perfect for the hard-to-shop-for people on their gift list,” says Jodi Zeppelin, the ISM’s director of retail.
Both of these attractions are profiting from online merchandising. By joining the digital marketplace, they have expanded their sales reach beyond their physical premises and the limits of their operating hours. More important, these attractions have found a vehicle that not only makes them extra money, but can be used to entice visitors to their physical attractions.
Along with these two facilities, Funworld polled other experts for tips in moving merchandise online, including the folks at uber-cool tech site www.thinkgeek.com, high-end radio and electronic outlet www.ccrane.com, and e-commerce consultant Felix Figuereo, founder and managing director of Nicasio Design & Development (www.nicasiodesign.com).
Sell the Things People Want to Buy … and Get Rid of the Things They Don’t
It may seem obvious, but online merchandising success is based on selling products people want to buy and getting rid of those that do not generate sales. Unfortunately, many online retailers confuse sales with traffic; i.e., lots of people clicking on a given product page, but not transferring the item into their electronic shopping cart.
“Just because you get a lot of traffic doesn’t mean you get a lot of sales,” says Bob Crane. He owns the C. Crane Company, which has operated www.ccrane.com since 1997. “Always follow what the customer is interested in purchasing.” This includes providing seasonally relevant items, such as different price categories for gifts during the holiday season.
This first tip has been taken to heart by Holiday World. “We’ve added different items and removed others” based on sales trends, Werne says. “One addition in particular is a selection of framed photos (both black and white and color) that are artistically taken from angles a park guest could not get to.”
During Christmas time, the HoliShop sold a lot of coaster photos, pictorial history books, and Christmas ornaments. However, even though an online survey indicated that fudge would be a top seller, “it just didn’t sell much,” she says. Werne’s lesson from this experience? “Don’t believe people when they say they’ll buy fudge,” she laughs. What about the fudge that did not sell? Put it on discount, and it will. “Folks love a sale,” says Werne. “I’m sure glad we added the ‘clearance’ section to our online store.”
Be Unique—and Selective
If you need a can of unicorn meat, a USB-controlled foam rocket launcher to attack the cubicle next to you, a Personal Soundtrack Shirt (as seen on ‘The Big Bang Theory’), Star Trek and Star Wars gear (including a toaster that imprints Darth Vader’s face on your toast), or just bacon-scented soap, you need to visit www.thinkgeek.com. These and hundreds more quirky products have made ThinkGeek a resounding online success since it launched in 1999.
“The two main things that we’ve found to be the most helpful are to try to offer something unique—and most important, go with your gut,” says Shane Peterman, ThinkGeek’s public relations manager. “If it’s not something that we ourselves would buy, we don’t sell it. If you aren’t interested or don’t care about what you’re selling, how can you expect someone else to plunk down their hard-earned cash for it?”
Do Not Forget Mobile
Websites are not the only way to sell online merchandise. Smartphones and tablets create other online markets that are worth reaching.
This tip has not been lost on the International Spy Museum. “To facilitate anywhere, anytime shopping for our ‘on-the-go’ customers, last fall we developed and launched a fully transactional mobile site (http://m.spysmuseumstore.org),” says Zeppelin, “We also have an iPad shopping app in the works that will launch this fall in time for holiday shopping.”
 Promote, Promote, Promote!
If people don’t know you offer online merchandise, then how will they ever buy it? This is why promoting your online store is an absolute must. Remain active in every and all kinds of media, whether new or old.
Mindful of this lesson, www.ccrane.com promotes “through every channel available,” says Crane. “We advertise it in our printed catalog, in our radio ads, and in our print magazine ads. We also do a lot of search engine optimization, and we work with a lot of magazines, newspapers, and writers to help get the word out.”
“Twitter and Facebook have been phenomenal for us, along with existing customers just telling their friends and sharing our print catalog,” says ThinkGeek’s Peterman. “Obviously, getting product to members of the media is a huge help, as well, be it print, web, radio, TV—whatever. We also participate, to some extent, in several conventions and conferences, generally via donating prizes and giveaways.”
The International Spy Museum certainly understands the value of not just promotion, but cross-promotion. “In our brick-and-mortar store locations in downtown D.C. and Washington’s Union Station, we cross-promote the online store to facilitate the growing trend toward multichannel or omni-channel shopping,” says Zeppelin. “In our 5,000-square-foot flagship store, we have deployed QR codes on in-store signage (pages provide product detail and point to the online store), and on window graphics where we provide content and an online shopping offer.”
QR codes are those small square graphics that serve as “super barcodes” when scanned by cell phone cameras. “QR codes that point to an online sweepstakes are also included in our biannual print ads in MAD Magazine that feature Spy vs Spy merchandise designed exclusively for the Museum,” she adds.
 Use Online Merchandising to Drive Sales to Attractions
People who buy from your online store are potential customers for your attraction. Take advantage of this interest: Promote your brick-and-mortar properties to your online customers.
Moreover, “Use the contact list that is naturally acquired through online or offline sales to mount an e-mail marketing campaign to promote your properties and your online store,” says Nicasio Design & Development’s Felix Figuereo. “Tempt previous customers back to both with exclusive discounts.”
Holiday World adheres to this philosophy. “We consider the HoliShop to be part of our PR efforts,” says Werne. Zeppelin agrees: “Customers who may not have visited the museum discover our site through friends or an online search, and this in turn gets them excited about planning a trip to the museum. Conversely, a large number of visitors to the museum, in follow-up to their visits, sign up to receive weekly e-blasts from the store with announcements about new products, online shopping offers, and catalog previews.”
Pay Attention to Your Site ... and Your Customers
Once you have created an attractive and alluring online store, you can just start counting your profits, right? Wrong! Your site traffic will tell you not only what sells and what does not, but also give you hints as to which pages and processes frustrate your customers—and cost you sales. Remember, your customers are only a mouse click away from going elsewhere.
“You would think you could sit back and watch the sales roll in,” says Crane. “But it is quite the contrary: Customer support is now more important than ever.” His advice for dealing with irate customers? “It is best to go after a customer problem, be positive, and get it solved.” Unhappy consumers do not come back—and they tell their friends about their bad experiences.
“It is always important to listen to and respond to our customers,” says Zeppelin. “We also watch the competitive shopping landscape and stay current relative to our customer demographic, although as a small- to medium-size niche retailer our distinctive selling proposition is our unique products.”
Get Going!
The final tip is to not relax and let competitors profit from online sales, while your attraction stays on the sidelines: Get your online store up and running.
“I still see many fantastic small companies who don’t have online stores,” says Crane. “I know their sales would grow by 30 to 50 percent in a few years if they could offer a simple website.” Crane recommends Yahoo Business or GoDaddy.com as places to start researching.
“Does it make sense to sell our products online? Absolutely, it’s 100 percent worth it,” concludes Peterman. “To say that it’s not worth all of the effort would be an insult to the people that we exist to serve!”
James Careless is a freelance writer with credits at Business Week, NBC News, and NPR. (Despite claims to the contrary, he does not yelp like a terrified beagle on roller coasters—unless they are very fast.)
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