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The Consumer Market For Gifts and Home Decorative Accents Has Enjoyed Vibrant Growth in The Past Five Years, But Will That Growth Continue?

Presented by Pam Danziger
President of Unity Marketing
Par Excellence Magazine Advisory Board Member

A new study of the giftware market by Unity Marketing identifies key opportunities for future growth

Stevens, PA March 11, 2008 -- The market for gifts and home decorative accents reached $65.2 billion in 2007. This is according to a new in-depth study of the market conducted by Unity Marketing.

Overall this market grew 72 percent from 2002, rising from $37.9 billion five years ago. But giftware marketers cannot sit back and relax. Continued growth for individual retailers, manufacturers and brands depends upon careful analysis of the trends in the marketplace.

In the first study of this market since 2002, Unity Marketing reports that the giftware segment grew at a faster rate than home decorative accents in the past five years. The market for giftware, defined as items that are designed and manufactured to be bought and given as a gift or collectible items that are designed and manufactured specifically for the purpose of collecting, grew at a compound annual growth rate of 14.7 percent from 2002 to 2007, while home decorative accents rose at a compound rate of 9.4 percent in the intervening five years.

"One of the most powerful findings of this new research study of the giftware market is how dramatically it has changed from 2002," says Pam Danziger, president of Unity Marketing and author of Shopping: Why We Love It and How Retailers Can Create the Ultimate Customer Experience.

"The giftware market has completely reinvented itself in the past five years. What was hot five years ago has gone frigidly cold. And what is hot today was barely measurable five years ago. The most successful giftware marketers have stayed on top of the trends, moving as the consumers' interest changed and their shopping destinations shifted.

"The key for success in the giftware market is for giftware companies to continually offer new, distinctly different products to a consumer market that is hungry for product concepts that are new, unique and different from anything they have seen before. Plus marketers need to make sure these innovative new concepts are available in the widening range of destinations where giftware shoppers turn," Danziger explains.

Where consumers shop for giftware has changed dramatically in the past five years

The new Unity Marketing Gifts and Decorative Accents Report 2008 is based upon both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies. It includes a survey among 1,644 recent buyers of one of 26 product categories (average income $75,100; age 42.4 years and 68 percent female/32 percent male).

Danziger says, "Where people shop for giftware has changed dramatically in the five years since we did our last study. The most notable change is how often shoppers are turning to the Internet to make purchases of these goods. In 2007 the Internet was the second most important venue for giftware shopping, trailing only discount department stores."

Giftware shoppers, on the other hand, are turning less often to specialty gift and card stores for their purchases. In 2007 the gift specialty stores accounted for only 7 percent of the overall giftware product sales. Not surprisingly, the study reports that the number of specialty gift shops have declined 21 percent in the past five years, from 75,102 stores in 2002 to 59,032 today.

"This study provides important research-based recommendations to help giftware companies be more successful in today's rapidly changing consumer marketplace. The key for success for both manufacturers and retailers of giftware is to stay out in front of the consumer, offering them products that are out of the ordinary, new, fresh and special.

"The giftware business is in a very real sense a fashion business and companies are rewarded primarily for innovating and offering something new into the market place. Retailers need to merchandise their store with this in mind, as well. In this class of goods, nobody wants the 'same-old, same-old' displays featuring stacks of the same item. Rather they want something fresh, new and different that will make a memorable and emotionally compelling gift. That is the ultimate key to success in the gifts and home accents giftware market," Danziger concludes.

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