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Stamina and Good Shoes: Tips for Attending Las Vegas Market

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March 6, 2017

By Eleanor Harper-Dutt

“How many?”

“Um, four of that one. And this one too—four, please.”

“OK, what else?”

“Uh, this one here. Can we do six of these?”

I had a scalloped brass necklace clutched in my hand while I scanned over the rest of the jewelry on the display table. I thought back to the slat wall in our store where we display the jewelry line, and minutely contemplated which pieces would best accompany our current selection.

“OK, I think three of these, and then we are done with this line. Did we want anything else?”

I shot a glance over to my colleague and manager Jennifer, and with her nod of approval, we moved on to a selection of sculptural brass candleholders.

Attending the Las Vegas Market for the first time was an experience unlike any other, and truly a lesson in stamina and the necessity of a keen and quickly discerning eye.

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Case Study: Rebranding Newport Mansions’ Online Store

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February 27, 2017

The Preservation Society of Newport County in Newport, Rhode Island, is an organization of historic house museums, including The Breakers, Marble House, the Elms, Rosecliff and others. The retail team at Newport Mansions operates six stores, a website, and a warehouse/distribution center in Newport. Bringing in more than $3.6 million last year, the largest store is 2,000 square feet, and the smallest is 645 square feet.

kate-botelhoMSA member Kate Botelho is one of the faces behind the retail operation (alongside MSA members Laura Murphy and Cynthia O’Malley). While Kate’s position lists her as “Systems Admin & E-Commerce Store Manager,” she wears a few more hats than two.

When Kate came to Newport Mansions 15 years ago, she worked nights part-time at the downtown Newport Mansions store while she was in school. Now, she manages the Newport Mansions’ retail website, serves as the lead on all stores’ technology- or computer-related issues, maintains the stores’ inventory, organizes the stores’ social media, creates general graphics, oversees the wholesale program and contributes to buying for the website store.

After a complete rebranding of Newport Mansions’ online stores five years ago, she also became a fount of knowledge on the subject. Always willing to help fellow MSA members who find themselves in similar situations, Kate shared her expertise with us. Read on to learn more!

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Advocacy Begins at Home: Why I Go to the MSA Conference & Expo

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February 13, 2017

By Julie Steiner

Recently I’ve observed how many of the various fields represented within our museums, apart from museum stores, are represented by their own professional associations.

  • Our directors belong to various museum directors’ organizations, like the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) and others.
  • Our HR staffs belong to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), and share professional tools, participate in advocacy and attend an annual conference.
  • Our finance departments often are headed by professionals who belong to regional accrediting and accounting organizations for nonprofits.
  • Our development staffs, curators, educational staffs, marketing departments and even our libraries all have professional associations—Art Museum Development Association (AMDA), Association of Art Museum Curators (AAMC), National Art Education Association (NAEA), Public Relations and Marketing Network (PRAM) and Art Libraries Society (ARLIS), respectively—for those professionals who fill various roles in our museums.

Why does this matter?

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Image from Columbia River Maritime Museum's Facebook

Keeping Staff Engaged During Quieter Times

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February 6, 2017

By Blue Anderson

Winter can be a time when we relish comfort from the elements with whatever we are most familiar—comfort foods, comfortably warm and toasty fires in the hearth, Southern Comfort. It is also a quiet time for many retail stores. Inventory is done and major holidays are tucked away—and we can find ourselves a little too at ease in our workplaces.

I know I’m guilty of it.

We might hold conversations that we were too busy to have during season changes, everything from work-related to personal stories, political beliefs to gossip about the store down the street. And some may say that there is nothing wrong with that, we’re “bonding” with staff. Except sometimes when it is slow in our stores, we don’t give the same customer service to the visitors that do come in.

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Group shot from the Western Chapter meeting's reception at The Mob Museum

Discovering the Magic of MSA in Las Vegas

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January 30, 2017

By Allison Ebner

It happens to everyone: You’re looking at something on paper and everything makes sense. Then, when you finally get to see it in action, you’re met with an overwhelming sense of clarity. You didn’t even know something was missing, and yet, everything you’ve been working on makes even more sense in practice.

That’s what happened to me last weekend at the Western Chapter meeting and Las Vegas Market.

When I started working at Museum Store Association’s Headquarters in October, I dove right in. It has been four months of nearly complete immersion in all things MSA, but it was just last week that I realized the critical aspect that makes MSA so unique: the relationships that come from it.

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Building a Retail Team of Complementary Thinkers

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January 23, 2017

By Susan DeLand

The customer’s experience is paramount in museum retail, which means putting together a team of employees that can ensure a positive outcome. There are many aspects to consider when forming a team—and one of them is the individual’s style of thinking.

So, how should strategic thinking play into your museum store’s team?

The strategic thinking mindset is a way of looking at your business for the long term. It’s getting your brain out of the weeds. Moving your business forward is both analytical and creative, and involves systems thinking, focusing on the big picture and identifying leverage.

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How Special Events Can Enhance Your Museum Store

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January 9, 2017

By Audrie Cuddy Ranon

To hold the title of Museum Store Manager, we must be extremely flexible and skilled at wearing many hats. I don’t mean as a fashion statement, but, rather, as a metaphor to explain that it is a highly specialized position with lots of moving parts.

And move we do! We are responsible for the general management of the store; we plan inventory; and usually, we are the skilled buyers, trendsetting visual merchandisers, keen product developers, PR and marketing gurus, POS system experts, policy and procedures enforcers, keepers of the schedules, providers of the best visitor experience, contributors to the museum’s revenue stream, and so on and so on. As I said, there are lots of moving parts, and it is up to us to make those parts move effortlessly.

Now, how can we possibly do all of this and attract attention to the store and spur sales?

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2017 Planning: How to Prepare for the Unexpected

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December 19, 2016

By Cathy Nagle-Ervin

This time of year always brings about reflections on the year that is just about to come to an end. (As I am writing this blog post, I actually am humming “Auld Lang Syne” in the back of my head!) Our company’s fiscal year has come to a close, inventory counts have been finalized and all the performance reviews have been completed. It seems like the perfect time to review 2016.

If you asked me in February my plan for 2016, I can tell you that my answer then was quite different than my answer was in August. My plan has taken many unexpected turns in the road this year—a few anticipated, but the majority not.

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The Four Rs of Retailing (Yes, Four!)

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December 12, 2016

By Susan Tudor

Every time we go to the grocery store or a restaurant or shop online, we are making financial and strategic decisions regarding our personal lives: Is this item really what I was looking for? Is this the right time to make this purchase or should I wait? Can I afford this? Is it the right price, or can I find this same item somewhere else for less?

These buying decisions in our personal lives are similar to the financial and strategic decisions we make as retail merchants in our institutions.

I have heard it said that the key to retail success comes down to three Rs: carrying the right merchandise at the right time and at the right price. This statement is simple but challenging. It is intuitive yet calculated. And it can serve as a great reminder of how simple strategy can help make or break our stores’ bottom lines.

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How to Put Yourself in Your Customer’s Shoes

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December 5, 2016

By Dan Ayers-Price

Shopability—I don’t even think it is a real word. Webster’s doesn’t know what to make of it. But, I dare say that we, as MSA retailers, fully understand what shopability is and the importance it plays in our lives (even if it is a made-up word).

The term “shopability” has been around a long time, and numerous articles have tried to define it. One of the best was authored by Dr. Raymond Burke, where he defined 10 principles of retail shopability. His top four priorities—showing the product, providing visual aids, simplifying presentation and minimizing clutter—all resonated with me for my own stores.

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