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7 Easy Steps To Creating Top-Selling Christmas Gift Hampers

12 November 2014

Hampers work well at Christmas for many reasons. First and foremost there is convenience. People usually buy individual presents with a budget in mind; finding a single item that suits somebody’s tastes and fits the budget, while still looking impressive enough to hand over to a friend or family member can be a challenge.

Packaging collections of products together gives your customers more options for finding a suitable gift that looks impressive and fits their budget. While they could put collections of smaller gifts together for themselves, they may not have the skills, time or materials to do a good enough job with the packaging.

It’s a level of convenience that can attract a premium price if you know how to make your hampers sufficiently attractive. So, here are our top tips for creating irresistible Christmas hampers and gift collections.

Aim for immediate impact

Everything can be won or lost with the immediate visual impact your hampers make. To a large extent the packaging is the gift (or at least a major part of it). When customers browse your shelves they will notice the packaging before they look to see what’s inside.

However good a job you’ve done with selecting and combining desirable products, you will lose opportunities if your hamper presentation fails to demand attention immediately.

The quality of the packaging materials, colours, composition and finishing all determine whether hampers sell out quickly at premium prices, or sit on the shelves waiting for desperate last-minute shoppers and heavy discounting.

Select the right products

Of course it’s never all about the presentation. At the core of the hamper has to be a main product or small number of products that you know would sell well on their own. You are then aiming to complement these with further products that fit logically into a theme to appeal to somebody with particular tastes or interests.

If the appeal of your packaging and core items is sufficiently strong you have earned the opportunity to incorporate one or two slower moving stock items. Looked at positively there’s also a chance to get people to try new or less familiar lines when you combine them with tried and trusted favourites.

Size matters

Choosing the ideal size of hamper, box or tray takes a little more thinking about than you might imagine. You want your hamper to look full, possibly near to overflowing with goodies. Always start by devising your gift collections before you order your hampers or trays. You can then arrange them on a table and work out the size of hamper that they will fill. Unless you are packaging high value, exclusive products it’s not normally a good idea to have huge spaces. Think about the ideal depth as well as the height and width. You want the products to be contained securely without getting buried in a nest of packing material.

Time time over composition

This comes back to points 1 and 2. Taking some time to create an attractive arrangement is central to the impact you need to create. Think about balance and how you can draw the eye to the most appealing contents. And don’t always go for the obvious. A long thin object such as a bottle of oil will naturally fit a long rectangular tray, but might it be more eye-catching in a round tray surrounded by smaller gifts? Take some time to experiment and be imaginative.

Colours

Colours matter in two ways. First they create an impression: white for clean and hygienic; black for solidity and value; red for warmth or festivity; blue for coolness and so on. Think about the packaging colours that appeal to the target buyers. The other thing we'd do is to pin a copy of the standard colour wheel on the wall.

Different colour combinations will complement or highlight your products by creating a visual contrast. Generally, nearby shades will complement and opposites will accentuate.

There are a variety of ways you can add colour to your gift hampers with your choice of gift packaging. Choose from a wide variety of coloured cardboard gift boxes including a heritage green, contemporary grey or a metallic gold; ideal for celebrational gifts. Shredded paper also comes in an array of colours to complement the contents of your hampers. Finally, complete the look with coloured satin ribbon.

Don't skimp on the packaging

Packing materials like shredded paper are the least expensive element of your hamper creations, so you can afford to be generous. Using plenty of transit packaging helps the products stand out and be noticed. It also means that the gifts won’t rattle around, sink or move out of position to upset your carefully devised composition.

Finishing touches matter

However good a job you’ve done with product selection, composition and colour matching, you will lose opportunities if your hamper looks shoddy or unfinished. Think about how you are going to cover or wrap the hamper – and get purpose-made materials to do the job properly. Shrink-wrap bags will probably give you a neater, more professional finish than plastic film, for example. A simple coloured ribbon will almost always make a hamper more desirable (and easier to sell).

It all goes back to the first point about making a strong visual impact. Once you’ve done this, a high quality finish will then complete the sales journey and secure the sale.

Now do it!

Gadsby supplies a full range of hamper baskets, trays, boxes and packing materials to suit any type of hamper of gift package. We carry large stocks and offer rapid delivery. So there’s still time to create top-selling gift collections for your Christmas shoppers. You can order everything you need quickly and easily online!