Page 263 - AmericasMart: Market Magazine July 2017

GENERAL GIFT/CHILDREN’S WORLD
School bells signal big business for retailers. Families spent $75.8 billion on back-to-school and college shopping in 2016.
About half of those dollars were spent in clothing stores, making this an attractive market for specialty store owners such as Shea and Sid Schroll. The couple has owned The Name Dropper, a 76-year-old baby and children’s clothing store in Montgomery, Ala., since 1984.
“Back-to-school is our second largest season (after Easter), and accounts for 30 percent of our annual sales,” says Shea Schroll,
“but the market has changed, and we’ve changed with it.”
PRIMARY CONCEPTS
The biggest change is uniforms. They are required by many public and private school systems now. “We couldn’t compete because of the logos, so we let the uniform shops handle it, and sell everything else kids need for school,” says Schroll. The store does a brisk business in fall dresses and pant sets for the
pre-school crowd, as well as after-school and special occasion clothing for kids and teens.
“All kids need shoes and having a trained staff to fit shoes properly gives us a competitive advantage,” says Schroll. “We’ve found that customers think it’s worth paying $3-5 more to get the right fit and be able to try on different styles,” she says.
PLAN AHEAD
Families once did the bulk of their shopping three-to-four weeks before opening day. ‘It was a concentrated event, but now schools start early in August, so our season runs from mid-July through late fall. The sales volume is the same, but the shopping is more spread out.”
Success comes from knowing your area, your customers, and your niche, says Schroll.
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