Top 10 challenges for personalised gift companies

Personalisation has seen significant growth in recent years, with research estimating that the personalised gift market in the UK alone would reach £1 billion in 2022. This has been supported by customer research, which shows that consumers are willing to spend more on products that can be personalised.

While many businesses have started to take advantage of this recent trend, some businesses are still struggling to understand what personalisation is, how the process works and how they can begin to meet personalisation businesses. Here, we answer all these questions.

What is the personalised gift market worth?

Recent research estimated that the personalised gift market in the UK would reach £1 billion in 2022. While this is yet to be confirmed, the personalisation industry has certainly seen a boom in recent years.

Customer research further supports these sentiments, with data indicating that consumers are happy to spend between 7% - 20% more on products that offer customisation. Additionally, consumers have indicated that they are more than willing to provide brands with their personal and preferential data if they [the brands] take product personalisation seriously.

How do personalisation businesses work?

Personalisation businesses in the UK typically work by using data and technology to tailor products, services, or experiences to individual customers.

This can include using data on customers' preferences, past purchases, and behaviour to make personalised recommendations, customising products or packaging, or creating personalised marketing campaigns.

By leveraging customer data, personalisation businesses can offer more tailored and relevant experiences, which can help to increase customer engagement, loyalty, and revenue.

Examples of personalised gift businesses

There are several different types of personalisation businesses, each with their own unique approach to personalisation.

1.   Pre-printed Retail Gifts

For decades pre-printed gifts have been available in gift shops on spinners and racks.  Examples include History and Heraldry one of their original products was square magnets similar to https://www.adventa.com/gb/adventa-square-fridge-magnet .  This has the big challenge of stock control, popular names selling out and new trending and more ‘wacky’ names never being available.

The Share-a-coke campaign was a simple but clever concept that had a big impact on sales for a well-established brand.  This had no obvious stock control issues, but the likelihood of finding your name always seemed slim!

2. Print in-store Retail gifts

This has been done for a while in Sports shops to add you name to the sports kit.  Other examples include engraving or personalised label in pop-up stores in premium department eg Selfridges stores specially at Christmas.  Challenges here are with staffing costs, unreliable software, slow print/personalization process, expensive space and with our local sports club lack of stock on some letters of the alphabet!

One system that has really perfected in-store personalised gifts is www.my-moments.com it is space efficient and fast, plus has the massive benefit of not having to commit to printed inventory that may or may not sell, designs can be added or switched off remotely – a dream for stock control!

3. Individually named Promo gifts

This is the next step from solely printing a generic brand logo or message, actually including the recipient’s name on the product creating an awesome reaction and a much higher ‘keep me’ factor!  Fun examples include desk calendars using software like XmPie to spell your name in flowers or balloons, etc!  Challenges with this system is that it relies on data being accurate, from experience expect last minute requests for additional names which become a hassle, slow and expensive. Adventa have a wide range of products that can simply and easily be printed and created on demand from an office toner printer, simply get a design preset, see the Uprint system in action here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqxoHS5Mjzc

4. Online Personalised Gift Companies

These companies represent the biggest part of the market.  Examples include Zazzle and Funky Pigeon.  An endless range of products is available, check out these best-selling lines where the blank products are mass produced and supplied wholesale to printers from Adventa including Canvas, Drinkware, GlitterBlox, Keyrings.  The challenge with this business model is being ‘lean’ in the process.  Order values may not be huge and each one is different!  Make sure you invest in proven software and consider the whole process from order to dispatch, cutting out ‘touchpoints’ can make or break an print-on-demand gift production process.  Check out this neat process example here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2Li6Z7k6xo

Another challenge is the seasonality of demand, expect huge peaks around events like Mother’s day and specially Xmas where extra temporary staff will be required to produce Photo Baubles and Domes.  Well worth considering the reliability of your supply change, we know at Adventa how important it is to cope with unexpected peaks in demands!

5. Technology and software businesses

Several companies have developed personalisation technology and software that can be used by other businesses to deliver personalised gifts, services, or experiences.  If you are looking for software make sure you get a couple of references you can speak to, as from experience software ‘features’ promises can turn out rather hollow!  Many major companies end up taking this in-house to deliver the results they need.

One neat feature is to cross sell at the basket, once consumers have spent time creating a design of say a greeting card there is a high chance they will want to simply add another product like a keyring with the same design.  It is specially powerful if you can actually visualise their artwork within the extra product.

Where can you connect with personalisation businesses?

With an increased demand for customisation from customers, businesses should be looking to see where they can incorporate personalisation into their product offerings. However, for many brands, the cost of carrying out customisation directly is not feasible.

This is why it’s essential to connect with other personalisation businesses that specialise in carrying out such activities. Events such as the Personalisation Experience (part of FESPA) look to bring brands together with printers and other businesses to see how they can make personalisation a reality in their businesses. You never know, Adventa may even be able to help get you a free ticket!

How can Adventa help your business with personalisation?

At Adventa, we specialise in delivering a range of customisable products, such as wall art, desk decor, candles and more. These products are specifically designed for lean manufacturing.  Contact us today to see how we can help your business on its personalisation journey.

Adventa also offer a group innovation brainstorm video call – it is amazing what focusing the mind can really achieve!  We share experiences and successes, you can tell us about your challenges, we put ourselves in your shoes to deliver solutions and create new and unique products.

The personalisation market has seen a significant boom in recent years as customers increasingly seek out customisable products and services. There are various types of personalisation businesses that each operate differently. Brands should consider the benefits of implementing personalisation, such as increased customer loyalty, engagement and total revenue. However, this should be carefully weighed against the associated costs in order to determine whether it’s feasible.

Should Your Business Do Valentine’s Day Marketing?

Valentine’s Day is fast approaching, which means that one of the biggest marketing events is too. There can be no doubt about it, the day of love has become a great opportunity to market, sell, and attract new customers.

That being said, is it still as big an opportunity as it was five to ten years ago? And should your business give in to this marketing opportunity, or should you rather continue your successful marketing strategy?

In this blog, Adventa looks at how much Britons spend on Valentine’s and whether it's worth changing your marketing strategy during this period or not. We will also look at Valentine customer activations to try and determine whether you should buy Valentine-specific products to sell to customers.

How Much Do Consumers Spend on Valentine’s?

Valentine’s Day is a big spending holiday all over the world, as the focus is on gifts and tactile expressions of love and affection. Flowers, chocolates, soft toys, photo frames, heart-shaped trinkets (check out the Adventa heart shaped keyrings) and jewellery have put back UK spenders by approximately £1.3 billion in 2022. This number has not been confirmed, but we can look at more specific statistics for previous years.

According to Finder, 2021 saw over 40 million Brits (76% of the population) celebrate Valentine’s Day. This was actually a significant drop from the previous year. In lockdown, love soared, with over 41.4 million people celebrating Valentine’s Day in 2020.

In 2021, the total spent on Valentine’s Day gifts and goodies was £926 million (£23 per person). 2020 saw an impressive £1.45 billion (£35 per person) spent. So, going off this information, you may consider that 2023 may be a lower spending year, and you may be right. With the cost of living crisis causing people to tighten their belts all over the country, love might not be on everyone’s minds. However, this may simply mean that some won’t take their partners on extravagant dates. Small gifts and meaningful presents are likely to maintain their importance.

Valentine Customer Activations to Try

Customer activations, in marketing, is the implementation of campaigns, events, and experiences that resonate with the audience, engages them, and generates awareness of your brand. The activation process focuses on guiding customers on the path to purchase, often through an interactive experience.

Making use of customer activations during the Valentine’s period will encourage customers to choose your products above other options. It will also give you a chance to interact with your customers, which will set you up for the year ahead too.

Here are a few online and onsite customer activations your business can try for Valentine’s Day:

• Create an interactive social media campaign
• Create a social media contest to improve engagement
• Encourage loyal customers to spread the love with referrals
• Celebrate different kinds of love on social media
• Celebrate love within your business on social media
• Create engaging, heart-warming video and photo content
• Offer customers exclusive savings or a loyalty program
• Interact with customers to show them how to use your products
• Create a beautiful, love-celebrating aesthetic in your physical store

Why You Should Consider Buying Valentines Day Specific Products

What does your store sell? If you’re in the business of selling flowers and candy, you’re set for a successful Valentine’s period. But if you don’t sell anything Valentine-related, you may want to consider investing in lovely gifts.

The statistics indicate that, in 2021, approximately 40% of UK women were expecting to be given flowers for Valentine’s. Many UK women were also expecting jewellery or candy.

Then there are the cards. Over 25 million cards are sent for Valentine’s Day every year, which is truly impressive. So if you print cards, you might just be in business. Better yet, however, would be image-holding products like the Heart Blox or the Glitter Blox. These let lovers display pictures with their loved ones, making an excellent gift for card lovers and gift enthusiasts alike.  Many successful print-on-demand card companies prove the value of adding value to the online sale by offering the card design in a simple product like the key chain or HeartBlox.

Final Thoughts on Valentine’s Day Marketing Ideas

Valentine’s Day presents a fantastic opportunity to market and interact with customers. Show your customers some love this year with well-thought-out campaigns, interesting customer activations, and some seasonal gift options. We definitely find this holiday worth investing in.

If you want to know more about our product range, get in touch with us today or call +44 (0) 1686 625 100.

How to Market to Millennials & Gen Z | Photo Business

Millennials and Gen Z are two of the most lucrative and influenceable customer demographics. These customers are spending more than any other generation, and if you haven’t started marketing to these demographics yet, it is time to start.

Millennials and Gen Z are very photo focussed. The rise of platforms like Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok has made images more important than ever. However, Millennials and Gen Z fall into the category of having hard-copy pictures of their childhood, with very few printed photos of their adult lives.

Now, people are turning more to printed images, which display precious moments. In this post, Adventa looks at how to market to these demographic groups in order to capitalise on the photo-focused generations.

Why Market to Millennials and Gen Z?

Millennials and Gen Z hold greater spending power than any generation before or after it, making these groups an ideal, albeit broad, target market. With these groups responding to different marketing strategies than others, it is important to create strategies that specifically target these groups. Here is why your business should invest in specific marketing strategies for millennials and Gen Z:

• Millennials and Gen Z change brands, making it easier to attract them to yours and harder to keep them as loyal customers
• These demographics use devices to buy and consume content
• These are two of the most lucrative target markets, with a high buying power
• They are tech-savvy with high digital literacy, so organisations need to use technology to sell
• Fast growing clientele groups

Tips to Appeal to Gen Z and Millennials

There are a number of ways to target the younger generations to get them to your photo business, in-store or online. Here are our top tips for appealing to millennials and Gen Z in your marketing strategies:

1. Make use of visually appealing content: You have, after all, a photo business, so display your products and services in a way that expresses your brand identity and what your business can create.  Look for ways to promote upsells, to encourage this group to put their photos to use, eg Air Frame
2. Create a website: While brick-and-mortar stores have their place, and most photo businesses require customers to come in-store, having a website is always a good idea. Your website can showcase your client's work, products, services, and brand identity. It is a fantastic opportunity to market to millennials and Gen Z and also informs potential customers that your business can support customers in what they are looking for.
3. Use platforms like Instagram and Pinterest: Since you deal in imagery, use image-focused platforms for marketing. Creating a brand-expressive Instagram account and Pinterest board shows potential customers who you are. It also allows customers to share their images and tag you, providing your business with free marketing. Lastly, Gen Z and millennials are on these platforms regularly, so they are good ones to target.
4. Pay attention to customer reviews and feedback: Technology has made it easy to find out the quality of a business. Potential customers can find out a lot about your business from the reviews past customers have left and tend to rely on these heavily. So it is important to ensure that your reviews are positive and that negative feedback is addressed and dealt with.
5. Showcase your brand identity and sense of humour: Brand identity is becoming increasingly important in marketing strategies. People want to make use of organisations that they relate to, with values that they support. Showcasing your brand humour also allows customers to connect with your business. Humour is automatically interactive and engaging, which is an ideal way to market to millennials and Gen Z.
6. Respond to customers quickly: Last but certainly not least, it is important to respond to customer queries and requests quickly. We live in a fast-paced society, and people expect speedy results. Quick responses are always appreciated and will keep your customers from looking for another photo business, as you will already have helped them.

Conclusion on Marketing Your Photo Business to Millennials & Gen Z

Millennials and Gen Z like companies that are creative, interesting, and offer something new to their customers. So, in order to successfully market your photo business to millennials and Gen Z target markets, you need to showcase who you are as a business. Follow the tips provided above, be clear about your brand, and make use of photo printing innovations, and success will follow.

If you would like to know more about our products and services, browse our ranges online or get in touch with us today.

Looking for a fabric face mask?

We have been busy creating a washable and reusable face covering suitable for providing personal protection for a variety of locations and occasions. Combining soft fabric and an ergonomic design for ultra-comfort against skin, while the mesh material ensures easy breathing.

These washable face masks are triple layered and ideal as a shield. Once washed (at 30 degrees) the mask then folds back into shape to ensure easy storage and would also work well with other protective equipment such as gloves, face visors and protective eye equipment. The fabric mask primarily helps reduce the number of droplets emitted into the air and thus lower the risk of infection for those around you. It also helps protect against dust, pollution, pollen and fine particles, while also ensuring it is lightweight, breathable and quick drying and suitable for all activities! The face contouring design also provides coverage to all parts of the mouth and nose and the soft rounded ear loops stop irritation caused by long wearing times.

The face mask is ideal for both men and women and perfect for wearing in public places, public transport, shops and any other busy places. Available in either white or black these masks are designed to cover the nose and mouth. This essential piece of Personal Protection Equipment will help to prevent customers from touching their mouths and noses and provides peace of mind to others in public places as faces will be covered.

easily customisable face masks can be made extra special with your own logo or artwork. Easily printed onto the side of the mask this not only helps keep customers safe but allows you to raise brand awareness. Make your masks store ready and have them individually packed – with the additional option of retail packaging - helping to reduce contact with consumers and keeps them sanitary for your customers

• Made in Vietnam.

• Please do follow government guidelines regarding masks.

• These masks are not suitable for medical use.

For more information please do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected] or call us at +44 (0) 1686 625 100

Traditional clip frame just got premium with no added fuss! This new simple and stylish clip frame system features a smart black back with integral grooves to hold smart silver wide clips in place - this black backing will surly add value to this popular conventional picture frame.

We also always strive to make our products user-friendly and we know that clip frames are notorious for hurting fingers so each one of our new frames is individually packed with a clear clip remover enabling users to simply push and slide of the clip - no more pink fingers, broken clips and broken nails! Difficult clip frames hurting your fingers are a thing of the past with the ArtClip range! Just use the clip remover to push the clips off!

See how easy it is below:
Step 1) Push clip forward from behind

2)Slide clear clip remover under front of clip, lift up clip and flip over

This understated clip frame, ideal for certificates and posters features wider smarter clips with space for hanging on wall also. Whilst sizes 4 x 6, 6 x 8 and the A4 clip frame all come with pull out easel stands too so they can be easily stood on a shelf or desk as well as wall hung landscape or portrait. 

These readymade clip frames are each packed with stylish retail inserts for easier and attractive merchandising in-store. These wholesale clip frames have durable clear Perspex acrylic fronts which protects the print and leaves the print looking crisp.
This fuss free frame is perfect for wall mounting with pictures and the ultimate in minimalist poster presentation.
So order these readymade clip frames today to enhance your picture frame range.
CF46 - ArtClip Frame 4 x 6 - Packs of 50
CF68 - ArtClip Frame 6 x 8 - Packs of 25
CF04 - ArtClip Frame A4 - Packs of 20
CF03 - ArtClip Frame A3 - Packs of 5
Please reference the above codes whilst ordering and send through orders to: [email protected]

For any queries please contact us on [email protected] or call us on +44 (0) 1686 625 100

Staples Germany first heard about the wide range of Adventa products through the success of the range in Staples UK branches. Staples Germany have been selling the revolutionary QuickPro ArtWrap since early 2016 and have seen a big impact already. The sales volume of the range already equates to 25% of the whole product range in just its first year, with the 20 x 30” canvas achieving the highest volume of any other product.

“We first selected the QuickPro ArtWrap due to speed of production. In busy retail environments we have to turn around our customers’ orders quickly whilst still maintaining product quality. We have found that QuickPro has saved our other overseas branches a huge amount of production time as well as training time. Due to its set up simplicity our staff can make them easily without any added tools or long training times and can make them in a fraction of the time versus canvas bar systems” Comments Streichsbier, National Manager of copy & print.

Adventa’s uniquely designed canvas system simply allows anybody to be able to create a canvas in just under 2 minutes without any tools or machinery whilst still maintaining a premium gallery wrap thickness and perfect corners.

They are ideal for displaying family memories or make great templates for adding company logos and creating gallery- style canvas prints for office or retail environments. Retail stores spend a lot of money in having to replenish expensive POS signage but this innovative canvas system can enable companies to create stylish signage regularly in a cost effective way.

They also enables consumers to use their treasured memories & photos to create wall art for their homes. “We find that our consumers buying decision is very focused and dependant on pricing and QuickPro enables us to enter the canvas market with a premium canvas that’s of a thicker nature versus similar priced canvases on the market whilst also maintaining that effective price barrier. It also means for our online customers we can charge less for delivery due to the light weightiness of the product. QuickPro is great, its lightweight but it still holds its thickness and tautness.” Comments Streichsbier

Here at Adventa, we have been supplying companies globally for more than 30 years, after starting with a range of promotional products to help businesses promote themselves in unique and effective ways we understand the needs, wants and demands on office and stationary companies who are supplying promotional items. We develop easy application products that are uniquely designed to stand out in the marketplace as well as offer service that is friendly, quick and reliable so our customers can offer a first rate service to their customers.

“Adventa’s service is very effective, we have found the customer service team to be extremely helpful and always go above and beyond what we need. We have found ordering with Adventa pain free…ordering is simple and we always get our products delivered on time and in great condition” comments Streichsbier

The range will also benefit from a selection of other iconic photo gifts which have also provided extremely popular for Staples UK where success is expected to continue in the Germany. Christmas is the most important selling season for retail and the impact of having key upsell products available at this time is evident in the success of Staples Germany with Adventa’s core Christmas items ranging from Snowdomes to liquid filled photo blocks filled with snow and Christmas figurines.

“It is important that we have maximise each key selling period and we find that the Adventa range of novelty Christmas Photo gifts are perfect to help us achieve that– they are a fantastic draw for customers at the till point and have substantially helped us to grow our seasonal business” states Streichsbier
The QuickPro range selected for Staples Germany was recently presented at a large training session for stores so staff can get hands on with the production off the canvas as well as learn about the key USPS.

Helrot Oy first head about Adventas revolutionary and innovative products by the historic Dai Nippon Printing (DNP), the first full-scale printing company in Japan.

Helrot Oy was founded in 1986 in Helsinki, Finland. They are specialists in providing the graphics and printing industry with tailored consulting services, technical support, software, printers, printing material amd machines and equipment. The important services and products needed in this industry to deliver the consumer the exact product of their request.

As a professional organisation they are continuously looking for high quality finished products to provide to their customers and that is why they choose Adventa products.

It was Adventas extensive range to choose from that initially attracted them.

The luxury Glass Mount is proving a successful product for them due to their ease of use, and ability to blend in to most surroundings in a contemporary style.

For them the most revolutionary product has been the QuickPro ArtWrap Canvas system. Eduard, Managing Director comments The most valued benefit of the QuickPro range is that its easy and quick to assemble, easy to hand, light weight and requires little storage space.

The new canvas system allows anyone, even beginners to make a canvas frame without years of experience. It is easy for a novice to learn how to create them from scratch. The light weight products makes it safe to use and easy to handle.

The advantages of the product have resulted in positive and happy customers from Helrot Oy. For them it is a cost effective product as it does not require much training for their staff to be able to make a perfect canvas frame.

Customers at first think it is made the traditional way until they realize it is very light weight and when they turn it around and inspect it in more detail.

The Adventa range was available to see on their stand at the Helsinki Camera and Photography Fair, 4-6 March 2016 and had some strong, optimistic, reactions.

 
So far the range has helped see an increase in sales over certain lines and they expect to see even larger increases once the new ranges have had time to establish themselves in the stores. 

How an iconic licensed product distributor found a better canvas system to suit their needs

Adventa sit down with Trevor George, President of Trevco - US manufacturer & distributor of licensed products, ranging from popular DC comic licenses Batman and Superman right through to iconic Betty Boop.

Trevor & Jim George, CEO of Trevco, first spotted the pioneering QuickPro ArtWrap at a US trade show.

The QuickPro ArtWrap is an innovative canvas system which has been designed with quality in mind, featuring premium gallery wrap thickness and perfectly neat corners. Whilst also not compromising on efficacy, the system is exceptionally easy and quick to use, saving time and making it easy for production teams all across the world.

Standard wooden bar canvas systems notoriously come at a premium cost and can be known for frequent quality issues with many canvases sagging in the middle and loosing tautness over time. The cost effective ArtWrap canvas system features can’t sag properties, meaning the canvas can stand the test of time as unique durable wall art at a cost effective price.

Trevco’s goal was to expand their product selection with wall art and were looking for the superior quality & uniqueness that licensors would accept – and the QuickPro ArtWrap just had the ‘je ne sais quoi’ that they were looking for. 

Trevor comments “The end product portrays an image of a high-end, high priced item yet the price is very affordable as compared to canvas with wood frames”

Using a simple fold and lock construction method, the canvas is easy to make but is also very durable and strong and holds its shape faultlessly.

We asked Trevor what he preferred about the QuickPro over normal wooden canvases and it was “Simplicity of construction, durability and value” that really stood out for him.

Each canvas takes just under 2 minutes to make and only requires a pair of scissors and a stapler. For production teams this means less training required, an increase in production and due to the lightweight aspect of the canvas, decreases shipping costs.

Frank Gadwell, Production Manager at Trevco adds “We have found the Adventa product to be a time saving and economical alternative to traditional canvas art framing. It not only allowed us to bring this manufacturing in house, it is also a better priced alternative than our previous production source. It also saves on shipping costs too! This is a big deal in this day and age of dimensional shipping.”
 
With initial sales proving strong and optimistic, the outlook is looking bright for Trevco and the QuickPro range, Trevor says “We have definitely not even scratched the surface of potential with this product”

 To read more about the QuickPro range click here 

 To view their vintage, iconic range of products visit their website at: ttps://www.trevcoinc.com/

A successful Collaboration Between Art and Print Products

Kris comments ‘I thought that the black coasters would be a great product addition to insert my artwork in and sell them on my website where customers could collect many paintings all at once. It was the black coaster that sold Adventa to me, but also the wonderful customer service I received when I sought Adventa out on the internet after that’.