Many museum professionals unexpectedly find themselves managing a retail operation with no prior experience. This foundational webinar is designed for them. It serves as a primer for the accidental museum store manager, demystifying the unique world of mission-based retail. Participants will learn what sets a museum store apart from traditional retail, explore the fundamentals of a non-profit buying cycle, and grasp the essential Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) needed to track performance. The goal is to empower attendees with the core knowledge required to run a purposeful and profitable museum store that extends the institution’s mission.

Transcript

Ariel Waldman

Hello, everyone. Welcome. We are so excited for you to join us today. So as everyone joins, feel free to write in the chat where you’re joining us from. Hello, and welcome. Thank you for joining us for “I’m In Charge of a Museum Store. Now What?” I’m Ariel Waldman with AAM, and today’s program will give you foundational information if you, like many museum professionals, unexpectedly find yourself managing a retail operation with no prior experience. Closed captions are available to turn on at the bottom of your screen. And you’re welcome to drop questions into the Q&A tab on the right as we go. There will be time to answer some of these at the end.

We are recording this for registrants and members to access in the coming days. With that, I’m going to turn the stage over to our wonderful speaker for today, Melody Cabán.

Melody Cabán

Hi there, everybody. I’m so excited to join you today, and a big thank you to AAM for having me. I’m Melody Cabán based here in Dallas, Texas. And I’m a museum store consultant. I love museum stores. So I’m so happy to share this information with you today. And dive right in.

Give me one second. We’ll get that. All set. Alright. Hope everybody’s ready here.

First, congrats. You’re in charge of a museum store. So let’s get to that. It’s now what? There we go. So now what? I’ve heard from so many just museum folks who have ended up here. It’s their third hat, their fifth hat. You know, when it comes to school, no one’s even talked to you about museum stores before, and now you’re in charge of one.

So there’s no training, no information, but now you’re here. You’re ready to take it on. So I like to say step one is take a deep breath. Take a deep breath because understanding museum stores doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Your practice, what you’ve already done can really help you and what you’re going to be doing in the store next. May it be education, admin, finance, wherever you’re coming from in the museum world. You can help apply that to taking over a museum store and better understanding it. So here, I’m going to really take that high level view: what information you’ll need to know about museum stores, what the heck is a store and a museum, and what does it do, how do you take on purchasing budgets, understanding where to get these things? We’re going to take that high level view and some quick wins to get you excited, confident that you can do it. So take that deep breath, know that you can do this, and let’s dive in.

So first, I want to talk a little bit about the philosophy of museum stores. What is it? Where are we coming from? How are we doing this? It’s not like other retail, so let’s get to know it a little better.

So when done well, your museum store isn’t just a pass through space. It’s not just that space you walk in to exit the museum. Right? It can be done what I like to call the final exhibit, a space that’s really deeply connected to your interpretive plans, your education, your mission, your exhibits. It’s more than just stuff at the very end of your visit. It really is the final exhibit that connects the dots in a lot of ways. So keep in mind that the store is really often the last impression a visitor has, and that’s for better or for worse. Right? It’s an extension of your museum, of your mission. So we want that store to really echo that mission echo the rooms that they just passed through that the visitors experience. I think we’ve all gone through a museum store that felt disconnected. That felt like it had no idea, but was just planted in the museum that you walked through, and it can be disorienting.

So to create a store that’s a final exhibit, it becomes that becomes a way to really connect the dots here. It adds on and builds upon your mission. It becomes an inspiration for visitors to go deeper as you investigate the store treasure trove and get really inspired by the products. You can go find that book that adds a little more depth. That toy that investigates something a little deeper than they just, did in the exhibit. The jewelry that’s maybe handmade and local that connects exactly to what you were learning about from the artist in the show itself. Connecting those dots.

And keep in mind that visitors who stop by the store this is just stop by the store, not even needing to buy anything. They’re more likely to return to the museum within a year. That’s pretty major. It makes that positive experience really echo throughout the museum itself and brings people back. You know, it’s important to work there also with the rest of the museum. Because to be the final exhibit, you have to know about what’s going on in the exhibits here. So creating a store that isn’t a silo. I like to say that a store should have a seat at the table to know what’s happening in the future for exhibits, events, plans. What is the mission of that exhibit that’s being created? If you think it’s one thing and it’s a whole other one, you might be missing the mark in having visitors not really connect with what you have in store. So really being able to connect with the rest of the museum and understand the goals of the museum and the mission and the exhibits makes a store even better. So to have that final exhibit piece, remember not to be a silo.

Now, of course, there’s profit versus purpose. Right? Stores can be a strong source of earned revenue. And it’s unrestricted earned revenue. So it can be used for operations, staffing, education, you name it. This is a pretty powerful piece to the puzzle as we put that puzzle piece here in the image. But not all stores have profit at the center of why they operate. You know? That’s where that profit versus purpose comes along. You really need to know what your store’s mission is in the eyes your museum. What does the admin think this store is? Is it to advance maybe local artists? Maybe to fill a gap in revenue goals. Maybe it’s 50 this, 50 that, 70% this, 30% that.

Having that answer really helps you be able to plan what it is that the store’s goals can be. And it’s one of those unique pieces that makes museum tours pretty great. To really add on to museums and understand that final exhibit piece, plus bring in that earned revenue piece for the store. So have that conversation. Make it known that you want to know what house museum store fits into the overall museum. And you can get a clearer picture what you’re going to be after.

So what sets us apart?  I love this little dinosaur photo here. It’s so fun and playful. But you know, that might be that those toys might be great for a science museum, might not be great for art. It’s kind of perfect, in that what sets you apart really makes you special here. So what does cultural commerce do that sets you apart from regular retail? And that’s true. No matter what your board member, your team say, this is not Amazon. This is not regular retail as someone might say, there’s something really different about having this cultural commerce, this museum store to nurture in a museum. We really we operate with a mission. And we operate with values. Then we think of our visitors, of course, and our exhibits. We’re made to support the museum itself, not just profit, period when it comes to having our product and sale in the store. Even our buying cycles are a bit different. Right? Odds are you’ll be planning years in advance, if you’re making a publication, a book, in the store, you’re planning far ahead of a lot of other regular retail stores. Or the typical sales cycle we have in retail won’t match up to your store. You might be looking at exhibit cycles. You might be looking at having different open seasons. Maybe you’re not even open in summer or winter. It’s a little different. Because you’re matching up with the museum itself.

Something else that really sets us apart is this wonderful third space creation. Folks, I like to say, know how to shop, but they might not know how to museum. So people come into our museum stores to breathe, to linger, to reflect, and engage with museums themes, with the museum’s ideas in a way that’s different than in the exhibits itself and in a way that you might not find in most regular retail. It really sets that apart. And that’s really exactly what gets people excited. I know no matter who I take along, people are excited to go to the museum store. Right? They’re going, ooh, ahh, yes. We cannot skip this. Right? We have to stop by the store. That’s the cherry on top. I think all of us here do that at the very end. A little excitement. You saw it all. That was a little treat of stopping by the museum store. And that’s pretty special that you get to be a part of that creating that space, creating that energy and having people ooh and ahh excited to visit your store, learn more about your museum mission, and take home a tangible piece of it so they can share it friends, family, or just to learn more and get excited about what they learned today.

Ooh, yes. I know. Museum stores I never get tired of them. So always excited to be a part of it. So let’s dive into the logistics.

I know this can be a little bit scary since folks just you don’t know what to take on here. You might not have taken retail or learned about what to do here, but this is a great high level view to get you comfortable. First, we’re going to look at budgets. We take them all a little differently, but budgets for when it comes to the museum store are frameworks. Right? They’re guides for your store goals and for your spending. I like to say that they shouldn’t be made of stone, but they also shouldn’t be made of thin air. You have to be able to keep those in mind and have them inform you and learn from them. It’s part art, part science, and they’ll need tweaking, especially as you just get started looking at these budgets.

You’re going to start with your institution’s fiscal year and create monthly projections of sales and spending. You’ll take a look at historical sales data. You might have great data. You might not have great data. So this might be the start of understanding that historical data. And within the budget, you’ll be estimating retail sales and spending. Looking at those projections, this is where, again, not being a silo is so important. Because what’s the expected visitation? Are you having a blockbuster show coming up next year? Or maybe you had one last year, which meant that your sales were through the roof. But next year, it’s pretty quiet. Looking at that, keeping that in mind, and having that conversation. Are you going to have any closures going on? Maybe you’re remodeling. Will you be making custom product? Will you have to be putting larger orders in mind for a show or just in general. Will you be adding an online store? Which means maybe more packaging, fees, staff time. All of these pieces go into creating those budgets. So keep that in mind. There’s a lot of moving pieces for these budgets, and including also your cost of goods and your sales. But being able to see this as a real guide will help you keep that in mind for the next month, for the next year. Because you can take that back and go, turns out that blockbuster wasn’t much of a blockbuster, so our visitation was much lower, and our sales were this, this, and this. It’s really important to be able to look back so you can look forward, and have a clearer picture.

Next up, this is the fun one. Right? Sourcing with intent. Getting the goods. So I’m going to start off with a list of what kind of goes into that. What goes into your product choices? So first off, there’s mission. Mission centered items that connect to your institution. So again, we don’t want to have that disconnection of product. Not every item has to be full, clear connection. But making sure you have that information on hand, this artist is here because of this. This book is here because of this. Connecting those dots to your mission and being able to have that to create a story within your store for your mission. Keeping that in mind, it also takes, it takes quite a bit of time and research to find those items. Right? Unfortunately and fortunately, your store is going to be unique. You can’t put in that exact mission and come in with a suite of products. It’ll take a lot of research, time, searching, and finding the right items that match your mission to help you get that those items in. So start early, and start looking at different items.

Values. When looking at your values, let’s say maybe you’re looking for something that’s woman owned, locally owned, American made, taking that information and applying it to the products you’re looking at. Again, that narrows down those choices, but it makes it more authentically you. You want a store that’s yours, right? You want to don’t want it to be, like, the general store, the generic museum store idea. You want to be different. You want to be all about your mission, your values, and that is what excites people when they come in. So keep in mind your values. This might be something that changes too with exhibits. That come in with different stories that you’re looking at. It’s a great thing to keep that in mind, list it with your products, and really lead when you’re looking for items. Is this matching my values? If not, does it make sense to carry?

Margin. So margin is really that cost of goods versus the retail price that you have, of your item that you’re bringing in. Maybe items don’t have the best margin. So maybe the cost for a book is 80% and then you’re only able to mark that up about 20%. That’s not might not match your goals for margin. You might want to do a larger margin and you’ll have to find another supplier or maybe another book that you can you can find for this. That’s something to really keep in mind, and you’re going to want to at least 2.5 times that cost of goods, I’d say, and that’s in general. So some items will have better margins than others. That’s okay. Sometimes that $1, I really want to carry for the school group coming in doesn’t have the best margin. But you can balance it out with other products in your product mix.

Minimums. So minimums are the minimum quantity or minimum amount that you have to order of a product. I like to say this because sometimes those minimums you don’t think about them because of the per item price. Looks so good. So now that book you’re ordering is only $2.50. But you have to order a thousand of them. That might not make any sense for you storage wise, overall cash flow wise to be able to get that in. Maybe it makes sense to have that higher, pay a bit more, pay that higher price to have the room to be able to walk around in your storage room. Right? So keep in mind those minimums. Be it for books, jewelry, whatnot. Because it might not match your goals for bringing a product in, but also have a conversation with that vendor. Can you lower those minimums? What can we do instead? I’d love to try you out. But I just don’t have that in my budget or have that in my space to be able to do so. Keep in mind, it’s a conversation. And sometimes that can be that can be tweaked, sometimes you have to wait till the next maybe big blockbuster for you to get that in. But you don’t want to be stuck with a thousand items and your staff crawling over product in the back that hasn’t moved yet.

So next, customer interest. So looking at sales, you can tell maybe customers are no longer interested in that type of product. Maybe it’s a bit niche. Maybe it’s a trend a buyer maybe bought too much of… minimums. That’s fizzled out. So maybe get rid of those fidget spinners you’ve had, holding on to them. sure to sell, but don’t really move anymore. You’re not going to want to bring those in any anymore.

And finally, here is timing. Unlike retail, we may be more exhibit-based. Or maybe more tourist visitor based. So keeping in mind that this product might be perfect for us, six months from now when that show comes in, but doesn’t make any sense for us today. So you’ll be planning ahead of time. Keeping in contact or have that order later on, and maybe that’s the only time it makes sense for that exhibit. Keep that in mind and look at that timing to have that ready.

So it takes a lot of these pieces to plan out your product. A lot of time to plan out these items and keep them in mind for looking at product choices. It’s not as easy as going, “I like this. Let’s do this.” You’re wanting to bring in all of these pieces into your choices and sometimes it is that fun bit of experimentation. Right? I’m not sure if this will work, but maybe I can try it out for a small amount. Maybe I could get a dozen in and see if that works. See if the customers are interested in this item, and if not, we just don’t order it again. But taking your time, doing the research, not being a silo and understanding what the museum needs to connect those dots of interpretation when it comes to product.

Okay. Oh, I want to add in also. Where the heck do you find these items? I get asked that all the time. So you can find them at conferences. Maybe retail markets, New York NOW, the LA market, Dallas market. There’s retail markets all across the nation. Maybe even on online wholesalers, talking directly to vendors. You could find a product in another museum, get some inspiration, and reach out. Right? But inspiration can really come from anywhere and everywhere. I’m always on the lookout, be it from a magazine, a social media post, just walking around looking at other stores that I love, taking it all in to get that inspiration. Because there’s no one amazing spot to find everything. It’s nice to piece those together, so you create this interesting, unique story of product. So take the time. Go to your farmer’s market. Put on your buyer hat. Take a look at what might work for your store. Maybe talk to the artists that are being exhibited or the stories that are speaking about what books and products they love. And you might find that inspiration to bring a product that really makes your store stand out.

Alright. Inventory management. So inventory management is going to normally be handled by your point of sale, your POS. You’re going to look at doing yearly counts. You might even do more than that depending on what your accounting would like for you to do. You also might do different counts of areas that are high value, like counting your jewelry once a quarter to make sure that inventory matches up. Come up with a plan for how your counts are going to happen for inventory. You’ll also be tracking them by names, by vendors, by categories. So categories would be like jewelry, home goods, gifts, stationery, different pieces like this to see how each of these categories are doing within your museum store. Apparel might be a booming business because of one exhibit, but not so much for the next. Something to keep in mind again. You’re looking at those budgets later on for what to buy and how those items are doing. So you’re going to want to have this be as correct as possible. Right? Things break. It happens. Things fall, they spill, making sure that those items get marked out appropriately so that your visitors aren’t looking for product that doesn’t exist on the floor. It’s also one of those pieces that can really frustrate staff when they’re looking for an item that doesn’t actually exist because it broke about a month ago, and it wasn’t marked out correctly. So managing that inventory not all that exciting, but, gosh, it really lightens the load of taking care of your store.

Alright, and visual merchandising. I know visual merchandising can seem pretty overwhelming. This is another spot to take a breath. No matter how wonky your display feels, know that you can just do it over again. You can experiment. There’s no harm, no foul. Put items out maybe in one color or have a theme. See that you put it on a calendar so each month or every quarter, you change out these exhibits, this merchandising in your store. Maybe you want to change it with the seasons. Make up that plan so you can keep on top of it and make that store look refreshed. Make sure to walk the floor. That’s one of the easiest things to do. You can pick something up off, off a display and 10 things fall down, just change it. It’s those little pieces that can really be tough for visitors and tough for your staff, but are really easy to fix once you just take the time to walk the floor and shop a bit like a visitor would. Of course, you can also let your staff have at it. Have a little, you know, a little show and tell them what they’re what they’re exhibiting, what their merchandising display could be. Maybe they really love jewelry, so they want to showcase that or they know that people have been talking about this one subject so they want to do a display of that item. Have fun with it. Again, no harm, no foul, can be changed again. Take a breath, and have fun with it.

And, of course, I wanted to touch base a bit on UBIT or unrelated business income tax. It’s really regarding unrelated business or unrelated items in your store, and it’s something to talk about with your museum’s accountant. It’s an IRS thing, so in case you heard the word UBIT, now you know what it means, but I would touch base with your accountant.

Alright, so you have a good idea of what you’ll be doing in the store. Now we’re looking at the data. The data can really help form a better idea of how the store is doing what’s doing well, what’s not doing well, and also be able to share that. Share those wins. Share those frustrations across your museum, and have those numbers to show that you’re growing,  you’re doing better here in the shop, or where you can also invest in the future. So I have I’ll have a list of equations here. Don’t you worry about writing these down. They’re all in the resources so you can have this information. These are just some of the KPIs that are nice to have when taking a look at your store. A lot of this is going to be handled really in your point of sale and be able to be taken on there. Sometimes you’re doing this by hand. So you’ll have different information that other folks. But, really, the most important piece of this is having everything be consistent. Take those reports every month. Use those numbers each month to compare how you’re growing, how visitation is doing, how the store is overall.

So some ones to point out that I like are, say, your sales per visitor. What are your overall your med sales compared to visitor. And you’ll see that a lot of times, most of the time, more visitors means more sales, of course, in the shop. And conversion rate, that’ll be how many visitors make a purchase in the store. So are they noticing the store? Are they coming to the store? Right? We want to make sure that folks can notice us. Maybe we need to up our marketing, maybe our signage isn’t working, we’re tucked into a corner that’s forgotten. This is a great number to track. And our average transaction value. This really showcases the power of all of the items in your store. So you might have, you know, a $50 book, you might have $2 souvenir items in different pieces, but each of these adds up to bringing that average transaction value up. So just a couple pennies, a dollar higher makes a huge difference in your overall sales. Having those items at your checkout where people are adding it on or maybe you’re bundling, maybe two shirts for this price, so you’re seeing that average transaction move up. This will really help you showcase how important each of those items you’re selling are to the bottom line. Again, that is in resources. No need to rush to write any of these down here.

So here, I wanted to finish up with some quick wins. You’ve heard me talk about what is a museum store, things to be doing, how to be purchasing, but what do I do today? What can I do today to get this ball moving forward, get my museum store really ready and understand it better? So first off, I run a report to see what are your champion products. What are your items that are selling, like, your bestsellers? Are selling the most? Or maybe selling the most in value? That’ll tell you how you’re doing. Compare that to last year. What’s changed here? But also do that for those products that aren’t doing great. What items are I’m going to not tell them losers, but just they haven’t won. Which items aren’t doing great?  So you get a better idea of what products can really win in the store. Now what’s next is what is haunting you? So running that inventory report what are those items that you might not even know you had until you took over the store? You have a thousand of, 500 of hiding in a storage space, hiding in a locker somewhere. And they’ve been haunting the store for a decade or two. Maybe that t-shirt that has you know, 2025 is still kind of holding on. It might also be a 2015 t-shirt that people just have not purchased. Look at those items that are haunting you so you can move them out, put them on clearance, restyle them maybe, so you can really lessen that. We don’t want those products sitting there holding you back from buying products that can really impact your museum store, really connect interpretively with your mission in the in the store. And you’ll find out quickly that, you know, maybe your minimum order is going to have to be a lot lower, you can’t take on this many products because they might end up haunting you.

Here, I want to highlight your store, your store staff. Your store staff are the backbone of your museum store, so having a store forum there’s a lot you can learn from your staff. They listen to your visitors. They know what people love. They know what people wish you had. And they hear the complaints, the joys, all of these pieces. It’s such a treasure trove to talk to your store staff, really go into it, the nitty gritty of what they hear each day. They’ll tell you why, you know, why something isn’t selling. They’ll tell you that exhibit that was a guaranteed blockbuster, people didn’t even go into the show and haven’t asked for that catalog at all. They’ll let you know that information and people are excited to learn about those products.

I know store staff are picking up product, learning about it, having more information about it, and they can really teach you about what you have in stock already. You can also learn about what they might need to make their job easier because you want them to really be the face of the store. But, really, in a lot of ways, they’re the face of the museum. Right? Most folks don’t walk in and meet the curator, meet the director. They talk to the frontline staff. So how can it be made easier for them to know what events are going on? Maybe that computer keeps shutting down, and it slows down all the tickets sales and store sales. Going into that information and being open to learn because they’re the experts, right? And when you’re walking into this, it makes a huge difference, and you can really improve those store sales, improve the overall ambiance of the store itself by tapping into that knowledge.

And mission possible. I want you to walk that store, go in that store just like I said with the visual merchandising. You’re touching everything, you’re picking it up, looking at it, I want you to also do that with all the product and go, why is it here? If I walked in today walked to the museum, and came to the store, would I even know why this item is here? Would it make sense to me? So then you can then learn why it came in, when did it come in, and you might have not have a good answer for that. And so it it might be, well, again, one of those items that you mark out or shift outward of the store itself. I would do that for everything you can. Make it part of your routine to go through, if you don’t know the product, to do just that. Pick those books up. Ask about the jewelry. Is it a local artist? When did we get it? You know, is there a story connecting the museum to it? And how does this end up being a value add? For your visitors, for your museum itself, to sell a mission and connect with everybody involved.

Go in. Enjoy. Have fun with it. And get to know the museum story in all of the ways you can. Because museum stores are that piece, again, people love to be a part of. People love to go to a museum store and having something that transports you and really makes it magical in the shop to get to know your museum to get to know your unique value proposition, your mission, right, in store, it’s so important for our visitors and we do it by having a shop. Taking time and enjoying it. So I really hope you take the time and enjoy getting these quick wins in to get to know your store, get to know the experience, and have an even better store for yourself, your museum, and your staff. So I’ll move into any questions that you might have.

Ariel Waldman

Thank you so much, Melody. That was great. And we do have quite a few questions that have come in. Feel free to keep adding your questions and upvoting any questions that you would like to hear us answer. So the first question is from Lindsay, and she’s asking if you have any tips for selling art on consignment with local artists.

Melody Cabán

Ah, when it comes to consignment, depending on whether you’re trying to find the artist or just consignment period, It’s really important to have a great contract. It sounds pretty boring, right, until something happens with that consignment. You want to be really clear on how long that item’s going to be there, how long that art will be there, what happens if there’s damage. If there’s a discount on that item, is it taken out equally, not equally on both sides with consignment? Keep it all in mind. To because the clearer it is, the less problems come up, the more it’s a win for everybody. So I would really look at getting that contract looked at by as many folks in your museum and the artist you know exactly what you’re in for, and going through all the crazy what ifs. You know, we all know the what ifs are plentiful when it comes to museums. Right? But having those included in there.

Ariel Waldman

Great. Thank you. So we just got a great question from Molly who says, “We get lots of unsolicited requests from walk-ins who want us to carry their books or products that we don’t think will sell well. Do you have any ideas for kindly turning them down when they don’t take no for an answer?” They’ve tried some tactics to no avail.

Melody Cabán

Yeah, I understand. I’ve had people pull up with their trunk ready to sell me things from the back of their car, so I understand what it’s like. So I think the best way to do this especially so that anybody in your store can do it, so you don’t have to be called in to do the no. To have maybe a kind of a page on your website set up so you only take it submissions on here. You need to include this, this, and this, and be clear that you might not get a reply back. Also, we get lots of submissions on here, but this is the one portal to do so. You can also do that on paper so that you can have your staff be able to hand that out immediately so they can fill it out. And be clear that you don’t want any samples. Or if you do leave a sample, it won’t be returned back, things like that. So it’s nice and clear. They have there’s no yes, no, maybe. It’s here you go. Saves everybody time, and it’s a clear way to be able to handle it for you, your staff, anybody in the museum.

Ariel Waldman

Definitely. And I’ll just say, talk to your collections folks, because I’ve been in the situation where people will come in with unsolicited donations for the collection. And so maybe get with those folks and see what their policy is as well because they might have a form or something that you can kind of riff off of.

Melody Cabán

Yeah, that’s a great one. I’ve yeah. I’ve definitely had that happen too. So yeah. They might already have something set up online or a form, like you said, that’s ready to go that you know, they might be dealing with the same with the store also. I feel like people will ask anybody in the museum to be able to sell something in the store, so it might be great for them to also have your store form.

Ariel Waldman

Absolutely. Our next question is from Katherine. So they said, “you mentioned that people who stop by the shop are more likely to return to the museum within a year-

Melody Cabán

Yes.

Ariel Waldman

Do you have any data on shop visits and membership sign-ups?”

Melody Cabán

I pulled that from a great, site called “Know Your Own Bone”. And so it’s a great, if you love data, highly recommend. And I know they just published some more information on memberships and museum stores through the Museum Store Association’s latest publication. But I do know that the number or the percentage of members that are shopping in store is kind of trending downwards. You’re getting fewer members and more general public shopping in the store.

Ariel Waldman

“Know Your Own Bone” by Colleen Dilenschneider is great, and I just put the link in the chat if anybody is interested in exploring those resources.

Melody Cabán

Yes. All data nerds. Yes.

Ariel Waldman

Oh, if you’re a data nerd? That’s your place to go.

Melody Cabán

Yep.

Ariel Waldman

Great, so our next question is from Kisha. “Can we talk a little bit more about UBIT? I don’t understand what it means in this case, and it was just skimmed over.”

Melody Cabán

Yeah. Yeah. So it’s an IRS designation. It’s “unrelated business income tax”. So it’s really those items maybe your store- I know we speak about having all your items being mission related. But maybe something is absolutely not mission related, doesn’t make sense in your store, but you’re selling it. That’s what it would go under, unrelated business income tax. And so there’s a lot of IRS, kind of information around that. So your accountant would know more about that. I wouldn’t want to give any accounting information, any wrong information out. But I know that this word “UBIT” gets thrown around quite a bit and no one tells you what it is like you’re mentioning. So unrelated business income tax. You can learn more about it, look it up on the IRS site, and your accountant should be able to know more about kind of how the handling might be. I’ll say that it won’t affect the majority of museums, but it’s always good to keep in mind, especially when you’re buying product that doesn’t quite make sense for your store.

Ariel Waldman

Great. Our next question is from Jered. “How valuable is paid marketing to reach potential shoppers? Are people visiting museums specifically to shop at the store, or is it better to run paid advertising to promote exhibitions and let that be the draw?”

Melody Cabán

Really, the biggest draw is going to be the traffic. Period for your museum. It’s bringing in those folks to your museum itself. But having that store be highlighted is really important within that. So I know a lot of folks will highlight the Museum Store within their social media. Maybe an exhibit is, being shown, and so they’ll highlight that they have the catalog in the store or maybe a book talk, an author talk, this item will be in the shop. So it’s important to also bring that in. Some museum stores have a marketing budget, I’d say the majority do not. It’s really your being included in maybe newsletters, being added on to other emails that we’re sending out to our members, pieces like that. Some will have their own social media page. They’ll have their own way to reach people directly. And maybe have their own newsletter itself. Maybe monthly, quarterly. But, I think  the goal is always to become that store, right, that folks want to go in so unique, so amazing that they’re going to come in for gifts, for these pieces no matter what, seeing it as a standalone. But it it really begins with having that walking visitorship to the museum itself. I definitely concentrate on that and once you master that, adding that on, There’s a lot of different ways to added into the space without having to spend big marketing dollars.

Oh, and please be a part of Museum Store Sunday. Museum Store Sunday happens after Thanksgiving. It’s all museum stores and so we get to highlight you. Highlight museum stores, highlight how amazing we are, and all the great products, and what you do for supporting the museum, supporting artists, bringing people in. It’s a great way to highlight, just what you do and have outside museum store Sunday support for that marketing.

Ariel Waldman

Great. Please continue to upvote the questions that you would like us to answer because we’re getting so many. I don’t know if we’ll be able to answer them all.

Next from Grace. “Do you keep track of all the information on sales, vendors, categories, invoices, etcetera, in one place? And is there a platform that you would recommend?”

Melody Cabán

Ooh, most of that, you’ll be tracking in your point of sale. So that’ll be part of your point of sale. It might be part of your CRM even, that they have a point of sale be part of that. But, that is normally where you’ll keep track of it. I like to always run those reports monthly, save those outside because who knows when someone decides that they want to change every system in the museum, right? And your information is gone. So I like to run those reports monthly keep those keep that information on hand just in case. Just in case we end up having a big change up for museum systems. But normally, it’ll be in your point of sale. And some are very basic, some have AI built in. They really run the gamut from simple something like Square to something like a Salesforce.

Ariel Waldman

Great. I think that also answers Joe’s question about do you have any recommendations on a point of sale system that are ideal for museum stores. So-

Melody Cabán

And that don’t really depend on your size. How much are your how many products do you have? How many products do you have? Are you wanting to sell tickets through it? Some don’t really sell tickets, so it can be a little tougher to set up. And, maybe you want to have an online store, so you want one that has that option built in, like using Shopify as your point of sale for in store and having it online. Really depends. And I wish there was one easy answer, but it depends is the best answer for that.

Ariel Waldman

That’s why they all exist, you know, because it’s-

Melody Cabán

Yep. There is something for everybody, and it doesn’t fit everybody. So, really knowing what you’re getting what you need, who needs to talk to what, on hand is really important.

Ariel Waldman

Great. Next, we have a question from Matilda. “Do you have any advice or tips on conducting a yearly complete inventory count?”

Melody Cabán

Patience, number one. Patience is number one. And I would absolutely look at your point of sale too. A lot of times, you can do your inventory through your point of sale, which can make it easier for scanning those products, make it a little more organized. I also suggest organizing and getting rid of all that product, those ghost items I was talking about, before you do that inventory. Have your big sale before then so you can offload that counting, make it a little easier. Easy things that I like to do is maybe you’re doing stationery, make sure those are wrapped in hundreds. Make it you know, make your vendor wrap something up in easy quantities for you to count later on. It makes those long days of counting a little easier for your staff, so you can enjoy the maybe the pizza party you’re having at the same time more than pulling your hair out counting individual postcards.

Ariel Waldman

Great. I think we have time for a few more questions. So next, we have Cassady. “We are definitely haunted by many products, which have been in our store since 1995.” Oh, boy, Cassady.

Melody Cabán

Ooh!

Ariel Waldman

“And we still have thousands of them.” Oh my gosh, Cassady. I’m sure that’s a fun yearly inventory you’re doing. “Do you have any tips, suggestions, or examples from other stores on how to deal with these?”

Melody Cabán

Ooh, with that amount of items, I might have a conversation with my accounting department to see what you can do to mark a lot of those out as oh, a lot of this can’t even be sold if it’s date related to work with them to see what can be done. It can also be working with, maybe your membership team, having that transferred over. Some great product or having that move to education for giveaways during spring break or summer camp, things like that. To lessen it a bit. If you’ve got some really great fun old items, have a kind of a vintage sales day. All these cool products, those 1995 shirts would actually be really fun right now. To bring out, bring a little nostalgia in the nostalgia is really in, so if you can do that, even better to be able to sell them in store and recoup some of that. But it’s also one of those conversations to have of, how will we order from now on? How have we learned so that we’re not haunted again by that product from thirty years ago? And, you know, the allure of a cheaper item if you ordered so many has gotten many people in trouble. And, you know, you end up having those in inventory year after year. So what are the rules that you want to set up for how you want to buy in the future? Because you don’t want to end up here, and it’s costing you time, it’s costing you money, but it’s also causing you headaches for your staff and yourself where you could be making money instead of having to handle this sole product.

Ariel Waldman

Great, and I want to thank everybody who is also sharing their expertise and ideas in the comments for Cassady. Best of luck. I think we’re going to do one more question.

Melody Cabán

Ooh, can I add one more thing for her.

Ariel Waldman

Oh, absolutely.

Melody Cabán

If you have books also that are, quite old, you can also look at, in case that wasn’t added, remaindering those books. Remaindering is selling books for pennies on the dollar, but those books really are taken out of your inventory. They’re gone. You’re making something on it. And, there’s several companies that’ll buy them by the pallet. So they can sell them at, you know, like a half price of books or something like that. And so remaindering could also be an option.

Ariel Waldman

Great. So our last question is from Axel. “Which behavioral science tactics used in for-profit retail work best in a museum store. So for example, social proof, scarcity or loss aversion, and pricing.”

Melody Cabán

Oh, it depends on what kind of store you have. But one of the pieces that I do love is bundling just to lower those prices. You know it’s like you’re getting two of those shirts, being able to enjoy that price discount. Also having your member discount listed on that price. So it’s $20, but for members it’s going to be $18 or whatever your discount might be. Having that information ready to go to keep in mind and reminding visitors that membership is there all along, and they could be saving today by having that price ready to go. But it’s really one of those pieces where it’s fun to experiment in the space. So experiment try it out, try it for a couple months, see if this works. It didn’t? Alright. Let’s try something else. So it might work for your audience. It might not. And be a big fan of trying something out, experimenting in a small way. Give yourself that leeway because it doesn’t have to be set in stone. You can have a lot of fun with the store. And being able to understand how best to serve your visitors, how best to serve your mission, while still having a cool, fun store that people enjoy each time they come by. So take the time, experiment, see what works for you. And you might learn, you might be surprised what works for you.

Ariel Waldman

Thank you so much, Melody. As we kind of close out here, I do want to plug we have so many questions. And in addition to Melody being an amazing resource, there’s also the Museum Store Association, which is an amazing resource if you find yourself in charge of a museum store. They are co-locating their annual conference with the AAM annual conference, which is this May in Philadelphia, so I highly recommend you take a look and if you can, attend. And if not, you know, become a member and try to connect with wonderful people like Melody, there. I believe you’re a member of the Museum Store Association. Right, Melody?

Melody Cabán

I am. I am.

Ariel Waldman

Great. I also want to plug next Wednesday on April 15th. We have “Getting to Know You: The Art of Networking”. It’s another webinar here on Airmeet. Registration is available on our website for that. Melody, do you have anything you’d like to close out with saying?

Melody Cabán

No, this was amazing. I’m so glad I could talk to you guys. This is my favorite subject. I could talk about museum stores all day. Come shop with me sometime. If you’re coming to Dallas, let me know. We’ll go to some good museum stores, and I really enjoyed it. If you have questions, also feel free to check out my website. I’m Melody Caban Consulting. I have a lot of great blogs and resources on there.

Ariel Waldman

Great. Well, thank you again, Melody. This was so informative and incredible, and thank you all for attending. And I hope you have a great rest of your day. Thank you.

Melody Cabán

Thank you.