Page 34 - TOB Magazine March/April 2013

72
TOBACCO OUTLET BUSINESS
MARCH/APRIL 2013
“We believe the way to sell tobacco
accessories is to show the customer
something new every time he or she
walks into the store—and to take
whatever is working broadly from a
trend perspective and address it in that
category,” says Green. “We develop
50 new lighters each year, typically
incorporating something trendy—
such as this year’s craze for glitter.
Rather than compete on price, we look
to get customers to buy at a higher
price point to get that design.”
Still, it’s not always easy to know
what will catch your customer’s eye.
“I’ve been in this business 32 years
and I’m pretty good at it, but I still
get surprised by what takes and what
doesn’t,” he says, noting that many
retailers find the sheer volume of
products available and the trend-
dependent nature of the category
off-putting. “The great thing about
novelties is that they are relatively
high-margin items. The bad thing is
that you don’t know what to buy and if
you get caught with the wrong thing,
you don’t know how to get rid of it.”
Recognizing that some retailers get
overwhelmed by the options available
to them or are leery of investing in
trendy products, Green has developed
ways that merchants can minimize the
risks inherent in novelty items. “We
offer retailers the option of guaranteed
or non-guaranteed sales,” he explains.
“They can get a higher margin by
buying the merchandise outright, or
they can get a guarantee that we will
take back whatever doesn’t sell. If they
opt for the guarantee, we have a rebate
structure so that the better the sell-
through rate, the higher the margin
they receive. That way they still have
skin in the game.”
Green also recently introduced
the Novelty Gold label, a way
of earmarking products that its