How To Build a Great Hamper
In the first article of our Hamper & Gifting Guide we outlined why selling Hampers can be great for your business. Next, we need to make sure you know how to create stunning hampers that actually sell! We'll take you through the process in four simple steps.
It's key that you plan your range of hampers carefully, which may include having a theme or arranging their contents in a certain way. This effective planning will make it much easier when it comes to building the actual gifts, and help increase your sales. Here are our tips.
1. Choose your theme
If you're not sure where to start then one of the easiest ways to set yourself up for success is to take advantage of opportunities that commercial holidays bring throughout the year and use the marketing opportunities to theme your hampers. Before you can actually build your hamper, you need to decide the contents and theme, and these events can be ideal inspiration.
Christmas is our busiest time of the year and our customers experience huge peaks in demand for seasonal gift hampers, but the gifting opportunities don't stop there. It's also sensible to plan out other special gift-giving occasions for the year as these will serve you in between peak trading periods.
Of course, you don't have to stick to these themes, you can create year-round compelling food hampers and hamper boxes based on just about anything. For more ideas, look at your product range and take note of any recurring themes or styles - this will help inform your hamper themes. Happy that you've planned your own style? Now it's time to actually build them...
2. Be clever with component choices
The next step after choosing your theme is choosing what to put in the hamper. Don't just fill it with look-alike products, be playful and appeal to all the senses by combining colours, scents, textures and tastes to create a different offering from your competitors.
In our next article Avoid These Gifting Mistakes, you'll read about the importance of calculating the correct value of your gift hampers. When selecting your components, you need to keep key price points and your customer demographic in mind. If you want your customers to purchase your gift baskets then it's pointless creating a hamper overflowing with luxurious gifts that leads to a price point far in excess of what your customers are willing to spend.
How many components you put in your hamper will depend on the size of your wicker hamper basket, gift box or gift tray and also the size of the products. Trying to bring in too many ideas can make your hamper gifts look chaotic and cluttered. Sticking to a handful of products will allow you to execute stylish hamper baskets consistently.
3. Make them look great!
The composition of your hampers is hugely important to their success. When done effectively they'll be hugely engaging for customers and help maximise sales. Don't neglect how the hamper will look on display or when it's opened by the lucky recipient, a good impression and customer experience is an opportunity to build brand awareness and grow your customer base.
Before you go ahead and start packing your gift hampers, get everything you need within easy reach, this will make the process far more efficient. You'll need your choice of wholesale gift packaging, shredded paper and your component items.
Start by taking a handful of coloured shredded paper, this provides a vibrant and attractive backdrop for your products to be presented on. Choose a colour that's on brand or compliments your theme. Tease it apart with your fingers – doing this will create volume and make your paper shred go further. You will want enough to roughly half fill your empty wicker hamper and large gift boxes to raise all the products up so they are displayed better. It's not necessary to layer your products, a single layer is sufficient and easier to arrange into an attractive composition. If you're shipping your gifts you should layer the items throughout the full height of the hamper, this adds to the excitement of opening the hamper as the recipient explores the full depth, plus it helps prevent damages in transit.
If you're displaying in-store, arrange your chosen products on your top layer. This is the first thing your customer will see when they lift the lid of the basket so go for maximum impact. To help with arranging items try one of these two layout ideas;
- Pyramid technique - Place large items in the centre, with smaller items towards the outer edges. This technique works particularly well for a large gift box or large basket.
- Rule of thirds - Try to group products in threes and attempt to create a triangle shape with your products.
4. Adding the finishing touches
Classic wicker hampers and gift boxes with lids don't need much dressing; a complementary satin ribbon, tied in a bow and well-curated products are all you need.
Wicker trays make great bases for hamper creation but will need to be finished with a cellophane or shrink wrap bag. Besides giving a refined finish, items are held in place preventing shifting of carefully arranged gifts. These two versatile wrapping techniques work for rectangular, square, round and oval trays in wicker, cardboard and bamboo.
Acetate lids are a perfect way to finish off your gift trays. The clear lids have tabs on each corner that simply fold to secure to our cardboard trays. They are cost effective and the ultimate time saver for busy retailers.
Top tips to creating the ultimate hamper
It really is as easy as the four steps above to create professional looking gift hampers. Here are a few additional tips to help you optimise your gifting range.
- Prepare ahead and buy in bulk to take advantage of trade discounts.
- Make 'green' choices and choose eco-friendly gift packaging options where you can. There are many to choose from including sustainable wicker hampers, recyclable cardboard gift boxes and responsibly sourced wooden crates.
- Offer a range of gift hampers at incremental price points to appeal to different customer budgets.
- Consider how you can repurpose leftover seasonal gift packaging for
other occasions i.e. you can use your left-over red ribbon and paper
shred from Christmas for Valentines hampers!
- Don't compromise on quality, add value to your gifts with high quality, reusable gift packaging.
Ready to start building your hampers? Read our next article - Avoid These Gifting Mistakes or browse the other guides in our Hamper & Gifting E-Learning Hub.
