Okay, you've decided to test out the specialty retail market and you've located a few shops close to you to put your product in. You go to work, produce the product and then get ready to ship or deliver your product to your new outlets. Must you have the items shrink-wrapped and bar coded? Or can you simply put them bulk into a box full of squiggles and send them out? What is the small retailer looking for in packaging?

You may be surprised that in a world of automated check-out and hands-off displays, there is still a venue that depends on the ability of letting their customer set test drive the product before putting their money on the counter and taking it out of the store. This is one of the major differences between specialty and mass retailing. The Kmarts and the Wal-Marts don't want their customers to have access to the product before they get it home. The specialty retailer, however, depends on that access. They are basically doing "entertainment" retailing and their customers come to interact - not to just drop a box in a shopping cart and head home.

For this reason, consider the following when you develop your point-of-sale packaging:

1. Unless your product consists of many individual, free-standing items, do not put them in packages that are destroyed when opened. This will discourage the retailer from opening the package and putting some out for hands-on selling. If this is the case, you may consider literally giving a free unit to the retailer to open up and put on display, and even replacing it from time-to-time if it gets shop-worn.

2. Rigid packaging will also make it difficult for the retailer to accept returns, since once the package is opened, the retailer cannot close it up again and will essentially have to write off any items that come back from a customer. Note: If your product must be bagged, do not use a sealed bag, but use either a zip-lock or a flat-top plastic bag with a decorative and informative cardboard piece folded over the top with a hole punched in it to allow for hanging on hooks.

3. If your product is hand-made, consider investing in a "story" tag that can be placed next to the product (or attached to it) to give a brief background of who made it, how it was made and what it is. Customers of hand-made items buy the items as much for the story as they do for the product (and are willing to pay a premium for the folklore element of the product). If you're making something of an individual nature, like a doll, adding a handwritten name on the tag (different on each doll) will even further add to the desirability of the product. These tags, when attached to the product, also give the specialty retailer a place to add their price tag.

4. If you do have a product that consists of multiple items, instead of investing in dull, shrink-wrap and cardboard boxes, consider doing something creative like packaging the product in a re-usable container that adds another element to your own product, e.g., something that can double as a gift box, like a re-usable tin, flowerpot, etc.). This adds a "special" quality that may not end up costing you any more money at your current production volumes but will add a premium that people will pay to get the "free" gift of the packaging. In specialty retailing, the better the physical presentation, the more likely it is that the item will sell.

5. Humanize your packaging by the addition of things like bows, dried flowers, etc., to further distinguish it from merchandise one would find in a mass retail environment. Make sure, though, that whatever you attach is on securely so it doesn't fall off when handled. Adding a red or green ribbon to something that can be considered a Christmas gift may increase your sales during that season. Changing the color of the ribbon or accent during the rest of the year will make it more saleable during the non-Christmas season as well. Some suppliers will even provide the retailer with accent changes after Christmas to change those that didn't sell during the holiday season.

6. If you're producing a tiny, inexpensive item that can be sold in bulk, consider not packaging it at all, but instead providing a "dump" of them in an interesting open container like a basket that will create a bigger presence of more product and less packaging. This is the type of item that can be sat next to the cash register for people to pick up and touch while they're checking out. This is especially useful if you have several variations of the same item (like little cat sculptures or flowers) where they are similar but can be fun to examine as a group and choose the one you like the best.

Your goal is to keep your product looking its best in a milieu of quality products. Before finalizing on your store packaging, why not spend some time in specialty retail stores and profit from what you see other producers have done. You don't want to copy, but you do want to do something that will complement the packaging of others in the same market. Take advantage of this unique feature of specialty retailing and have fun displaying your product while benefiting from its enhanced appearance.