Successful retailing for museums

Author: Peter Holloway, Retail Thinking

These days almost all museums have a shop of some kind. Indeed the shop is often a key attraction for museum visitors and, like a good café, a good shop has increasingly become an expectation for visitors and an integral part of their visit. If managed well, and with an attractive and interesting selection of merchandise, a shop can enhance the visit and reflect the museum’s core mission and its collection. It can also, and absolutely should, be profitable and not simply run as a service.

Whatever the size of your museum it is important for your shop to be profitable and managed in a professional way. This guide is designed to help with this, whether reviewing and improving an existing shop or establishing a new shop at a small museum.

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