They start out as sand, and through heat and craftsmanship we are given glass and crystal gifts. They come in all shapes and sizes, from tiny glass flowers to twenty-pound pieces of crystal, and they capture the attention of all ages. There’s just something about the smooth feel and elegant look of glass that gets to us. Glass and crystal have something to offer everyone, so what does it have to offer you? We talked to a few of the industry’s top suppliers to find out what their best and newest items are, and to get tips on how to sell them. Here’s what they had to say.

EDUCATE YOURSELF TO SELL

Everyone within the industry will tell you that glass has a high perceived value. Glass appeals to the sophisticated side of people. That’s great, because it means you can charge a very profitable price for it. However, it’s not as easy as simply putting the item out on a shelf. You’ve got to tell your customers a little bit about it and the work that goes into creating a nice piece of crystal.

It can be very helpful to be able to tell your customers about the different types of crystal and glass, such as lead and optical crystal, clear and jade glass, says Jenny Tang of SCT Crystal in South El Monte, California.

Diana Shih of Topmost in Montclair, California, agrees and notes that, “Many end-users cannot tell the difference between glass and crystal. Fewer know that among crystal, various grades also represent various pricing ranges. Retailers who don’t know the difference won’t be able to educate consumers on the value of those products and explain their pricing.”

“I think people who are selling glass need to have some background knowledge of the medium and its products: how it’s made and the different raw elements incorporated, the craftsmanship involved and the different techniques for shaping it. A general knowledge of that information will help stores sell successfully and market their glass much more effectively,” says Peter Elliffe of Crystal World in South Hackensack, New Jersey.

There are several different methods involved in creating glass and crystal, and we won’t discuss them in this article, but it is important to note that all suppliers have their own way of doing things which make them unique. Different companies get their raw materials from different sources around the world. Some suppliers have handcrafted or hand-polished products. Some have skilled workers who have come from areas of the world known for excellent crystal. Other suppliers use incredible technology to create their items, including water-jet cutting and YAG lasers.

Ask your supplier how they create their products and then pass that information on to your customers. This way they understand that they’re not simply purchasing something that looks nice. They’re purchasing a work of craftsmanship, a work of art, and that can make all the difference when deciding how much money to spend.

WHY GLASS IS GOOD

Perhaps you’re among those who are not sold on the qualities of glass and crystal, and you wonder what it could do for your store. Even if you have a natural fondness for glass, it’s a good question to ask yourself: Why is crystal a good product for a personalization gift shop?

Susan Pedersen of PhotoBrasive in Duluth, Minnesota, Master Distributor for CrystalEdge®, says that glass gifts are a great item for gift stores, “Because you can personalize them to the unique wants of customers. You can let your imagination run with it and go wild. You could take one picture frame or one ornament and customize it thousands of different ways: a birth announcement, a wedding gift, etc.”

“Glass is a good item for gift shops because it has a high perceived value, and it’s also fairly easy to personalize,” says Elliffe.

Brian Rains of GW Crystal in Rancho Cucamonga, California, agrees and adds, “I think that a lot of personalization shops have an engraver or a laser or both, and glass is a perfect medium for being able to etch or engrave crystal.”

Commenting on why she thinks that glass items are great for personalization gift shops, April Mitchell of Rayzist Photomask in Vista, California, says, “It gives them a high-end-looking, elegant product to offer that can hit several different price points. There’s so much they can do with it.”

“Glass and crystal are a good fit for the gift market and in the case of glassware, that’s because it’s an everyday, common-use item. It’s a gift that’s going to be used a lot,” says Cary Kingsley of Marck & Associates in Toledo, Ohio.

Another reason why crystal is a great item for custom gift retailers is that it can take on nearly any shape and remain easy to personalize. Providing an example of how glass items have grown in their creativity and diversity, Pedersen remembers a customer who, “Wanted a landscape of a city, except instead of getting a painting, they opted to have it etched into a piece of our York glass. It looks phenomenal.”

Mitchell says that because of the flexible nature of the medium, glass gifts will continue to grow in their diversity. “That’s one of the great attributes of glass: there’s so much you can do with it. Glass and crystal can be molded and cut into nearly any shape you can think of.”

Shih notes that as long as customers are looking for something unique, manufacturers and suppliers will be working to bring new and creative designs into the market.

As for trends in those new designs, Tang notes only that she has noticed most pieces have a simple and clear design with a composition of different shapes.

BEST SELLERS

Looking for some market tested and proven glass and crystal products to bring into your store?

“Ornaments at holiday time are always big sellers. Picture frames do very well, in particular our Crescent picture frames and Canterbury frames. They can be used so many different ways. Clocks are also a big item,” says Pedersen, naming a few of PhotoBrasive’s best-selling products.

For Rayzist, Mitchell mentions gift and jewelry boxes, glassware, clocks and optical crystal. She adds that they have several new pieces in optic crystal.

According to Elliffe, one of Crystal World’s best selling gift products are, “Our flowers, which are doing very well right now. Also teddy bears, butterflies and lighthouses are selling very well. They’re smaller figurines, about an inch and a quarter to two inches in height.”

Naming a handful of SCT’s best-selling gift products, Tang notes that their piano and pineapple pieces are two top items. She adds that their cube (2" to 2 3/4"), pyramid (2" to 2 3/4") and globe with base (2 3/8" to 4") are also hot items.

“Our whole line is basically beverage ware, but one of our best-selling items is our sports mug,” says Kingsley.

Shih notes that a few of Topmost’s best-selling gift products are holiday ornaments and picture frames, corporate desktop stationery, clocks and premium crystal vases.

Rains says that he doesn’t have any one or few best sellers, explaining that, “We have a general image bank with over 250 images that we put inside crystal. Those images range from sports to automotive, religious to animals. There isn’t any one image or group of images that sell significantly more than any others. What to buy depends on what people are interested in, in your area. If they like golf, we can take an image of a golfer following through on his swing and put that image into any size of our range of glass blanks, which hit different price points,” says Rains.

Explaining his product, Rains says that basically GW Crystal is able to create images in crystal by using a YAG laser that works on an X, Y, Z axis, which causes tiny explosions at specified location inside crystal. Rains says that in addition to the images they offer from stock, they also offer custom pieces. One custom piece Rains remembers was for a couple’s 50th wedding anniversary, for which they took a wedding photo and put it in crystal.

“When we think in terms of products that will sell well, we think more in terms of individual images. Our animals do very well because they have mass appeal. Another one of our hottest sellers for gift stores right now are our keychain displays. We have sixty different images inside lead crystal with stainless steel hardware, which come on a black velvet display board,” says Rains.

Rains adds that GW Crystal uses lead crystal exclusively, because one: it increases durability, two: it makes it possible to create images with a higher resolution and three: it has greater optical clarity.

NEWEST ITEMS

Now that you know of a few of the tried and true pieces of glass and crystal available, are you ready to try some new items?

Going over a couple of PhotoBrasive’s popular new items, Pedersen says, “Our CrystalEdge® Luminary™ Bases, which are great to display artwork with, have really taken off. The Avesbury Circle, which is thin at its top and thick at the base and is in a circle shape, has been a very popular item. Our Avon Cube has also done well, and you can get it as a full cube or with one of the corners cut off, so that it sits at an angle. We also have the Duets, which are pieces of glass that are half clear and half gray, or you could have half blue. Those pieces of glass are bonded together, and they are beautiful.” She adds that they come in several different shapes, including circles and squares.

“One new item we have is our Toledo Pilsner, which is a traditional, 23-ounce pilsner with a unique internal optic. Instead of the usual straight up-and-down optic, it’s a swirl. Another product line that we have added is Mikasa, which is a very high-end giftware line,” says Kingsley.

Shih says that Italian 24% lead crystal vases, horses, globes and star-shaped gifts are a few of Topmost’s newest glass items.

Naming a couple of Crystal World’s newest items, Elliffe says, “We’ve got a cardinal, a poinsettia and an enchanted dragon, which is a larger piece. We’ve also got a gargoyle and a Hopeful Bear, for which we donate three dollars to the Center For Breast Cancer each time one is sold.”

Now that you know what’s new, as well as what has been tested and proven, how do you decide which glass gifts to add to your store?

Shih recommends that you choose items that are not limited to certain occasions and can be sold all year round. “This way, retailers do not have to carry a huge array of items to satisfy various customers’ needs.”

Mitchell says that, “I think they should take a look at the rest of their product line. Are they targeting the low-, the mid- or the high-end market? You want to pick your glass gifts accordingly. If you’re doing all of it, then you just want to pick those items that you’re already moving in other types of mediums, like gift boxes, clocks or frames.”

FOR DISPLAY

Once you have your items selected, there comes the question of how best to display them.

Elliffe says that the way in which glass is displayed is a critical issue. “We go into a lot of stores and see glass displayed in ways that we don’t feel play to its strengths. It is, of course, very important to keep it clean and clear, and it looks best with a dark background and lighting beneath or above it. It’s also important to make sure the displays are organized and not too cluttered. Glass gifts are elegant, and if they’re put with too many other items, that doesn’t come through and its value isn’t shown.”

For displaying glass, Pedersen says, “I would suggest having an example of how a piece will look when it’s etched. Get as many as you can display in your shop with a variety of different ideas etched in them.”

According to Mitchell, “The first thing you want to pay attention to is lighting. Use of lighting is very important, and what you want to do with it is accentuate the high-end feel that glass has. So, one thing I’ve seen that works very well is to have a few items displayed in their own case, in their own area of the store, with nice lighting and preferably a dark background. That really sets it apart from other items.” She adds that direct mail can be a very effective form of marketing for your glass gifts.

Shih agrees that it is important to have very good lighting and a dark background in the showroom, and adds that, “Without strong lighting, the glass or crystal products can look like acrylic. To take it a step further, a mirror background or underneath the shelf can really enhance reflection and add to the clarity of an image.”

Recalling some of the problems she has seen gift retailers have with their glass items, Mitchell says, “Poor lighting and having dirty or even damaged product on the shelf are problems I’ve seen in stores that say they have problems selling glass. You’d be surprised how many people actually display items that are scratched or nicked or even have parts broken off of them. Another problem is putting it in an area where it’s not seen.”

CONCLUSION

With their elegant style, smooth surfaces and clear appearance, glass gifts are like ghosts of sculptures made of a more opaque medium. There’s just something about glass that intrigues us. Will it always?

“I think that the most exciting things that are going to happen will be in design. Really, that’s the only thing you can do as far as new product goes. It’s all wrapped up in design and new variations, because the products themselves are generally always the same. You always have your paperweights, crystal boxes, frames, glassware. I really think it’s going to come down to creating new designs for these products that have been around for years. I think there will be more combinations of glass and wood or glass and metal—glass and any medium that it goes well with,” says Mitchell.