Thanks to everyone who submitted questions about our SkyMall Live Product Search. We’ve submitted your questions to the SkyMall team and now we have answers! We hope this information serves as a helpful resource for you when submitting your ideas –just be sure to do so before Monday, January 9, 2012 at 11:59pm PST!
Happy Inventing!
Q. With so many categories, could you share what your top selling categories & items are?
A. Home related products, Pet products, Electronics
Q. Excluding seasonal and sale items, what were your top ten selling products in the last year?
A. We apologize, but we have confidentiality agreements we can’t violate.
Q. If you had to choose three categories you would most like to expand upon, what would they be?
A. Unique pet products, unique electronic items
Q. What is your best-selling consumer price range?
A. $50 to $100
Q. Is there a limit or preference in price point?
A. Higher price-points usually work well for us. Over $500 becomes a little tougher to work with.
Q. Does your customer base skew towards one gender over the other?
A. Our customer base is slightly more female, but we are much more male-oriented than most mail order catalogs.
Q. Are you interested in innovations in luggage (which has a higher price point in the catalog) or are you looking for items with a lower price point for this search?
A. Higher price-points are good, but items must have a good “value-to-feature” ratio. Our customers are not particularly brand conscious; it’s more about what the product will do for them. If it makes their life easier they will pay the price, but it can’t be really gimmicky. The product should have a strong benefit/function factor.
Q. Why don’t we see more SkyMall products selling in retail stores? It seems as if there are so many cool, unique items that would sell well in these avenues. Is this a choice SkyMall made – to keep confined to the catalog? What does this mean for our prospective product(s)?
A. SkyMall carries unique innovative products that are not available in stores. Our customers will learn about an item in SkyMall, but would rather buy it in a store if it is available there. Once it’s in chain stores it loses its uniqueness factor and we, then, must move on to other new and unique items. We are great at getting products launched, but we lose the sale once it shows up in newspaper ads or in stores; we can’t compete with the big stores.
Q. What is your longest running product?
A. The Hammacher Turkish Robe. It launched in the book in 1991.
Q. Would you say your customers are open to buying products with accessories that must be purchased separately?
A. Yes, definitely. Sometimes we can get up to 40% of the retail from line listed items or add-on accessories. However, our customers do like the items they purchase to be ready to use and full function whenever possible.
Q. What is the average sized package that is shipped to SkyMall customers?
A. The average order size is about $120.
. I enjoy the fact that we all work hard each day, but there’s plenty of room for humor and sarcasm, good music and the odd happy hour.